Cuba, Architectural Modernism, 1930-1969

ARC 6357

Alfonso Perez-Mendez, Professor

This seminar will examine Cuba’s important contribution to modern architecture. Using this focused subject, the students are expected to revise important moments in the general history of modern architecture to which they have been exposed in other courses. The seminar will have a broad scope so that both: students interested in the history of twentieth century modern architecture, and students interested in Latin America and Cuba can be engaged in fruitful discussion.

The seminar draws its relevance from the great importance of Cuba’s architectural production at mid century. Cuba, together with Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil and other Latin American countries, were considered in the 1950’s as “modern architecture’s promised land” the place where the dreams of modernism were becoming broadly built. These countries were, then, studied internationally; a good example being MOMA’s 1955 exhibit and book, “Latin American Architecture since 1945”, that included six projects from Cuba.

The seminar will span the years from 1930 to 1968. Between these dates lies a critical inflexion point: the fateful 1959 Cuban revolution. Even with that in mind, 1968 was still chosen here as a final date because under the strict point of view of architectural production the first decade of the new situation continued various trends of earlier years; and the careers of some of its architects. The panorama changed around 1968, when the country entered a full alliance with the Soviet Union that proposed a different understanding of the role of the architect.

The seminar, although will cover the historical and theoretical context of Cuban architecture in these 40 years, will have a special emphasis in the city of Havana. This is not only because of the importance of the capital in the culture of the country, but also because of the concentration of available bibliographical material in a city that keeps a profound hold in the world’s collective imagination. As indispensable context, we will plunge into the culture and geography of Havana using cinematographic and other visual sources.

We will start our readings, with a general historical introduction to the country and the era. We will continue in architectural ground with the seminal trips of Le Corbusier to Latin America in 1929 and 1936. Corbu’s arrival to South America was a pivotal event not only for his own ideas, but also for the countries that shaped them. This beginning intends to bring to the seminar the students familiarity with this quintessential figure of twentieth century architecture, and start to play that knowledge into the Latin American background. We will see how his ideas evolved into a continental trend mainly led by Brazilian architecture’s reinterpretation – continental trend of which Cuba is foremost example.

Parallel to this beginning in international culture, we will examine the complex negotiations in art and architecture that created a complex position for the Cuban avant-garde between regional and universal culture.

We will see how all these issues play in the brilliant generation of Post-World War II architects such as Nicolás Arroyo and Gabriela Menéndez, Alberto Beale, Max Borges, Aquiles Capablanca, Juan Ignacio Guerra, Manuel Gutierrez, Frank Martínez, Ricardo Porro, Mario Romañach, Antonio Quintana and Nicolas Quintana among many others.

A fascinating component of interest for North American students is the widespread American influence in Latin American 50’s architecture, a complex issue not only of importance for Cuba but for the whole continent. Of the six Cuban works that MoMA included in his seminal 1955 exhibit, two were designed by American architects, the Hilton Hotel, and the American Embassy both in Havana. The subject of American influence has produced two excellent recent books, “Building the Cold War, Hilton Hotels and Modern Architecture” and “The Architecture of Diplomacy, Building American Embassies”, books that we will discuss in the class. We will examine also the international role and Latin American influence of some fundamental Americanized figures such as Richard Neutra and Jose Luis Sert, both with significant works in Cuba.

This seminar inserts itself within our school theory/history sequence. As such, the idea is to offer the student an opportunity of –using the Cuban example— recapping all major events and theories of these 40 years architectural culture. Using always comparative methods, the goal is to make the student aware of both, the mainlines of architectural theory in these years, and the contributions of Cuba to architectural culture.

Bibliography;
There are just enough -and we will rely upon- English texts, but I add below an addendum of Spanish texts that will provide extra graphic documentation for all students, and valuable research texts for students fluent in Spanish.

Books in English;

About Cuba as part of Latin America

Latin American Architecture 1929-1960, Contemporary reflections, Carlos Brillembourg, Monacelli, 2004
Building he New World, Studies in the Modern architecture of Latin America, Valerie Fraser, Verso, 2000
Latin America in its Architecture, edited: Roberto Segre, Holmes and Meier 1981
Latin American Architecture since 1945, by Henry-Russell Hitchcock, MOMA, 1955
Brazil Builds, by Phillip L. Goldwin, MOMA, 1953
New directions in Latin American Architecture, by Francisco Bullrich, Braziller, 1969
Art in Latin American architecture, by Paul Damaz, Reinhold, 1963
Anxious Modernisms, experimentations in Post-war architectural Culture, Sarah Williams Goldgagen, MIT press, 2000

About Cuba

The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts # 22, Cuba Theme Issue, 1996
The Havana Guide, Modern architecture 1925-1965, by Eduardo Luis Rodriguez, 2000
Havana, Cuba, An architectural guide, by M. Elena Martin Zequeira, Junta de Andalucía, 1998
Havana, Two Faces of the Antillean Metropolis, by Roberto Segre, Wiley, 1997
Cuban Forgotten Art Schools, Revolution of Forms John A. Loomis, Princeton Arch. Press, 1999
Planning Latin American capital Cities 1850-1950, Arturo Almandoz, Routledge, 2002

About American Influence in Cuba

Building the Cold War, Hilton Hotels and Modern Architecture, Annabel Jane Wharton, Univ. of Chicago Press, 2001
The Architecture of Diplomacy, Building American Embassies, by Jane C. Loeffler Princeton A. P., 1999
Architecture of social Concern in Region’s of Mild Climate, by Richard Neutra, 1954
Richard Neutra, by Willy Boesiger, 3 volumes, Praeger, 1951, 1959, 1966
Jose Luis Sert, by Josep M. Rovira, Electa, 2003

Books in Spanish:

First and foremost we will be using the excellent holdings of our library on Cuban periodicals of the era, starting with the complete collection of Arquitectura Cuba, magazine that alone provides comprehensive graphic documentation of the era.
Arquitectura en la Ciudad de la Habana, Primera Modernidad, by Carlos Sambricio y Roberto Segre, Electa 2000
500 años de Construcción en Cuba, by Juan de las Cuevas Toralla, Chavin, 2001
La Habana, Arquitectura del Siglo XX, by Eduardo Luís Rodríguez, Blume, 1998
Diez años de Arquitectura Cubana Revolucionaria, by Roberto Segre, Union 1969
Arquitectura Antillana del Siglo XX, by Roberto Segre, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, 2003
Arquitectura y Urbanismo de la Revolución Cubana, by Roberto Segre, E. Pueblo y Educación, 1989

The requirements of the seminar will be –for each student— to prepare two ½ hour slide presentations: one in early Modern Cuban architecture, and one in a Cuban post-second world war architect. Both presentations will be the springboard for a final paper in which the students will start working before mid semester.