City of parks
Description
For some countries, terror has been an inherent concept in the formation and transformation of their urban condition. 1959 marked a turning point in the history of the Cuban territory. With the coup of the Cuban Revolution and the beginning of the Castro dominance, a control over the territory and the urban fabric became in effect alongside the exercise of political power. The display of control on the built environment was the tool used to impose the new political system across the island at a faster rate. In response to the frugality consequential of the new political system, a survival phenomenon spontaneously arose as Cuban families struggled with the economic models of the island. Many have had to develop a second means of income by either growing and selling produce or livestock. Urban and rural conditions present a different set of challenges that can potentially be addressed and engaged through architecture, urbanism, and the public realm. Holguin, the capital city of the Province of Holguin, is further known as “the city of parks/ plazas”. The inhabitation of these public spaces have experienced a fast paced transformation within the last 3-4 years, much due to recent public accessibility to the internet. Parks have become places of interaction, of connection and reconnection, not only at a personal, but a virtual scale. This phenomenon have made people take a stand and reclaim their city. Although, Holguin’s parks/plazas are being refurbished, planning deficiencies evidence a lack of engagement to the changes that society is experimenting by the porosity of the blockade. Public spaces that respond to their actual flux of information, and the interaction of the different spontaneous phenomena coexisting in Cuban territory is required in order to provide healthy communities that aid its people to achieve a better quality of life as the country keeps transitioning. In a metaphysical way, architecture is the bonding element that facilitates the regeneration of healthy environments through community engagement .