Revitalizing Toledo's Historic Core

This report documents studies of the historic center of Toledo, Spain, conducted by students in the Graduate Schools of Government and Design at Harvard University during academic year 1993-94. The studies were performed in collaboration with Complutense University in Madrid and the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Toledo and under the sponsorship of the Real Colegio Complutense, an academic center established in cooperation with Harvard University.

The Toledo studies were conducted in two phases. In the first phase, carried out during the fall of 1993, participants in a graduate seminar at the Kennedy School of Government examined the social and economic strategies that might be employed to ensure the continued vitality of Toledo’s core. In the second phase, carried out in the spring of 1994, students in a studio at the Graduate School of Design considered design interventions to support the vitality of the core. The design students received the policy analysis papers prepared in the fall seminar before going to Toledo in January 1994. Central to the design were questions about the extent and manner in which it may be feasible to intervene inside the walls in order to provide for the activities essential to a live, functioning city while, at the same time, strengthening the integrity of the historic center. Revitalizing Toledo’s Historic Core documents the results of the findings of both phases.

Publisher: Bolger, 1995

Real Colegio Complutense