by Elisabetta Alé

To conserve the genius loci of an urban environment and design upon it, in a way that is both creative and original, the city of the future, still remains one of the major challenges of contemporary architecture, despite being a theme which more recently has fallen from grace as it is not considered very “now”. In Latin America, much more than elsewhere, a land which falls on a “moving” confine between the definitions of first and third world, which become even more dangerous when projected into the realm of the built, the importance of urban and cultural contextualisation lends fuel to a heated debate. Given this, despite the generic nature this first edition, the founding of an Architecture Biennial in Cuba can be seen as an important move. It means the opening up of a new space within which debate can take place which, as in the case of the First Architecture Biennial to be held in Rotterdam in 2003, within certain circles can attain an exact role and meaning.

Havana, a city with a very long record of cultural syncretism, is renowned above all thanks to its perfectly conserved colonial historical city centre (a rarity amongst the capitals of the Latin Continent, violated by speculative building), and thanks to which in 1982 it was declared by Unesco “Patrimony of Humanity”. But this city constitutes a totally composite and articulated scenario, where the most different architectural and urban environments live alongside each other: from the Art Deco frenzies which form an indissoluble link to thirties Miami, to the strong impression left by the Modern Movement in the areas of new urban expansion. Following the events of 1959 the picture developed once more, with obligatory passage (given the emblem of the political transformation taking place) across the socialist utopia of prefabrication – subsequently critically dismantled, piece by piece, up until the second half of the eighties – in the search of a valid alternative (which some unfortunates believed to be – even here! – along the lines of a tropical postmodern which luckily did not cause too much damage). Lately the city has suddenly found itself to be on the international tourist and consumer circuit following decades of relative cultural and economic isolation. These factors have given place to a somewhat lively contemporary panorama, ranging from operations in clumsy stylistic imitation due to an excessive sacralisation of the historical urban patrimony, to the dogmatic importance of models, forms and images clearly pre-digested elsewhere.

Positive examples are certainly not lacking though, revealing the existence of a strong internal debate, which undoubtedly goes beyond the limits of the purely formal, entering into to the sphere of the technological, economical and sociological. It is a situation which we could define as common to Latin America but which in the case of Cuba presents its peculiarities in relation to the political and economic situation of the country. In such a particular context the themes of cultural and architectural identity assume a role which can become excessive and overly schematised, even in an age of unrestrained formal globalisation, especially considering the obvious risks which an “official” treatment of these factors can bring in certain socio-political situations.

The reflection and open confrontation with experiences, both real and virtual, from all over the world can undoubtedly lend fuel in a constructive way to the debate concerning these and other important themes, perhaps too often forgotten by the “sacred” manifestations of international contemporary architecture (without mentioning specialised publications).