Boston Architectural College - 320 Newbury Street - Boston MA 02115 - USA
Nov 19, 2009
Designing Together / Diseñando Juntos
Nov 19, 2009
Process
For the first three days of the trips to Havana, BAC students and professionals attended an on-site orientation conducted by Prof. Julio Cesar Pérez*. After the orientation, the BAC’s professional group continued their research by visiting other Cuban cities.
*Cuban architect, critic, and author of Taschen’s ‘Inside Cuba.’
The Havana design workshops were done with four working groups of students, each with equal numbers from CUJAE and the BAC. These groups stayed together for the remainder of the time in Havana. Each group studied the design problem from two perspectives:
• “What does the site and problem tell us?”
• “What do we have to say back to the site and its inhabitants about the design problem?”
Their presentations, consisting of words, drawings, models and sculpture, were required to be understood without having to know either Spanish or English.
The groups presented the results of their work to professionals from the BAC and Cuba on the last day of each trip.
They celebrated the workshop’s success with parties and dinners. Many of these events took place in the homes of our Cuban friends.
Following the site visit, each school studied the design problem in detail for sixteen weeks. Building on their experiences from the workshops, students elaborated on their personal experiences and described their impression of the impact of the project on its potential occupants. They presented and explored several concepts before selecting one for elaboration. Final presentations consisted of site and context plans, a full description of the building, an in-depth study of a selected space within it, and the development of a construction detail of a representative building component.
The studios concluded with final reviews at both the BAC in Boston and CUJAE in Havana. Whenever it was feasible, faculty from CUJAE came to the BAC to participate in reviews. BAC faculty traveled to Havana for each of CUJAE’s final reviews, and, for two of the three studios, BAC students returned to Havana to present their designs.
