Just out is the volume COHABITAR, edited by Anna Nufrio in Barcelona. This book gathers the experience initiated in 2004 in the international seminar INSIDE LA HABANA which I organized with Anna, with the help of my great Cuban friends. The intent of this international seminar was to present architecture students with a first approximation to the city. It involved students and faculty from the Clemson University Architecture Center in Barcelona, Spain, the Conseil d’Architecture, d’Urbanisme et Environnement, France, the Politecnico di Milano, Italy, the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Spain, and the Instituto Superior Politécnico José Antonio Echeverría, Cuba, all with the support of the Office of the Historian of the City of Havana, Cuba. The thirty European students and four faculty members who participated in the research seminar spent two weeks in Havana collaborating with Cuban architecture students mapping stories of the city, examining Havana’s interaction with the sea and documenting housing conditions in the historic center. To aid in their investigations, I organized seminars with practicing Cuban architects, well-known artists, writers, filmmakers, sociologists and research professionals. For the conclusion of the seminar, the students presented their work to the public through models, sketches and videos.  I hoped to continue INSIDE LA HABANA with U.S. students and faculty, but, because of continuing policy issues during the Bush Administration, it was impossible. I am happy that Anna was able to continue and expand on what we initiated so long ago. Europe, specially Spain, has always been a more agreeable platform from which to  engage Cuba. Let’s hope that under this new administration we are able to engage Cuba in new ways.

At Clemson University I had the opportunity to engage in design build practices. The work of the Rural Studio in Alabama, Mockbee's relation to Clemson, and the generalized condition of poverty and need in small communities in the South after decades of neo-liberal economics and conservative politics, I thought, could guide design pedagogy.   In long debates and discussions with then →

When I visited Havana in 2000 I was fascinated by the andaminos, the scaffolding that populated the city, particularly in old Havana. Locals then used to call Havana "La Ciudad de San Lázaro" (St. Lazarus' City), because of all the crutches supporting its buildings preventing them from falling. Behind this ruinous reality hid the barbacoas, which for many were but →

In 2000 I became interested in contemporary vernacular building practices in Havana, Cuba, known as barbacoas.  Since then I have been slowly researching them and developing a theoretical position on these experiences. One can find these types of interventions just about anywhere in the world. I'm interest in the Cuban case because these are set within a Socialist context were →

In 2007, as part of a class on museum exhibitions under Barry Bergdoll (Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at MoMA), I made a presentation on the interest that MoMA's Architecture and Design Department had had on Latin American architecture. Strangely enough, this got picked up by the New York Times. Although I agree that lack of knowledge →

I originally wrote this essay in 2006 after reading the NYTimes piece “IDEAS & TRENDS; A Fence With More Beauty, Fewer Barbs,” and sent it to Cynthia Davidson at Log. It was set to be published (and I got a great edit from Ms. Davidson), but due to circumstances out of my control, it never appeared in print. Later my →

Just out from NAi publishers is the new issue of OASE Journal of Architecture ON TERRITORIES. I contributed a piece on extraordinary work of the Catholic University of Valparaiso in Chile, and their travesías - journeys across the Americas. Below are more pictures of the travesía Queilen that did not make it into the article. The Catholic University of Valparaiso (UCV)’s →

I was contacted by George Dodds and Gabrielle Esperdy of JAE to do a review of the Rural Studio. This was a difficult assignment. I have visited Mason's Bend on several occasions and enjoyed their hospitality (including this time in 2002). I wanted to offer a thoughtful critique of the complex work being done in Hale County, connecting it to →

Anthony Burdin's installation (pictured left) for the 2006 Biennial at the Whitney Museum of American Art, once again opened the question of using building practices found in slums as part of art installations in museum and art gallery spaces. I addressed this question by examining the work of Slovenian artist Marjetica Potrc and that of Spanish artists Jesús Palomino through theories of bricolage. →

On Saturday I went to my first draw show in Havana. It was on a roof top terrace. I had gone there with J for a meeting of HCH (Hombres con Hombres) meeting, it is a self help group for men living with HIV. The group serves as a support group and a network. Although there is a greater government →