February 22 –March 14 2019

Stine Jørgensen, unit F

Viñales Havana Hershey Trinidad
CONTENTS Elements of Architecture
ceilings
facades
colors & textures
4 keys of Cuban architecture
Hershey
mapping
interview
object
Havana
transformations
interview
object
ELEMENTS
of architecture
ceilings concrete

Concrete is one of the most permanent materials of

roof construction in Cuba. The most hurricane-resistant
method in use is the concrete slap roof.
However, concrete is a very expensive material, so it is
most often seen in government-facilitated constructions
or in the transformations of the wealthiest of the Cubans.
The observed structures seem to be cast in-situ.
Metal ceilings are common in the more semi-permanent
structures. Metal constructions are very strong and will
last a long while, but still it seems to not be ideal.
A metal ceiling enhances the sound of ie. rain or the
animals that inhabit the roof. It also has a very low ther-
mal mass and will transport heat energy from outside to
inside almost instantly and vice verca.

metals
 wood

Wood is one of the most accessible

materials in Cuba, and it is therefore
very common to see wooden ceilings.
However, paint and other preservation
coatings are very expensive and hard to
come by, and many constructions are
left untreated for too long.

Many outdoor spaces have been created and covered by

vegetation – both deliberately and unintentionaly. The
leaves create a temperal border which allows for a much
cooler and more tolerable microclimate in the space
underneath.
This ceiling can be created both by trees and by other
plants supported by man-made structures.

vegetation
 facades
2 4

6 8
7 9 11
2 3
1 5
10

1 3 5
6 8 10

7 9 11
12 14 16
12 13

13 15 17
 18 20 22
17
14 15 16

19 18

20
21
23
22

19 21 23
Patchwork
As a result of Cuban residential law,
moving out of one home and into
another is quite the trouble. The
expand-when-you-can building cul-
ture in Cuba has transformed the ur-
ban fabric into a patchwork of colors
and materials that now express both
identity and ownership.
The colorful tendency doesn’t seem
to have any scientific explanation,
but locals explain it as a reflection of
their colorful and happy culture.
Infills
The concept of expand-where-you-
can really challenges the rigidness
and symmetry of the original archi-
tectural buildings in Havana.
Buildings once surrounded by vo-
lumous and airy verandas now have
been transformed into closed volu-
mes by the residents’ need for maxi-
mized indoor space, and so in spite
of the desire for private outdoor
access, this falls short to the need of
space for the growing family.
Calle 19 between B and C
It is quite peculiar seing some of the
clean kept, colorful facades, when as
soon as you change your perspective
a little, you see the side of the buil-
ding: raw, grey, and shaded.
Cubans often spend hours on their
veranda watching the public, and
the building becomes part of their
identity. The facade is the pride of
the building and its residents.
”I live in the rose building with blue
details on calle 17 between A and B”
Backside
The backside is where they hide
their insecurities and their ugly ne-
cessities
It is plastered with air condition
boxes, electrical wires, dusins of
antennas, and of course the blue
plastic water tanks. Due to the unre-
liable infrastructure, every home has
its own water tank and antenna, and
every room its cooling unit, in order
to make sure they have resources,
should the system fail to deliver.
colors &
textures
An abstraction of the colorscape
composed by the streets of Havana
4 keys of Cuban
architecture
Windows and openings
Openings are very important in a
hot climate. The windows are mo-
stly not closed off with glass, but in-
stead they use large blinds to let air
in, while controlling the amount of
sunlight allowed to enter the room.
Many doors have a second layer,
which consists of a patterned iron
fence. It keeps intruders out while
still allowing a flow of air.
This ensures natural cross ventilati-
on and helps cool the indoor spaces.
 High ceilings
In the untransformed Spanish colo-
nial buldings the rooms are almost
double height. The high ceiling
traps the hot air and allows for a flow
of cool air in the lower part of the
room.
In most of these buildings, howe-
ver, the effect of the high ceiling
has been compromised with the in-
troduction of the barbacoa – a light
structure that exploits the vertical
space and doubles the floor area.

photo: Stefan Ruiz

thehardt.com
The porch
This extention of the street-facing
facade is a zone to be crossed befo-
re entering the private; the added
structure creates a three dimenti-
onal transition between the public
and the private. This results in the
facade being withdrawn even further
from the road.
It is a two-way observance: The pri-
vate person watching the public life
from one’s porch, while the public
person looks into the private spaces.
 The patio
The patio is an ownerless space insi-
de the large buildings of the colonial
architecture in Cuba. It is an indoor
courtyard, which allows air into the
otherwise deep building structure,
while it devides the interior into se-
perate spaces connected by the sha-
red open space.
It is a semi-public zone, but the re-
sidents start to claim it by placing
plants or drying their clothes, in-
photo: Frederikke Friderichsen creasing the private feeling.
Editing Havana
 Hershey gardens

• train station

agriculture production •
• hotel ruin
water cooling towers•
•
baseball field sugar mill• • tile production

1:10.000
HERSHEY
Population: 4.800
mapping
6
barracones
illegal settlements
in the ruins of the
old single worker’s
housing building

7 8
primary school playground
Planned walk a teenage
hang-out
The walk was limited to two of the
NW-SE facing colomns of the grid.
The rule was to go where people
gathered. 9
church
The areas of activity in Hershey are inaccessible when
all related to a building with a public there is no service
function. They are not just random
meeting spots as seen in Havana.
Furthermore, there was a big con- 10 11
trast to the ’dead’ areas which rela- secondary disco
ted to the ruins or partly abandoned school once a
closed for reno- cinema
building structures. vation – no one
knows how long

12
shops
 5
water cooling towers

4
library
once a morgue
6

5
7 4 3
8 daily market
9 10 3 only a couple
2 hours
11 12
2
park
center of life
1 under the
giant tree

1
power plant
interview
” Bianca, age 38
I know my neighbor. We have a very good relationship. Here neighbors don’t
eat together. Only family and very good friends eat together.
Our family is very close always. Have a problem, everybody comes running.
The money, the clothes, the shoes – forget that! We just need to be together.
We are happy; there is no danger. We feel safe. We go to the beach, we go to
the park. We are not afraid to go on the street.
I wish activities for children. Children and old people they need a party, they
need a base. They need people to talk to for people to know they’re alive. I’d
like for the young people to not forget about the old. I say the child is the fu-
ture, but the old people are their parents and we need them.
Hershey’s history is very beautiful. People don’t want their history to be lost.
”
 object
Ceramic tile
This object was found in a pile of
building rubble. It is a piece of bro-
ken ceramic tile, which can be pro-
duced locally in Hershey.
It symbolizes local resources and
productivity: Locally dug soil and
local workforce.
Broken tiles like this one are some-
times seen reused in mosaic artwork
in the streets of Havana where they
are both decorative and tell a story
of sustainability and creative cultue.
1:10.000
H AVA N A
Population: 2.130.000
transformations
creation of
new routes and
connections

Inwards
The city is densifying more and more
people move into the extisting buil-
ding structures, so the interiors are
modified in order to accommodate
10-20 families living in a building
that used to house one family.
Interior streets emerge, and they
dig deep into the buildings, some
reaching neighboring buildings and ”These alleys are a kind of
twilight xone where although you
creating alternate, organic routes of
are free to enter, no one really
travel independent of the rigid grid; does unless they have business
some with dead ends like a labrinth. there.” – Editing Havana
modified structure

original structure

diagrams: Ernesto Oroza

Editing Havana
 Upwards
The buildings expand as the families
expands. As there is rarely anywhe-
re else to build, the structure grows
upwards.
A room with a ceiling height of four
meters is dividet vertically with a
horizontal plane to create a second
floor and double the space. This is
done by a wooden construction cal-
led a barbacoa. Walls are extended,
stairs are added, and one floor be-
diagrams: Ernesto Oroza comes a three-story house.
Editing Havana

photo: Frederikke Friderichsen:

Editing Havana
interview
” Deysi, age 80, and Adriana, age 54
My favorite place to eat is by Malecón. All the Cubans go to Malecón on the
weekend [...] There are restaurants and recreational areas. Malecón is a giant
couch. In the night people play music by the wall; they dance – it’s very pretty.
When I grew up, it was a very sad time, it was after the revolution. Now it
is more happy, and the world is opening up to Cuba. The childhood of my
grandson will be a very happy one with the changes.
We need more international contacts that can help Cuba. Since the blockade,
less people have come, but it is so important to the people of Cuba, they want
to know international people [...] By solidarity you help us when you see how
life in Cuba is, and you talk about it; talk positively about us and about Cuba.
The Cubans are very fraternal, very humane.
There is no other way to help. This is it.
”
 object
Banana leaf
This object was plucked off a banana
palm tree in Havana.
It has a dual sustainability function.
Obviously trees in urban context are
environmentally helpful as they filter
the smog. But they also create sha-
de from the hot Cuban sun, which
helps keep down the temperature of
the houses and foster microclimates
underneath the crowns.
Groups of people will gather in the
shade and it becomes a social space.
we came
we saw
we con[sumed]