A Unique Architecture in Havana
Photo Feature by Irina Pino
HAVANA TIMES – The grounds of the former Country Club served as the site for constructing the National Art School. There, amidst nature, a project began to take shape, including several schools: Dance, Fine Arts, Performing Arts, Music, and Ballet. The idea came from Fidel Castro and Che Guevara in 1961. They hired three architects: Ricardo Porro (Cuban), Vittorio Garatti, and Roberto Gottardi (both Italian).
The goal of this ambitious project was to blend the buildings harmoniously with the natural surroundings. Materials such as bricks and terracotta tiles were used to reduce construction costs. The design’s unique features include Catalan vaults, serpentine structures, oval-shaped pavilions, irregular courtyards, a plaza covered with glass sheets, curved colonnades, and long interconnected corridors. From the outside, and especially from an aerial view, the construction appears extraordinary, resembling a large fortress. It’s a design that defies architectural conventions.
As often happens with many projects, this one was left incomplete in 1962 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The foreign architects were sent back to Italy, losing their ability to continue the work. Critics claimed their designs were out of touch with the times and represented a bourgeois and elitist concept. Nothing could be further from the truth. On the contrary, the uniqueness was tied to imagination and practicality.
In 1999, John Loomis published his book Revolution of Forms, which discussed these schools. This helped revive the history, and the three architects were called upon once again. However, for the second time, the project stalled.
This site has been used for filming movies and TV shows, and people often visit to take photographs. I’ve been there only three times, but on this last visit, I didn’t miss the chance to take my own pictures. Very close to these walled structures, a local goat breeder lets his animals graze freely. He is accompanied by two dogs.
Here are the images.
I really love the rounded shape of the whole structure, I would have loved to see the building in use, whether in ballet, art or music classes.
(A Unique Architecture in Havana December 12, 2024)
I visited this venue, the former Havana Country Club, some 15 years ago. Aside from the former clubhouse and bar, which were in very good condition, the rest of the site was semi derelict. The games courts had weeds growing all over, and the former stables were falling apart.
‘Our Man in Havana’, a 1959 British spy comedy film directed and produced by Carol Reed, and starring Alec Guinness, Burl Ives, Maureen O’Hara, Ralph Richardson, Noël Coward and Ernie Kovacs, has a major scene in the club house area, and one gets an idea of how superb this high-society club was, with lovely landscaped gardens. It was very sad to view the condition I witnessed. As mentioned above, it is a music college, and many students that were practising in the grounds were excellent. The club was located in a large landscaped park, and many of the Ambassadors of the Embassies of American and European states had their residencies close to the park for easy access to the facilities.
I also visited the former Centro de Dependientes / Clerks Club on Paseo del Prado, now a major ballet school. It was only because of the quality of the original build that it was able to survive the passage of time, though maintenance was also an issue. I had brought a few pairs of ballet shoes (my hometown in England has a manufacturer), and I was given a guided tour because of my gesture. Many of the superb rooms had been poorly partitioned with crude panelling, impinging upon the excellent original integrity of the original room décor. In the pre-revolution days this club had, perhaps, one of the best ballrooms in Cuba.
Almost across the road is the former Casino Español de La Habana, commonly known as Casino Español, a high society club for the descendants of Spanish immigrants. This was now a ‘Palacio de los Matrimonios’ / Palace of Marriages. The original carved and decorated furniture have all disappeared, replaced with standard fold up metallic chairs, and a grubby desk at the top end. However, the original Coat of Arms of all the Spanish provinces, beautifully gilded and in striking bright colours, is still more or less visible. Again, only because of the quality of the original build has this property survived the passage of time, especially the sea salt in the wind. Nevertheless, it is grubby and dirty, and a sad reflection of its former self. This story can be repeated all over the island as many towns and cities had their own Casino Español, Centro Gallego, and other society, professional, and sports clubs. The former Havana Yacht Club and Vedado Tennis Club have become labour union clubs, a little run down and grubby. The former Union Club on the Malecon has survived the fate of many of these edifices because the Spanish government paid for the refurbishment, and it is now an arts centre. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the former Automobile and Aero Club, also on the Malecon. It is now an Asturian community social centre but in a very poor state of repair!
I have a collection of original photographs of the former Tropical Gardens of the Tropical Brewery and was interested to visit the facility. Unfortunately, they are in a state of total abandonment, probably now irreversible. I forced my way through a crude run-down fence onto the site and was shooed away by an angry guard!
The superbly landscaped gardens of the breweries in Havana provided for rest and recreation, as well as fresh air, beauty and add a touch of greenery in the atmosphere of a city that was expanding. A veritable lung for Havana in the ‘Jardines de La Tropical’, one of the best example of the Spanish Cuban industry that stimulated development in Cuba and their successful operations with its products and services. Cubans and foreign tourists enjoyed the gardens, the Spanish Cuban food, the live music sessions and of course Tropical and Cristal beers. Moorish architectural elements were integrated into the designs, with lush tropical vegetation and stunning plant and flower displays.
Sadly, today the facilities of the old Tropical brewery in Havana are in a state of total abandonment, a process that has become irreversible in some parts of this development. Another symbol of the island’s decline! I had pushed my way through a rusty broken parameter fence and after some 20 minutes was shooed away by a somewhat angry site guard that I had first seen dozing on a bench when I entered the complex! This story is even more tragic at the José Arechabala S.A. Distillery in Cárdenas, Matanzas, the Basque original owners of Havana Club Rum. from 1934 until 1960. I have an original book presented to the chief engineer of the Distillery, and the photographs show the excellent quality of the distillery, and the superb landscaping of the grounds. Tragically, today it is derelict, crumbling, and occupied by feral dogs and cats, and I even saw a pig in the grounds. Very sad indeed!
The tragedy is that I could repeat the same story from several towns and cities all over the island. How I managed to ‘trespass’ on many sites is because I have several original maps of Havana from the 1930s through to 1960. When I am accosted by anyone, I pull out my maps and explain that I am looking for a particular pre-revolution building as I am a fascinated by Cuban architecture. This usually works but I did have a close shave when I tried to enter Camp Colombia / Campo de Colombia military barracks, the most important military base in Havana, and originally built by the US in 1899. A senior officer in smart uniform followed by a couple of armed soldiers approached me and asked what I was up to. I pulled out my maps and photographs of old buildings, and explained that I was a student of architecture, and my interest in discovering the Cuban vernacular and Spanish and American influences. He relaxed and mentioned that his daughter was studying architecture, and we chatted for a few minutes. He then politely ushered me away and wished me well on my endeavours. A close shave indeed, and experiences I have only had elsewhere in Rangoon, Burma before the military took over when, again, I ‘gate-crashed’ former British colonial buildings, and was briskly ushered away by gun toting soldiers!