cohabitar
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.
barbacoa building
I have been working with two CUJAE students on the barbacoa project. They are helping with sketches and measurements. We have selected a specific building that shows several types of transformations, almost a complete catalog of possibilities. In one of its apartments a barbacoa is being built. They were finishing the placa, a concrete slab, today on Saturday, so I told them that I was going to show up to help. I got there at 11:00 am. (more…)
2 barbacoas and CUJAE
On Thursday I visited my friends in the Office of the Historian. After they finished work around 5 we went to visit the casa de vecindad housing building, next to the church of San Felipe Neri. They have been working on the restoration of the church so we whent in to take a look. The most interesting part of the building is the vault. In the early 20’s if I remember correctly, the church was bought by a local bank. The altar was removed and a vault made in Illinois was put in at the end of the nave behind the removed altar. Today the church is being restored to serve as a venue for concerts. They have excavated under the altar (where it used to be) and found the foundational stone of the church, which dates back to the 18th Century. The OH wants to keep this area visible.
After that we went next door to the casa de vecindad. The building was built in the late 20´s or early 30´s by a local entrepreneur of Catalan descent with the last name of Sarrá. He owned a pharmaceutical company and a pharmacy located in old Havana on Compostela Street, in front of the convent of St Teresa. The casa de vecindad has 65 two-room units. The first room being of 4.5 x 4m and the second of 4 x 6m. The height of the standard unit being of 4.15m. All rooms face the interior courtyard which is formed by the circulation arcade. The building was built as a casa de arriendo, an apartment building. Today it holds around 200 plus people. We met F who is 49 years old. She told us about the water problems, filtraciones, that plague most if not all buildings in Havana. She has a barbacoa that serves as the master bedroom; she shares it with her husband. They built it themselves out of wood, to long ago to remember. The barbacoa divides the height of the first room, lowering it to 2.20m on the first level. This leaves only 1.94m for the second level (the structure for the barbacoa occupies 0.30m.) The second room is used as the dining room of the family, and dormitory of her daughter who has a small baby. F does not have problems with the water supply, when there is water. She has a faucet in her apartment. The bathroom and the kitchen are attached to the second room. A service corridor runs through the backside of the building, this space being used for the said programs. She does not want to leave old Havana. She would like to make improvements to her apt. but she does not know if they (the people living there) are going to stay or not. Next door to F lives A. A is 63 years old. She lives alone. Her husband died some time ago. She is thin with vivid eyes and sharp mind. She moved to her home in January 6, 1940. J, her father in law, was the concierge of the building when she moved. Then, she said, the building was very well kept. She loves to live in old Havana, and is not going anywhere. All her memories are here in this apartment, she said. The apartment has not suffered any changes since she first moved in. It is well kept, clean yet aged. It needs to be painted, but has all the original wood trims, doors and windows. She has no water. The president of the comité took it away from her, she said. They want to charge her 100 p to install water. She does not have that kind of money she said. Now she takes water from F’s hose, next door. Their patios, unlike everyone else?s, have no fence and are connected. She told us that she likes her community, old and new residents, and that she wants to stay here, although that she would like to improve her apt. a little. She is one of the oldest residents. “When I came here,” she said, “there was a sign that said: No Children, No Dogs and No Blacks.”
After that we went drinking to a bar next to the Simon Bolivar Square in old Havana, we drank and talked until around 10:30-11. I was going to the Architecture School the next day to be in a 2nd year mid-review. I went to the hotel grabbed some things, left another and went off with my friends, I and P, both architects. I had to go to a birthday party for the mother of one of his students in Vedado. We left the bar, bought rum and Kola, Cuban Coke on the way and arrived at the party at 12:30-1. The part was pretty much over. A couple of students were working for their presentation. We stayed drank, talked, prepared a possible studio about the barbacoas; all this until 4:30 am. Sometime in there people went for more rum, others for more ice. The rum run party came back quickly, the ice run party came back after more than 1 hour, unsuccessful. It was 4:30 so I went to bed, students stayed up working, I followed shortly. Couldn’t sleep much if any at all, it was hot and muggy. (It is still hot and muggy! Someone said that I was very brave to come to Cuba in summer.) We woke up at 5:45. We had to leave around 6:10, walk about 25 blocks to catch the 6:30 bus for the CUJAE (the University City), and got there around 8am for reviews. There are only two CUJAE buses one in the morning and another in the afternoon. You can take other buses, public buses, the 190 and the 34 are somewhat convenient. CUJAE is 25 kilometers from the center of Havana, which is damn far for a city where public transportation is one of its biggest problems. Bus service is consistent yet, you have to wait for them, that is WAIT. When we arrive around 8 there were about 15 students from a total of 52. All of them were in the bus with us. We picked all of them along the way, so we could have started the review on the bus, except of course we had no pin up space and because the engineering students would have protested in some form or another. We started reviews at 8:30, break at 12:30 for lunch, we eat by the street vendors in front of the university, pan con croquetas y pan con bola de papa and orange “juice,” went back and finished reviews around 3:30.
To go back we tried to take the 190 bus, but I who stayed “10 minutes” giving reviews to the students from the interior of the country, did not arrive in time so we miss three 190 and two 34 buses. The bus system is interesting when someone arrives to the bus stop, which is covered, thank god!, the person asks ultimo, last. This gives you a place in the line. This system assures that if you get early enough in the line and if the bus comes empty of half empty you will have a seat on the bus. You won’t have to stand all the way, because trust me, everyone is going to Havana. When everyone in my party got to the bus stop, we were 4, they decided to take a bus to Boyeros avenue, the avenue that goes to the airport, and from there take a botero, a local cab. We did this and didn’t have to wait much. We took a black 50 something Chevy, well it took us 10p per person. Lets say that the car ran. We picked up one person on the way, tried to pick up one more but alas, he did not fit. We were in old Havana by 5:45-6. The botero route ended next to the Capitolio, so we decided to go to Plaza Vieja to the inauguration of a Swiss brewery. We made it to Plaza Vieja but the brewery was closed, the inauguration was at 9am, but everyone thought that it would remain open. Afterwards we ran into some Europeans that are working at the OH. We went to the terrace of the Ambos Mundos Hotel for drinks. More Europeans came. We decided to leave because as the Cuans put it, these people don’t mix very well. We were out of dollars, so we went in search for bars in mn (moneda nacional) i.e. pesos, but to no avail. They were all out of beer; plenty of rum, no beer. It was way to hot for rum. Thus, we went to the hotel for some dolares, went to eat some pizzas and to a bar in the Manzana de Gomez. A bar visited by locals but paid in dollars. We had a couple of beers and called it a night around 11:30. When I got back to the room I took a very long shower. I had not showered since the day before.