Intangible Cultural Heritage as a Reference for Recreating Authenticity in Iranian Industrial ‎Product Design

In the past, everyday products were not merely functional artifacts but also embodied expressions of ‎the cultural values, aesthetic sensibilities and symbolic traditions of the communities that designed ‎and used them. These material objects functioned as tangible narratives of lived experience -shaped ‎by the specific historical, geographical and social contexts in which they emerged. Items such as ‎utensils, textiles, furniture or tools often bore traces of local craftsmanship, belief systems and social ‎customs. Their forms, materials, patterns and methods of production were intimately tied to the ‎rhythms of daily life and to the collective memory of the communities that gave rise to them. In this ‎sense, products were more than objects of utility; they were cultural signifiers -vessels through which ‎communities articulated their identities, sustained intergenerational knowledge and reinforced a ‎sense of belonging. These design practices were not isolated or arbitrary but were embedded within ‎broader systems of meaning-making, where every design choice -from the curve of a handle to the ‎motif on a surface-reflected values, cosmologies and symbolic codes deeply rooted in tradition.‎
Moreover, the use and circulation of such products reinforced cultural continuity and social cohesion. ‎As these artifacts were passed down, shared or ritually used, they helped sustain intangible ‎dimensions of culture, such as oral histories, collective memories and shared moral frameworks. In ‎traditional societies, the relationship between people and products was thus deeply reciprocal, just as ‎people shaped their objects, these objects, in turn, shaped people’s perceptions of the world and their ‎place within it. Design, in this context, was a profoundly cultural act-grounded in meaning, shaped ‎by community and oriented toward continuity. However, the contemporary design landscape has ‎undergone profound transformation. With the rise of globalization, the dominance of international ‎markets and the extensive adoption of mass production techniques, design has increasingly ‎gravitated toward standardized aesthetics and uniform functional models. This shift has led to a ‎marked homogenization of design languages across regions and cultures, resulting in the erosion of ‎culturally distinctive features in product forms and a weakening of the tangible links between ‎material culture and local identity.‎
In response to this growing cultural flattening, the integration of intangible cultural heritage into the ‎practice of industrial design has gained recognition as a powerful and meaningful strategy. This ‎approach aims not only to preserve and honor the richness of traditional knowledge, rituals and ‎values, but also to creatively translate them into contemporary forms that are relevant to modern ‎lifestyles. Specifically, this study investigates the role and importance of transferring the values ‎inherent in Iran’s intangible cultural heritage to the design of contemporary industrial products. It ‎posits that culture-based design can function simultaneously as a medium for safeguarding cultural ‎heritage and as a catalyst for innovation, identity articulation and emotional resonance in product ‎development.‎
Employing a descriptive-analytical methodology, the research undertakes a systematic conceptual ‎review grounded in thematic content analysis of a curated body of scholarly literature. The findings ‎underscore the transformative potential of culture-based design to embed deep-seated cultural ‎meanings into industrial products, thereby enabling users to re-establish connections with their ‎heritage through everyday encounters with design. At the same time, the analysis reveals a persistent ‎challenge, the absence of a structured, context-sensitive framework for identifying, interpreting and ‎operationalizing cultural values within the product design process. This gap points to the pressing ‎need for design methodologies that are not only analytically rigorous but also creatively adaptive and ‎locally grounded. Ultimately, the study advocates for the intentional and informed integration of ‎intangible cultural heritage into Iranian industrial design as a vital pathway toward promoting cultural ‎sustainability, enhancing product identity and enriching the experiential quality of user engagement.‎