Any conversation with Mario Coyula turns into a great class of planning, design, style and good taste. Regarding taste, in the words of the architect, recipient of countless awards, Cubans in terms of construction, have lost a lot. The critic and university professor is passionate about Havana, especially of his native Vedado neighborhood, which according to him “it still looks good even though they have done everything against it”. He gets excited when sharing his experiences in the preservation of the city and when he speaks of modern architecture that looks after the classics, the Art Deco and the importance of reasoning and feeling the structures. OnCuba spoke with the National Prize for Cultural Heritage recipient on various interesting topics.
What do you think of the real estate market in Cuba today?
It is still a very new field in our country. It was limited for many years to foreign sector with the particularity that they were new buildings to rent apartments. Initially they were conceived for selling but they remained only for rent, which I think killed the business because most people want to buy rather than rent.
The other detrimental thing that I found was the fact that they were limited only to new buildings in new areas on the city and not to areas that are identified with it, therefore had little impact on the cities and wasted the opportunity offered by some foreigners to purchase and restore a dilapidated house. That would solve two problems: money will come and a part of town could be saved. These are the limitations that I saw in this market.
Most buildings that were built, architecturally, contribute nothing, have little quality and have neither experimental nor creative pursuit, not a good design, or auteur architecture. It was a field that could have help improving the image of Cuban architecture but did not. They copied from the worst rather than the best; it is a pervasive problem of poor taste that touches all sectors of the population.
It can be explained. It is due to how quickly the upper class in Cuba was removed and then their place was taken by the nouveau rich that have a terrible taste and have a wrong image of success; they are influenced by Latin American telenovela, which also reached the foreign real estate companies. Much of the blame for this aesthetic deformation is given by the lack of competition, because people do not have the opportunity to see any better and always repeats the same mistakes.
What do you think of the law of sale and purchase of real estate and its impact on the country’s architecture?
I’ll start with the benefits. I think it will bring good care of housing fund in the country, to be seen mainly in areas that were good because the poor ones do not sell. Poor households are maintained by efforts of the settlers who perhaps built their own houses. These are easy to repair as they have an also simple construction. Difficult restorations are those the residents of multifamily buildings are facing since they can repair inside their houses but not the outside.
The problem that you own your apartment but there is no owner of the building, which should be resolved because otherwise, we will be left with nothing, especially without Havana where the best buildings in the country are treasured. This law encourages people to look after their properties and has a very dangerous consequence from the social point of view and it is going to be increasingly emphasizing social classes, areas south and north, of the rich and the poor, and of those who sold their good properties and went to live under a rock for needing the money.
Why do you say that there is a widespread bad taste in contemporary Cuban society?
There is a widespread bad taste that shows in the image of the country’s architecture. A few years ago I prepared the paint regulations for the city, but to no avail because both the state and individuals ignore everything. I think the solution is that you stop making those colors. Or be rationalized by prescription. Painters are the decision makers, the more colors they apply the more they get paid, then it is good for them, it is as if the nurse decides how to do surgery at the hospital.
There is great confusion regarding Havana, for example. The capital since its foundation was never, due to its style, a colorful or Caribbean city. This town was first Spanish, then it wanted to be French, then American , wanted to be white, because in this there is also a racial component , it wasn’t looking at either Haiti nor to Santo Domingo. It is now settled by Eastern people (referring to the people living in the provinces of eastern Cuba)who are really Caribbean and are not accustomed to bright colors that look good on some architectures but not in the neoclassical capital. People have a strange custom to copy the bad instead of the good.
What is Cuban in architectural matters?
I think there’s a big myth that we have to discuss in depth about it because there are many people consciously or unconsciously stuck in that mess. Searching for Cuban identity on purpose can be very dangerous. I think the Cuban identity, in any expression or manifestation emerges by itself, inevitably or naturally when given a correct solution taking into account the weather, the traditions, the spirit of the place and the people.
But if you look for it then you can come out with a mess, as has been happening, as the tourist architecture with arches, stained-glass windows, tiles and balusters resembling dolphins and curvy little women. That is a false Cuban identity which also occurs with our folklore when it is authentic can sometimes be indigestible because it represents backwardness, isolation, poverty, marginalization and sexism, but if changed to make it more likeable it stops being original and it becomes a fake and that has happened in architecture.
For me, in short, Cuban is what Cubans do, for Cubans and solve practical, functional and of course weather problems, which already offers the Cuban component. Many architects of the fifties proposed this as Mario Romañach that made contemporary properties yet very Cuban.
How do you see the binomial designer – architect?
It works from the inside out and the outside in at the same time. Architecture has always given due importance to the design and today even more. The designer is also involved on posters, billboards, when we arrange the corner of 23 and 12, for example, the work of the designers for posters was very important, which also happens to artists, though in smaller numbers. This is seen most often in hotels, although there are not always happy results.
The rise of self-employment in Cuba has brought to every neighborhood, every block, a business. What about the image of these spaces that have been created in the country?
I think the vast majority are aesthetically deficient, fortunately are not very large and because relatively little damage, fortunately they are also made with very poor quality and therefore are ephemeral when dismantling will not leave a mark. They are bad because there is no control, it is criminal they lack a good design, because even the simplest little business you must have harmony and be pleasing to the eye. The only reason not to have it is because they do not let architects practice their profession and offer their knowledge privately.
No college graduate is authorized by the government to work for themselves in their field. I can work as a taxi driver and selling candies privately but never as an architect. If I’m going to build a house I cannot practice as an architect, which is the last straw!
However, there is the architect of the community…
Let’s begin by saying that most are neither architects nor civil engineers and are not trained and are there just for the money. This architect of the community was a great, great idea, which went wrong in time. Today it has been bureaucratized and only dedicated to filling out forms for swap transactions, which is absurd.
So where can those who want to build a property in Cuba go to?
There is no advice for the person who wants to build a house or a building for a business. If you decide to hire a designer or state construction company then you get rejected arguing that they only execute large projects and they are not to waste time with such nonsense. Intone the builder and owners are those who design structures, make calculations and run the project. A number of architects who are retirees who could well do these functions and could do very well be paid for it. They would not only do the project, but the work to follow up to see if what was sketched is fulfilled. All these mechanisms existed in the eighties and disappeared with the special period. Today it is very complicated.
What do you suggest to reverse this situation?
These things were not from the capitalist era and I do not see why it cannot be recovered. It is difficult because the best technicians we counted on in these offices have gone to work in tourism where they earn more. Those who check out should know more than the revised, so it should be excellent professionals. The wisest solution is that major projects are reviewed by a committee. We should not have lost that, but we have to rescue it.
How do you think Cuban architecture will survive in the years ahead?
I’ll give as an example the capital that is greatly affected. The city is threatened for a progressive and alarming deterioration, there are areas that do not have a solution therefore we must try that what is put in place of that that disappears at least fit with the architecture of the site and will not break the consistency. We must face the major problem: the lack of capital and all this requires money. He who has a little more resources has a bad taste, which is complicated. I think we should promote competition by works of good quality, good designs for people to see and compare the works since there are some of undeniable aesthetic values that can enrich our architecture. We have to give a cultural value to architecture again because this was abducted by builders and stopped being a culture to become construction. It must be saved for future generations.
Author
Cecilia Crespo
Mario Coyula was a great Cuban architect and intellect.