CULTURE AS AN ENGINE IN PALO ALTO'S URBAN REGENERATION PROCESS

Changes in the economic base of old industrial cities have been characterised by urban regeneration processes, transforming their industrial districts into new innovative, technological and creative territories. While maintaining the industrial vocation, this shift promotes the reinterpretation of industrial production and of the territory's historical past into new symbolic meanings and values, constituting assets in the global city competition scenario. From these new forms of industrial production territorial changes result, with culture and innovation being a leading engine in such transformations. This article discusses the results of these economic based policies in Palo Alto's urban regeneration process. This complex is one of Barcelona's leading examples of industrial reconversion into a creative hub, through the uses of entrepreneurial initiative, cultural production, heritage valorisation, and the creation of new public spaces.