The Magic and Poetry of Havana

Thursday, March 29, 6:30-7:30pm

Julio César Pérez Hernández
Architect, urban planner, urban designer and author, Cuba

Settled by the harbor in 1519, Havana, capital of Cuba, is a city full of magic and poetry, a city with a spirit, genius loci, that gives life both to people and place. Its exceptional geographic position and the increased commercial activity of its harbor soon granted Havana a distinguished status among overseas colonies as ships stopped there either to be repaired or to wait for departure for Spain carrying cargoes of gold in convoy. The city’s urban landscape was early defined by the stone fortresses, churches and palaces built by European military engineers and artisans on an irregular grid of narrow, shaded streets and a network of piazzas and piazzetas defined by tightly woven city blocks that would announce its polycentric character. Over four centuries different architectural styles informed the city’s image making it a living museum. Havana proudly exhibits a collection of fine buildings ranging  from Renaissance fortresses to Moorish-style mansions, Baroque palaces and Neoclassical temples; from Art Nouveau and Art Déco to International Style buildings that include the work of both Cuban and international architects, including a mansion with interiors by French designer René Lalique, public buildings by Belgian architect Paul Belau, an early twentieth-century hotel and a club by U.S. architects Schultz and Weaver, the 1953 American embassy by U.S. architects Harrison and Abramovitz, the famous De Schulthess residence by Richard Neutra and a 1958 hotel by Welton Becket and Associates, to name but a few. Many fascinating stories attach to every building as living proof of the intangible values of Cuban culture.

Professor Julio César Pérez Hernández is a practicing Cuban architect, urban planner and designer, and author of the books Inside Havana (2011) and Inside Cuba (both published by Taschen Editions) and A Master Plan for XXI-Century Havana, a comprehensive urban plan for the future development of the capital of Cuba. A Loeb Fellow at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design in 2001-2002, he received his degree from the School of Architecture of Havana in 1982; he was an adjunct professor there from 1998 to 2006. His work includes the design and building of private homes and public buildings and the master planning of new communities and neighborhoods that have earned him numerous awards. Hernández has been guest lecturer and visiting scholar at many prestigious academic institutions in the U.S., Europe, Canada and Cuba, including Harvard, MIT, the J. Paul Getty Museum and McGill University in Montreal. His works and projects, which have been exhibited in Cuba and at the Harvard University GSD, have been published by the New York Times, the Journal of the Royal Institute of Architects in Ireland, Arquitectura Cuba and Caribbean Design magazine, among others. The founding Chair of the Cuban Chapter of the Council for European Urbanism (C.E.U.) and the International Network for Traditional Construction, Architecture and Urbanism (I.N.T.B.A.U.), he is also a member of both the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba and the Union of Architects and Engineers of Cuba. Hernández is currently working on a new book, The Magic Landscapes and Urban Design of Havana, a comprehensive essay about the history and evolution of the capital city of Cuba.