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Barcelona and Havana, cities twinned since 1993, began cooperation relations responding to the mutual interest to boost projects that would allow the exchange of knowledge and experiences of management regarding the conservation and rehabilitation of the architectural heritage. As such this led in 2005 to the signing of an agreement with the OHCH (Office of the Historian of Havana City), under the leadership of Eusebio Leal, so as to carry out the integral rehabilitation of a block of the street Barcelona, which included the creation of the Barcelona–Havana Space, as a meeting point between our cultures.  The result was a great success, even recognised by the OHCH itself, in the sense that never had such an important intervention been done in the city in terms of the recuperation of housing.  

Barcelona, therefore, has a priority partner in Havana, the OHCH, with whom a new Memorandum of Understanding was signed in 2013.  This agreement includes the fields that will provide contents for the cooperation projects that will be defined over the next four years and foresee the planning and fostering of strategies for the rehabilitation, preservation and management of the cultural heritage within the framework of the public policies of cultural management, from a sustainable and socially equitable economic perspective.    

A first result of this agreement is the project "Cultural bridges: development of the museographic proposal for the room of architecture and urban planning of the Palacio Segundo Cabo", which is being carried out with the MUHBA (Museum of History of Barcelona). The alliance between Barcelona and the OHCH will be strengthened and enlarged with the collaboration in the Plan of urban reconversion of the bay of Havana and the continuity of the Project for the cultural development of the Palacio Segundo Cabo that has been boosted by the UNESCO and that is being carried out with the involvement of the EU and the participation of the IPF (Institute of Physical Planning), the Port Authority and the Ministries of Science, Technology and Environment, amongst others. 

These actions are complemented with the support of the programming of the cultural centre,  Barcelona-Havana Space, located in the street of Barcelona, which was rehabilitated thanks to the important technical and material cooperation of the city of Barcelona.  The collaboration has been carried out in the Programme of study for the recuperation of the traditional Malecón, faced with the challenge of climate change, financed by cooperation of Switzerland.  Barcelona was also present in the 11^th Encounter about the Management of Historic Centres: Creative and solidarity Entrepreneurship, a strategic alternative for the development of the historic centres, held in Havana with the participation of the MUHBA and of the Escola Massana of Barcelona. 

It is worth highlighting, on the other hand, the exchange process between the ISDI (Superior Institute of Design of Havana) and the municipal school of design of Barcelona, the Escola Massana. During 2014 two activities were programmed sponsored by the Swedish company Billerudkorsnäs: the participation of the students from Havana in the seminar-contest on packaging and the carrying out of a workshop on packaging in Havana for professionals and companies.