Cultural Districts: The Tension Between ‘Design’ and ‘Designing’ Approaches

Cultural heritage, if efficiently valorized, may be conceived as a precious resource for the development of a local community. The cultural district's perspective conceives cultural heritage and the related cultural sectors as triggers for the socio-economic development of a region. Often, funders (e.g. private foundations) devote significant resources to cultural projects that aim at supporting the local development. We argue that a relevant question concerns the tension between a deterministic and formal approach ‘instilled’ within documentation and guidelines and the actual process of design ‘in action’. This work aims at highlighting this tension through a case study conducted through a participatory action research. A proposition and research questions for further studies are proposed as well as some suggestions for effective ‘designing’ of cultural districts.