Faculty and students at MIT and the Universitat Polit��cnica de Catalunya (UPC) in Barcelona, Spain are involved in a collaborative research project called "The Cultural Landscape and Regional Development," which is investigating how cultural heritage resources are being approached by planners and development specialists in Europe and North America.
A group from MIT and UPC recently toured the Lowell National Historical Park as part of a series of site visits to locations in New England where cultural resources, particularly relating to industrial heritage, are being used as part of a regional economic development strategy.
Supported through the MIT/Generalitat of Catalunya Education Collaboration, a four-year program that has funded collaborative research between MIT and various Catalan universities, the project will conclude with a community-based charrette in January 2000, when the lessons of the research will be applied to the textile mill communities (col������nias) of the Llobregat River Valley in Catalunya.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on September 25, 1999.
