“Unfinished Spaces” is a critically acclaimed documentary about the ambitious design and construction of the Escuelas Nacionales de Arte, or National Art School in Havana, Cuba in 1961, which was to feature schools of ballet, modern dance, music, drama and plastic arts. The university was the brain child of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara who wanted to establish a prestigious, cutting-edge arts university for the people of Cuba. The project was abandoned due to cut funding and ideological differences, but the three architects responsible for the design, Ricardo Porro, Vittorio Garatti and Roberto Gottardi, were still excited when in March 1999 they were called to lay out a budget to preserve the languished schools.
Text and Images via ArchDaily
Loomis, John A.
Revolution of Forms: Cuba’s Forgotten Art Schools, Updated Edition.
Built at the initiation of Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, Las Escuelas Nacionales de Arte, constructed from 1961 to 1965, was branded a bourgeois luxury before they were even finished, fell out of favor and were ultimately forgotten. This book brings them again to light as significant works of architecture.
WANDERLUST 