Citation: Gaitán, M.; Alba, E.; Giner, X.; Navarro, M. Design Archives: Sustainable Solutions for Young Designers in Valencia, Spain. Sustainability 2023, 15, 4946. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15064946 Academic Editors: Pedro Miralles-Martínez, Raquel Sánchez-Ibáñez and Ainoa Escribano-Miralles Received: 9 January 2023 Revised: 1 March 2023 Accepted: 6 March 2023 Published: 10 March 2023 Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). sustainability Article Design Archives: Sustainable Solutions for Young Designers in Valencia, Spain Mar Gaitán 1, * , Ester Alba 1 , Xavier Giner 2 and María Navarro 2 1 Department of Art History, Universitat de València, 46010 Valencia, Spain 2 Product Design Department, EASD València, Carrer del Pintor Domingo, 20, 46001 Valencia, Spain * Correspondence: m.gaisal@uv.es Abstract: Design education is practical and theoretical; however, it does not usually include the study of cultural heritage. Nonetheless, relations with academia have been strong since the 18th century, when the need to educate designers spread across the continent to improve design and make it competitive in the market. In this paper, we recover that spirit and act as mediators between heritage and young people to create links and preserve cultural heritage. A case study was conducted at the Public Valencian Design School with 31 product design students. The methodology applied was based on iterative processes that allowed students to discover design and silk heritage when they proposed innovative ways of approaching it. A qualitative survey was used to evaluate the case study. The results showed that students increased their appreciation for cultural heritage (by more than 90%) as well as their willingness to preserve it and reuse it in their future creations. Collaboration between cultural heritage and design might foster sustainable conservation and mark the future steps of ongoing collaboration. Keywords: design; creative culture; innovation; cultural heritage; sustainable heritage 1. Introduction In recent decades, there has been an increase in teaching heritage practices, mostly at primary and secondary levels. Traditionally, this has focused, in the best-case scenario, on its elements, typologies, or styles, rather than on its context, processes, dynamics, and importance not only for the past, but also for the present and the future. On the other hand, heritage education models seek to adapt to the current demands for Information and communication technology (ICT) resources. For instance, computer-generated graphics can be used to explain the evolution of archaeological and cultural landscapes through augmented reality [1], the georeference of cultural heritage assets [2], and ICT applied to archaeology [3]. In this regard, cultural heritage education has traditionally been the subject of methods that have evolved from Recommendation R (98) 5 to the Member States on Heritage Education [4], which calls for heritage education to be based on cross-cutting approaches, as well as a partnership between the fields of education and culture that employs the widest variety of modes of communication and expression. In Article 13, the FARO Convention [5] states that countries should facilitate the inclusion of cultural heritage in education, not necessarily as a subject of study in its own right, but as a source for other subjects. Recently, the European Commission has demanded the integration of cultural heritage in the New European Bauhaus as a means of connecting creative industries with their past. Research has contributed to establishing a participatory vision of cultural heritage and heritage education as the basis for building identities, critical citizens, and social cohe- sion [6]. In this regard, Santacana and Martínez Gil [7] have emphasized the importance of the emotional factor and its relationship with cultural heritage, simultaneously establishing that this factor is primordial and decisive concerning didactics and the dissemination of Sustainability 2023, 15, 4946. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15064946 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability