UNESCO Preservation & Cultural Heritage Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, and Taos Pueblo: Perspectives and Design Issues

Led by Mikesch Muecke, Architecture, and Diane Al Shihabi, Interior Design

This course proposes ISU’s ninth innovative interdisciplinary option studio in Preservation and Cultural Heritage (DSN S 5460) in the Spring of 2025 and plans to integrate a field study component to three UNESCO sites in the southwestern United States (Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, and Taos Pueblo).

For this course we will collaborate with preservation and cultural heritage experts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The instructors will lead a field study to Colorado and New Mexico in March 2025 to document, measure, create 3D LIDAR scans, and design a UNESCO World Heritage Center (UWHC) in Santa Fe that will serve as a cultural crossroads and introduction for visitors to one or all three UNESCO sites. ISU students will learn advanced digital technologies to survey and document a historic sites, interiors, and landscapes. As part of the College of Design’s goal of Civic Engagement, students will connect with historic preservation specialists and academics trained in cultural heritage in Native American and Latino cultures and will develop schematic designs for the UWHC while responding to the site’s cultural, architectural, and artistic history.

The final designs will be shared with the public to communicate the history, global preservation ethics, and international cooperation of UNESCO’s World Heritage program.

Course objectives:

• introduce students to international and national preservation and cultural heritage history, theory, and practice
• bridge cultures and build global partnerships through preservation practice and diplomacy,
• advance global cultural heritage protection
• convey a systematic design process in preservation using state-of-the-art digital technologies