World Heritage Day – A Walk in the Memory Lane

Across India, museums have long been places of preservation. Carefully lit artefacts sit behind glass. Labels tell us what they are, where they came from, and why they matter. We walk through them respectfully, quietly absorbing information. In both museums and schools, conversations about heritage often revolve around monuments, timelines, and preservation. Students learn about historical sites through textbooks, photographs, or the occasional field visit.

Yet through the work of designing learning experiences, a realisation dawns that heritage becomes meaningful only when students begin to see it not as something distant in the past, but as something that lives around them.

One moment that shaped this realisation happened during a session with students when a simple brass water vessel was placed on a table and questions were put to them:

“What do you notice?”

The first answers were predictable.

“It’s old.”

“My grandmother has one like this.”

But slowly, curiosity began to unfold.

One student noticed the wide base. Another pointed out at the narrow neck. Soon the room was filled with questions.

“Why is the base wider?”

“Why brass and not steel?”

“Why is the neck so narrow?”

The vessel was no longer just an object. It had become a puzzle. Students began to reason their way through the design. The wide base made it stable. The narrow neck reduced spillage. The brass helped keep the water cool. What seemed like a simple household object revealed layers of design thinking, material science, and everyday ingenuity.

That day was a reminder that heritage is not only about remembering the past, it is about understanding how people solved problems using the knowledge and resources available to them.

Dimensions of Heritage

Another exercise with students revealed a different dimension of heritage when students were asked to draw places in their neighbourhood that felt important to them.

Instead of marking famous monuments, they mapped places tied to memory: a tree where elders gathered every evening, a small shop that had served generations of families, or a street corner where festivals came alive.

One student drew a roadside tea stall. When asked why, he simply said, “My grandfather meets his friends here every evening.” That drawing stayed with me.

It showed that heritage is not only found in protected monuments - it also lives quietly in everyday spaces that carry community memory.

Questions That Matter

A different turning point came when I attended the World Heritage Young Professionals Forum organised by UNESCO. Surrounded by young professionals from around the world, we spent days studying extraordinary heritage sites and discussing their cultural significance.

These sites were remarkable. Much of the conversation celebrated their grandeur and historical importance. Yet a question stayed with me - What if students engaged with heritage not only by admiring it - but by understanding the intelligence behind it?

What if they analyzed why certain materials were used in historical structures?

What if they experimented with ingredients that might have existed centuries ago to invent dishes/to understand what gives them energy?

What if they studied traditional crafts as systems of engineering and design?

Traditional Spaces – Changing Approach

Around the same time, I was also involved in the process of curating museum experiences. In many traditional museums, I noticed a familiar pattern: visitors moved from one display to another reading labels and looking at objects behind glass. People appreciated the artefacts, but the interaction often remained passive.

I remember one visitor quietly remarking, “It’s beautiful - but I am not sure how useful this information is for me, maybe I wish I knew how it actually worked.” That sentence stayed with me. Another student once asked during a gallery walk, “Can we try making this ourselves?” Those questions revealed something important. Curiosity often stops where participation ends.

If heritage is presented only as something to observe, students admire it - but rarely investigate it. This realisation slowly led to a different approach.

What if heritage could be explored the way scientists explore ideas through questioning, experimentation, and making?

This question eventually evolved into the concept of an experiential learning space being developed at our foundation.

Experiential Centers

The idea of our Science Experience Center is not to build another museum, but to create a Living Heritage Lab within a Living Lab Ecosystem - an experience centre where students explore the intersection of heritage, science, and everyday life.

In this lab, heritage is not simply read about or remembered - it is experienced and lived. Students investigate it as an experiment, uncovering the science, design thinking, and cultural intelligence embedded within everyday traditions.

A section exploring fermentation would open conversations about microbiomes and nutrition. Traditional cooling systems would lead to discussions on climate-responsive architecture. Heritage kitchens would reveal the chemistry of spices, metals, and cooking techniques refined over generations.

Instead of asking students to memorise facts, the space invites them to ask questions.

Why was this designed this way?

What problem did it solve?

Could we recreate or improve it today?

This approach is also part of a larger living-lab ecosystem that views learning as a journey, from curiosity to creativity to confidence. When students encounter a question that intrigues them, they begin to explore. Exploration leads to imagination, and imagination eventually leads to innovation.

Conclusion

For schools, such spaces offer something classrooms often struggle to provide: an environment where observation, experimentation, and storytelling come together.

In a world where information arrives instantly through screens, students rarely get the chance to slow down and investigate the intelligence embedded within everyday cultural practices.

Perhaps the future of heritage education lies not only in preserving monuments, but in creating spaces where students can experiment with the past to design the future. And sometimes, all it takes to begin that journey is a simple question placed in front of a curious learner.