Humanistic Perspectives on History and Society: Tropical Modern: Cuba, Architecture, Revolution

In the years immediately before and after the 1959 Revolution, Havana was one of the great laboratories for experiments with modern architecture in a tropical and political climate. This seminar expands the understanding of modern architecture and urbanism in Cuba to include the full kaleidoscope of historical, political and cultural effects of the revolution. Through a series of case studies, we explore the spatial dimensions of a wide range of issues: climate, utopia, cold war, prefabrication, tropical modernism, ruins, preservation, disease, sexuality, violence and resistance-using multiple theoretical frames.