Ipogea Traditional Knowledge Research Centre

ipogea was founded in matera (italy) in 1993, when the initiatives for the inclusion of the sassi of matera in the unesco world heritage list were undertaken. ipogea is now established in florence, italy. ipogea’s general management approach is to encourage the full development of local skills and resources, and to inventory and enhance local archaeological, historical, environmental and traditional values. to this end ipogea and unesco have hammered out a methodology for the classification of local values (sitti: iconograrphic system of traditional and innovative techniques) and the creation of readily accessible archives and data banks (tkwb - traditional knowledge world bank) that allow the memory and values of specific places to be preserved, and that provide operational tools for the organization of territorial parks. for this aim ipogea together with unesco promoted the creation of itki (international traditional knowledge institute) and itknet (international traditional knowledg