Aprendiendo de Puebla: conservación del Patrimonio urbano para una ciudad habitable

The historical centre of Puebla was included in the UNESCO list as World Heritage Site in 1987. Founded for poor Spanish people (1531), the “Puebla de los Ángeles” became very soon an important urban centre, with its splendour in the Virreinal middle period. This paper presents the idea that for the real preservation of the historical city it is necessary to recover the ‘residential value’ of this historical urban space. For it we have a great opportunity in the Puebla’s urban block (83,5m. x 167 m.), an incredible ‘microcosm’ dominated by the structure of ‘patios’. Here there is a lot of abandoned or semi-abandoned buildings and tourism, with the administrative and commercial functions, are not sufficient for recreate the urban space in its true potential. It is possible to think in the historical city as a liveable place, in a more sustainable way.