An interdisciplinary exploration of Havana’s art, architecture, film, literature, and culture during a time of transition. Course includes a travel component to Cuba.

Description/Objective:

This seminar explores modern architecture and urbanism in Cuba, including the full kaleidoscope of historical, political, and cultural effects before and after the 1959 Revolution. Using the North-South relationship as the basic matrix, individual sessions will explore the spatial dimensions of a wide range of issues ranging from revolution, utopia, cold war, prefabrication, tropical modernism, ruins, preservation, disease, sexuality, violence, resistance, etc. Through a series of case studies - sites, buildings, urban projects - we think of Cuba as a laboratory of modern architecture under the influence of multiple norths and souths.

Sample Reading List:

Guillermo Cabrera Infante - Three Trapped Tigers
Eduardo Luis Rodríguez - Havana Guide
Annabel Jane Wharton - Building the Cold War
John A. Loomis - Cuban Forgotten Art Schools, Revolution of Forms
Tomás Gutiérrez Alea - Death of a Bureaucrat
Che Guevara - The New Man

Requirements/Grading:

Take Home Final Exam 50%
Class/Precept Participation 10%
Design Project(s) 20%
Oral Presentation(s) 20%
Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit

Other Requirements:

Open to Graduate Students Only
Total Course Enrollment: 20

Other Information:

Course will include a research trip to Havana during Spring Break.

Schedule:

T 1:30-4:20pm
Spring 2017