DOCSLIB.ORG

Visions on Social Housing in San Juan: Notes on Workers’ Housing (1930S-1950S)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Visions on Social Housing in San Juan: Notes on Workers’ Housing (1930S-1950S) [Re]visions on Social Housing in San Juan: Notes on Workers’ Housing (1930s-1950s) Published in Spanish as “[Re]visión de la vivienda social en Puerto Rico: Notas sobre la arquitectura para el obrero (1930s-1950s) in Jorge Lizardi and Martin Schwegmann (eds.), Ambivalent Spaces: Memry and Oblivion in Modern Social Architecture (San Juan: Ciu[a]d y Callejón, 2012) 156-184. [Re]visions on Social Housing in San Juan: Notes on Workers’ Housing (1930s-1950s) This form of power that applies itself to immediate everyday life categorizes the individual, marks him by his own individuality, attaches him to his own identity, imposes a law of truth on him that he must recognize and others have to recognize in him. It is a form of power that makes individuals subjects. Michel Foucault, The Subject and Power / 1982 Vanish Point: [Social] Architecture and Dislocation + To Inhabit at/in the Margins The first look at workers’ housing in Puerto Rico is probably, a 1914 Department of Labor report which, after an evaluation of the laborers’ homes, intended to establish a guide for the future construction of appropriate, efficient, and economic houses for the Tropics.9 Within the colonialist discourse that appears throughout the text, determinist considerations insisted on a supposed symbiotic relationship between the workers and the condition of their houses. That way, the authors alleged that inadequate housing tended to produce physically and psychologically weakened individuals, incapable of questioning or bettering their living standards. The report linked housing deficiencies to the materials most available to the workers –that is, native bushes and palms-, and concluded that it would be nearly impossible to build workers’ houses comparable to their counterparts in the United States since on the Island there was no suitable lumber for sound construction. From there, the report underlined how environmental stability in Puerto Rico facilitated habitation, while it also supported the structural precariousness of the houses.10 In other words, the fact that the Island had year-round climate stability or that there were no real need for people to shelter from the cold, had limited, argued the 9 Government of Porto Rico, Bureau of Labor, Report on the Housing Conditions of the Laborers in Porto Rico (San Juan: Bureau of Supplies, Printing and Transportation) 1914. 10 It is important to remember that two of the recurring arguments in the Colonial Discourse are, on one side, the Eden-like and self sufficient landscape that provided every habitation and/or alimentary need, and on the other, the reference to the lazy savage or the essentially unproductive native. Those are the discussions of, for example, The West Indies and the Spanish Main (London: Chapman and May, 1859) by Anthony Trollope. Other authors from whom similar arguments which transmigrated to the Twentieth Century can be extracted are Georges Louis Leclerc, Count of Buffon (Historie naturalle, gèneralle el particulière, 1749-1788), Charles Darwin (On the Origins of Species, 1859), Edward Burnett Taylor (Primitive Culture, 1871), and William Z. Ripley (The Races of Europe: A Sociological Study, 1900), among others. There should not be discounted either, the multiple colonial texts published after the Spanish-American War such as Our Islands and Their People (1899) and Our New Possessions (1901). authors, the development of more permanent building methods among the lower laboring classes. During the 1930s and 1940s, country peasants moved in large numbers to San Juan; an emigration that in turn, caused major expansions in slum areas, mainly the ones located along the Martín Peña Canal and the San José Lagoon.11 According to a study conducted by Manuel A. Pérez, from 1899 to 1935 San Juan registered a demographic growth of 328%, Puerta de Tierra of 145%, and Santurce of 1,647%, which in those years had recorded a mass densification that went from 5,840 inhabitants to 102,053.12 Due to the economic precariousness amplified by the Depression and the significant destruction left by the San Felipe (1928) and San Ciprián (1932) hurricanes, the agricultural workers displaced by the sugar companies looked for employment in industries and commercial businesses that were developing on the capital. However, offers were very scarce. That city of others within the urban blots occupied by slums was often referred to as “centers of undesirable social defects” as well as spaces from where “crime and sickness emanated”.13 For all purposes they were traps for the economic mobility of the workers [fig. 1].14 A Day in the Life [Un día cualquiera] (1953), a film by the Division for Community Education [División de Educación de la Comunidad, DivEdCo] illustrated the issues of difference crossed by the stigma of certain dysfunctions on which stereotypes about slum dwellers were founded. As stereotypes enable the construction of imaginaries that exalt otherness, they also assist in the establishment of scenarios for negotiation profoundly and inevitably unbalanced. As Homi Bhabha explains, those mechanisms simplify and guide the “recognition” of differences in “subject people”15 through the use of deformation tactics that seem natural. Through that process, “the 11 Robert William Stevens, “Los arrabales de San Juan: Una perspective histórica,” Revista de Ciencias Sociales 24, no. 1-2 (June 1985): 155-197. 12 The slums that delimited the capital city were La Perla, to the north; Miranda, Miraflores, Hoare, Tras Talleres, La Zona, Roosevelt, Melilla, Marina, and San Ciprián to the south, as well as Shangai to the east, along with the San José Lagoon. Manuel A. Pérez, Estudio Preliminar de las condiciones de vida en los arrabales de San Juan (San Juan: Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, Rural Rehabilitation Division, Research & Statistics Section, 1939) 1-2. 13 Original text in Spanish; translation by the author. Kurt W. Black, Slums, Projects and People: Social Psychological Problems of Relocation in Puerto Rico (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1962)4. 14 Francisco Valle Atiles, “La contribución higienista al future de Puerto Rico, “ en Conferencias dominicales dadas en la Biblioteca Insular de Puerto Rico (San Juan: Bureau of Supplies, Printing & Transportation, 1913), 231. 15 Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture (London and New York: Routledge, 2010 [1994]), 100. [stereotyped] population is then deemed to be both the cause and effect of the system, imprisoned in the circle of interpretation.”16 In the film written by Pedro Juan Soto, Joaquín, a jíbaro emigrated to the city with his family, faces a dreadfully inhospitable scenario which marginalized and diminished him. One of the most significant scenes in the movie takes place when the protagonist, tired of the noise from a radio playing in the house next door, exchanges strong words – window to window– with his neighbor. The argument ends when, before closing the shutters, in a defiant act of refusal to turn the radio down, the neighbor shouts: “…here, we live as in the north, each in his own house,”17 That way, the issues of otherness show up from a certain mimetic attitude towards the United States –the north alluded to–18 which presumed the individual dwelling, though in the slum –El Fanguito, in this instance–, within the cartographies of desire that represented the “American dream”. As declared by Foucault, to think about spaces becomes a reflection on power.19 As such, urban and architectural interventions, as well as the ways in which they relate to each other while organizing a specific kind of city, can be interpreted as instruments that speak about and for social groups.20 Arguably then, the multiple housing “experiments” aimed at the substitution of the most visible landmarks of marginalization in San Juan throughout the Twentieth Century –the slums or shanty towns– can be considered translation exercises within unbalanced power relations. On the other hand, as an extremely potent communicator, architecture must consent to be questioned. Peter Eisenman has defended its definition as a text between texts, or a translator of sorts, where the interrogation of buildings and projects –that is, enquiries about a priories or accumulated interpretations– are justified by the need of new readings outside official discourses.21 To put it in Marina Waisman’s terms, 16 Ibid, 119. 17 Original movie dialogue in Spanish; translation by the author. DivEdCo. “Un día cualquiera,” Angel F. Rivera (director), Pedro Juan Soto (screenplay), Puerto Rico, 1953. This film was never released, experts say, because of its dark tone and unhopeful story. It was finally shown in 1993 after final editing and restoration. Copies can be acquired from the Puerto Rico General Archives. 18 Homi Bhabha establishes distortion as one of the parameters of colonial mimicry. Bhabha explains: “colonial mimicry is the desire for a reformed, recognizable Other, as subject of a difference that is almost the same, but not quite. Which is to say, that the discourse of mimicry is constructed around an ambivalence […].” Italics in the original text. Bhabha, 112. 19 Michel Foucault, “El ojo del poder,” in Jeremías Bentham, El Panóptico, trads. Jualia Varela y Fernando Alvarez-Uría (Barcelona: Ediciones La Piqueta, 1980) 2, http://foucault.info/documents/foucault.eveOfPower.en.html / (accesed on April 12, 2010) 20 Refer to Michel Foucault, “The Subject and Power,” in Michel Foucault: Power, ed. James D. Faubion, trad. Robert Hurley (New York: The New Press, 1994), 327-348. 21 Peter Eisenman, “Architecture as a Second Language: The Text of Between,” Threshold 4 (Spring 1998): 71-74. architectural theories “constitute the principal organ of conversion of dominant cultural tendencies […] in architectural ideologies.”22 In other words, as buildings serve as discursive filters, architecture –and some of the definitions and values linked to it– does not relinquish its position as a discourse in itself. That way, it becomes an ideological instrument, in many instances confrontational to its implicit essence as shelter.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Chancellor's Message
    THE ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER FOR ALL MEMBERS OF THE AIA COLLEGE OF FELLOWS ISSUE 103 / 8 April 2013 AIA College of Fellows Executive Committee: Ronald L. Skaggs, FAIA, Chancellor, [email protected] William J. Stanley, III, FAIA, Vice-Chancellor, [email protected] Albert W. Rubeling, Jr., FAIA, Secretary, [email protected]. John R. Sorrenti, FAIA, Bursar, [email protected] College of Fellows Website: http://www.aia.org/cof Gary Desmond, FAIA, Chair, COF Regional Representatives, [email protected] Robert I. Selby, FAIA, Editor, Fellowscope, [email protected] Terri Stewart, CAE, Executive Director, College of Fellows, [email protected] Fellowscope is now available online. Go to the COF website noted above and click on Fellowscope. The purpose of the College of Fellows is to stimulate a sharing of interests among Fellows, to promote the purposes of the Institute, to advance the profession of architecture, to mentor young architects, and to be of ever- increasing service to society. Chancellor’s Message Dear Colleagues: The last few months have been highly productive relative to the 2013 and 2011 Latrobe Prizes. In mid- February the 2013 Latrobe Prize jury concluded its deliberations by selecting an excellent proposal submitted by Bemal Mendis and Joyce Hsiang, principals of Plan B Architecture and Urbanism and Yale School of Architecture critics. Their research topic, “Urban Sphere: The City of 7 Billion” will build upon previous work performed as the result of an AIA Upjohn Research Grant and a Hines Research Fund for Advanced Sustainability. Mendis and Hsiang will analyze the challenges of global urbanization creating a holistic geospatial model of the world.
    [Show full text]
  • NAAB 2013 Architecture Program Report
    Architecture Program Report for 2013 NAAB Visit for Continuing Candidacy Bachelor of Architecture [192 Credit Hours] Year of the Previous Visit: 2011 Current Term of Accreditation: Two Year Candidacy effective July 2010 Submitted to: The National Architectural Accrediting Board September 7, 2012 (revised January 2013) Program Administrator Pedro A. Rosario Torres, Director of Baccaleurate Program Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico School of Architecture 2250 Avenida Las Américas, Suite 601 Ponce, Puerto Rico 00717-9997 E-mail: [email protected] Contact: (787) 841-2000 Ext. 1353 Head of Academic Unit Javier de Jesús Martínez, Dean Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico School of Architecture 2250 Avenida Las Américas, Suite 601 Ponce, Puerto Rico 00717-9997 E-mail: [email protected] Contact: (787) 841-2000 Ext. 1310 Chief academic officer Leandro A. Colón Alicea, PhD, Vice President for Academic Affairs of the Institution Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico Vice-Presidency for Academic Affairs 2250 Avenida Las Américas, Suite 545 Ponce, Puerto Rico 00717-9997 Contact: (787) 841-2000 Ext. 1325 President of the Jorge I. Velez Arrocho, PhD, President Institution Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico Presidency 2250 Avenida Las Américas, Suite 564 Ponce, Puerto Rico 00717-9997 Contact: (787) 841-2000 Ext. 1300 2 APR 2012 PCUPR School of Architecture (Rev. January 2013) TABLE OF CONTENTS I. PART ONE (I): Institutional Support and Commitment to Continuous Improvement ............................
    [Show full text]
  • Puerto Rico's Henry Klumb
    Puerto Rico’s Henry Klumb This book follows Henry Klumb’s life in architecture from Cologne, Germany, to Puerto Rico. Arriving on the island, Klumb was a one-time German immi- grant, a moderately successful designer, and previously a senior draftsman with Frank Lloyd Wright. Over the next forty years Klumb would emerge as Puerto Rico’s most pro- lific, locally well-known, and celebrated modern architect. In addition to becoming a leading figure in Latin American modern architecture, Klumb also became one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most accomplished protégés, and an architect with a highly attuned social and environmental consciousness. Cruz explores his life, works, and legacy through the lens of a sense of place, defined as the beliefs that people adopt, actions undertaken, and feel- ings developed towards specific locations and spaces. He argues that the architect’s sense of place was a defining quality of his life and work, most evident in the houses he designed and built in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico’s Henry Klumb offers a historical narrative, culminating in a series of architectural analyses focusing on four key design strategies employed in Klumb’s work: vernacular architecture, the grid and the land- scape, dense urban spaces, and open air rooms. This book is aimed at researchers, academics, and postgraduate students interested in Latin American architecture, modernism, and architectural history. Cesar A. Cruz is an architectural historian and educator. He has taught architectural history and theory, building structures, and design in Illinois, Indiana, and New Mexico. In August 2016 he received his Doctorate in Architecture from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.
    [Show full text]
  • Copyrighted Material
    25_662945 bindex.qxp:interior pages 3/5/08 11:47 AM Page 567 Index Entries in italic type refer to illustrations Aalto, Alvar, 18, 129, 170, 271, 291, 360, 476, 492, American Embassy. See United States Embassy Baker House Dormitory, Massachusetts Institute 492, 493, 493–494, 494, 495 American Houses, Inc., 148–149, 309 of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Abramovitz, Max, 372, 372, 373, 375 American Institute of Architects (AIA), 278, 432, 291, 494 accessibility 436 Bankers Trust Building, New York, New York, 80 airport terminal preservation, 425 American National Exhibition, Moscow, USSR banking industry, 39–40 Raymond M. Hilliard Center, Chicago, Illinois, (1959), 141 Bankside Power Station, Southwark, London, 293, 295 American Radiator Company, 309 England, 449 A. Conger Goodyear House, Old Westbury, New American Society for Testing Materials (ASTM), Barbican housing estate, London, England, 86, 98 York, 213 113, 128 Barcelona chair, 7, 185, 189, 189 acrylic sealants, 133 Ammann & Whitney, 95, 427, 431 Barcelona Pavilion, Barcelona, Spain (1929), 10, adaptive reuse, 34 Amoco Building (Aon Center), Chicago, Illinois, 38, 50, 51, 52, 171, 182, 183, 184, 185, 185, Advance Development Company, 264 129, 131, 476, 496, 497, 498 186, 187–188, 188, 189, 189, 190–193 advocacy, viii design, 496 design description, 187–189 Agnelli, Giovanni, 454–455 generally, 496 generally, 185–187 Ain, Gregory, 261–262, 263, 263, 264, 265, 266, historical development, 496–498 historical perspective, 189–190 266, 326 preservation issues, 498 reconstruction, 190–193, 201 Air Commerce Act of 1926, 420 Anaheim Ice (Disney Ice Skating Rink), Bard Awards, 279 Air France, 424 Anaheim, California, 107 Barragán, Luis, 5 airline industry, 31, 395, 396, 422, 424, 431.
    [Show full text]
  • Modern Puerto Rico and Henry Klumb
    27 Modern Puerto Rico and Henry Klumb ENRIQUE VIVONI-FARAGE The winds of war in Europe and the State’s modernization contributed to the death of the Spanish revival style in Puerto Rican architecture. Until the war years, Puerto Rican architects, in both public and private practice, designed in one historical style or another. Most of them preferred the Spanish renaissance style, but in recent years had inclined toward ‘modern’ art deco. THE VISUAL METAPHOR created by the use of THE FIRST INDICATIONS of the use that art deco would Hispanophile styles in governmental works undertaken find in Puerto Rico occurred as early as 1925. The first during the years from 1900 to 1935 was governed was a project for a school by the architect Fidel Sevillano by the belief in an apparently contradictory postulate: (fig. 2), it is not known whether the school was ever built, that Spanish tradition in architecture facilitated the and the second was the design for the Puerto Rico Americanization of the Puerto Ricans.1 On the other Cinema in Santurce by architect Pedro Adolfo de Castro 28 hand, in the years prior to World War II, the use of art (fig. 1). It was not until the 1930s that the style reached deco in public works conveyed a reference to the its peak under the auspices of architects Pedro Adolfo de functional, the futuristic and the leisurely life, Castro, Pedro Méndez, Rafael Hernández Romero and characteristics that were associated with the lifestyles of Jorge Ramírez de Arellano. Miami and Hollywood. If the 1920s in Puerto Rico had favored a
    [Show full text]
  • Arquitectura Puerto Rico
    Índice Introducción --------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------- 3 Arquitectos ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4-7 Antonin Nechodoma ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 Henry Klumb ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4-5 Jaime Cobas ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5 Luis Flores -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 Pedro Adolfo de Castro y Besosa --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 Pedro Méndez --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5-6 Rafael Carmoega ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 6 Segundo Cardona ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Thomas Marvel ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 Toro y Ferrer ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6-7 Arquitectura Religiosa --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------ 7-9 Historia Arquitectura de Puerto Rico ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    [Show full text]
  • FLORIDA/CARIBBEAN ARCHITECT Spring 1
    Architecture and Fine Arts Library FLORIDA/CARIBBEAN ARCHITECT Spring 1 Computer-Aided Drafting & Design Enhancing the Process Florida Demands 'I'^j0":. a Lot >- Lower Operating Costs: Operating Savings Natural gas cooling is a cost-effective facility option for Building design specs for Idea Display Inc.'s conditioning commercial, institutional, process and residential 10,000 square foot (200,000 cubic foot) space. For ventilation, make-up air and special process Pensacola facility called for operating 24 applications, natural gas-fired desiccant units can beat Florida's flours a day with 100% recirculation of air, with 2,200 CFM, Summer Design Day @ 95 high humidity v^fith a significant reduction in the tonnage Dry Bulb/78 Wet Bulb. Twenty tons of required w^ith a conventional system, and can that would be conventional A/C were specified. However, achieve results conventional systems can't. And many with one natural gas-fired ENGELHARD/ICC gas utihties offer lower summer peak cooling rates. desiccant unit, only five tons of A/C were needed to achieve average readings of 80.4 degrees Dry Bulb, 41.3% relative humidity 1° >- Cleaner Environment: that varied less than and 1 % throughout the building. The system also cost thousands Natural gas is the cleanest burning fossil fuel-burning ^ less than conventional A/C, and is saving an oil cleaner and more efficiently than coal and estimated $6,563 a year in operating costs. H used to generate electricity. from a Cooling Natural Gas < Syste Meets the Demmi. Greater Dependability: Surpassing Environmental Natural gas isn't subject to fluctuations, brown-outs Requirements or power outages, important for healthcare, When the State of Florida needed a chiller for Duval Regional 'f-^ hospitahty and other facihties requiring rehabUity.
    [Show full text]
  • APR 2014 P.1.Docx
    UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO, SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE 2013 APR CONTINUING ACCREDITATION ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM REPORT 2014 INSTITUTION UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO ACADEMIC UNIT SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE PROGRAM ADMINISTRATOR Anna Georas, Arch. 787.764.0000, ext. 2114 787.930.1500 [email protected] CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICER Francisco Javier Rodríguez, AIA, CAAPPR Dean of the School of Architecture [email protected] ACTING CHANCELLOR Ethel Ríos Orlandi, M.Sc., Ph.D. Río Piedras Campus University of Puerto Rico ACTING PRESIDENT Celeste Freytes, Ph.D. University of Puerto Rico PROGRAM MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE 1 | P a g e UNIVERSITY OF PUERTO RICO, SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE 2013 APR TABLE OF CONTENTS PART ONE (I) - INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT & COMMITMENT TO CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT I.1 SECTION 1 – IDENTITY & SELF-ASSESSMENT I.1.1 History & Mission I.1.2 Learning Culture & Equity I.1.3 Response to Five Perspectives I.1.4 Long-Range Planning I.1.5 Self-Assessment Procedures I.2 SECTION 2 – RESOURCES I.2.1 Human Resources & Human Resource Development I.2.2 Administrative Structure & Governance I.2.3 Physical Resources I.2.4 Financial Resources I.2.5 Information Resources I.3 SECTION 3 – INSTITUTIONAL & PROGRAM CHARACTERISTICS I.3.1 Statistical Reports I.3.2 Annual Reports I.3.3 Faculty Credentials I.4 SECTION – 4 POLICY REVIEW PART TWO (II) – EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES & CURRICULUM II.1 SECTION 1 – STUDENT PERFORMANCE - EDUCATIONAL REALMS & STUDENT PERFORMANCE CRITERIA II.1.1 Student Performance Criteria II.2 SECTION 2 – CURRICULAR FRAMEWORK II.2.1 Regional Accreditation
    [Show full text]
  • Architecture As Transformation: Puerto Rican Modernism
    ARCHITECTURE AS TRANSFORMATION 1 Architecture as Transformation: Puerto Rican Modernism JOHN HERTZ University of Texas at San Antonio INTRODUCTION were allowed by the United States in 1948. Unlike its Latin American neighbors, however, what sets Throughout much of Latin America, architecture Puerto Rico apart was stripping modernism of its served as a vehicle of the state as it transformed original utopian idealism. Rather than being a tool from an agrarian society towards a utopian ideal. for providing for the “have nots,” as in the case of Employing the vocabulary of modernism became Mexico with a vast part of the population held in the means of realizing radical social change through peonage prior to the Revolution of 1910, the icono- the construction of significant projects directed at graphic buildings that defined the transition from large scale public needs for housing, education and rural to urban in Puerto Rico were a series of pri- medical care. vately operated hotels built with public funds that catered to well-to-do foreigners. To describe modernism and the “international style” as a monolithic force within and without the Ameri- This is also in stark contrast to other countries in cas, is obviously incorrect, in spite of the efforts of Latin America, such as Brazil, where the best cases Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Phillip Johnson to try of the transformative power of modern architecture to connect together architectural production with range from individual projects, such as the Ministry similar characteristics in their exhibition “Interna- of Education and Health building in Rio de Janeiro tional Style” of 1932.
    [Show full text]
  • Puerto Rico's Duncan Del Toro (1919–1950) and Peripheral Modernity
    Puerto Rico's Duncan Del Toro (1919–1950) and Peripheral Modernity A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at George Mason University By Arthur L. Asseo García Bachelor of Fine Arts Escuela de Artes Plásticas, 2009 Director: Dorothea Dietrich, Professor Department of History of Decorative Arts Spring Semester 2016 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Copyright 2016 Arthur L. Asseo García All Rights Reserved ii DEDICATION This is dedicated to Nicole A. Rodríguez Nigaglioni, for staying by my side during all the restless nights and weekends, for her unconditional support and for believing in me when I did not. For that and much more, I love you. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Borrowing a line from José Bolívar Fresneda’s unpublished doctoral dissertation that I consulted for my research: a thesis is always a team effort; I would like to thank all the people that in some way or another made this possible. First and foremost, my thesis advisor Dr. Dorothea Dietrich, thank you for pushing me to go beyond my comfort zone and working through my many different drafts. Current and former directors of the History of Decorative Arts (HDA) program, Angela George and Cynthia Williams, for their support and guidance since day one. Duncan, Frances and María Teresa del Toro, for accepting my idea to write about their father, for sharing the memories and the family collection. I hope my work does justice to your father’s legacy. Thanks to Elena García, Juan Rodríguez and Dr. Enrique Vivoni of the Archivo de Arquitectura y Construcción, Universidad de Puerto Rico (AACUPR), for their readiness to assist me every time.
    [Show full text]
  • HENRY KLUMB Y TORO Y FERRER.Indd
    INSTITUTO DE ARQUITECTURA TROPICAL LA ARQUITECTURA DEL MOVIMIENTO MODERNO EN PUERTO RICO: LA OBRA DE TORO Y FERRER Y HENRY KLUMB HACIA UNA MODERNIDAD TROPICAL: la obra de Henry Klumb, 1928-1984 ENRIQUE VIVONI FARAGE Director, Archivos de Arquitectura y Construccíon de la Universidad de Puerto Rico AACUPR EDITORIAL ON LINE JULIO 2012 IAT EDITORIAL ON LINE artículo tomado de PerIFerIa. Internet resources for architecture and urban design in the Caribbean. 2 INSTITUTO DE ARQUITECTURA TROPICAL en 1936, luego de la muerte de Pedro de Castro, carias y hoteleras. esta firma transformó la ciudad rafael Carmoega ocupó cátedra privilegiada en la capital con su proyecto del nuevo Centro de San profesión. Si de Castro interpretó el mundo ideal del Juan. el año de 1984, adelantó el cierre de ambas puertorriqueño como uno de cortijos y ambiente oficinas. miremos su génesis y legado. andaluz, Carmoega buscó la sencillez y lo estático de la pared blanca y libre de ornamentación excesiva. Hasta el advenimiento de la Segunda Guerra mun- Con el diseño para el nuevo Casino de Puerto rico se dial, la arquitectura en Puerto Rico se asentaba legitimó el movimiento moderno en la arquitectura sobre una interpretación historicista. los diversos puertorriqueña. y es por el manejo de este estilo estilos no solamente enarbolaban una propuesta que Henry Klumb y la firma de Toro y Ferrer compar- estética, sino que estaban cargados con la identidad tieron el sitial preferencial en la arquitectura puerto- del arquitecto, del cliente y del usuario. Sin embar- rriqueña, después de la Segunda Guerra mundial. go, después de la Guerra, el discurso arquitectónico optó por otra legitimidad.
    [Show full text]
  • H En Ry K Lu Mb , C a Sa Fu Lla Na , S an Ju an , P Ue Rto R Ico , 1 9
    Henry Klumb, Casa Fullana, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1953-1955, perspective drawing, 1953. © Henry Klumb Collection, Archivo de Arquitectura y Construcción Universidad de Puerto Rico (AACUPR). ESSAYS Casa Fullana: a model for modern living in the tropics BY ANDRÉS MIGNUCCI Casa Fullana [Fullana House], built in 1955 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is an exemplary model of Henry Klumb’s (1905-1984) design principles for modern living in the tropics. German architect Henry Klumb conducted a prolific architectural practice in Puerto Rico, producing some of the most iconic examples of trop- ical modernism in the Caribbean. His work, most notably at the University of Puerto Rico (1946-1966) (UPR) and in landmark projects like the San Martin de Porres Church (1948) in Cataño, constituted a breakthrough in Puerto Rican, Caribbean and Latin American architecture. Anchored in the principles of modern archi- tecture, specifically of an organic architecture put forward by his mentor Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), Klumb’s work is deeply rooted in the specificities of the landscape, topography, and climate of Puerto Rico as a tropical island. Casa Fullana, holds a particular place in Klumb’s residen- included an additional structural bay to accommodate a tial oeuvre. Of all his urban, suburban and rural houses, third bedroom, changes to the configuration of the kitchen Casa Fullana, in the view of this author, best exemplifies layout incorporating a sewing room, and the addition of Klumb’s design philosophy, architectural language, and a terrace in the bedroom wing. These revisions were peti- mastery of form. As a design strategy, Klumb juxtaposes tioned by Mrs.
    [Show full text]