Complex awareness
Description
The city of Havana finds itself in a moment of flux without a contemporary framework for urban revitalization. The lack of architectural production over the past 50 years and isolation from the global information economy inhibits the existence of a point of reference for future growth. In 1991 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Cuba began a slow and inconsistent transition away from a centralized organization towards an economy that supports the growth of the private sector. The transformation, littered with false starts and moments of regression finds itself at a point of exciting and frightening uncertainty. With the reforms initiated by Raul Castro in 2008 we see the beginning of a deeper transition in politic, economy, and ideology moving towards a more moderate strategy of governance. The limited introduction of Wi-Fi in public space and the gradual opening of US – Cuban relations indicates an interest in engaging with the global economy and fostering connectivity with the global population through information access. The growth of a private sector brings into question the role of the architect. Can designers be actors who can mediate between the hyper effciency of market driven development, the political agendas of centralized planning, and the ad hoc ‘jerry-city’ of informal development? Architecture can serve to mediate these tensions through a series of interventions. Beginning at a small temporary scale, interventions in the public realm can express the value of design and enable freedom of expression while challenging perception of the meaning and use of building and space. Engaging in a dialogue with the work of artists dealing with architecture and space the architect can inhabit a space between art and architecture. In this realm it is possible for the architect to re-conceptualize what it means to build and explore a mode of creation that positions him or herself as choreographer and curator. The intention is to defamiliarize objects and space through the use of architectural language. This defamiliarization will slow perception and facilitate a new reading of the social production of public urban space. Working in this manner will allow the Cuban Architectural community to explore authorship of the urban immediately and prepare for future challenges of reconciling the forces of globalization and local needs.