UNFINISHED SPACES- AS AN ASSEMBLAGE?
Today, I watched a documentary Unfinished Spaces by Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray, 2011. It is about architects and their architecture after Cuban revolution, and tension between freedom and insisting on architecture (on 1960s and 70s). Documentary starts with what revolution brought, ‘’questioning’’. Questioning everything. Freedom is about questioning the hole, then new configured or assembled hole is existed. New livings, new territories, new dreams, new architecture… Dreaming a utopia, free spirit. These are all contains ‘’revolution’’ for Cuban people whose are living at that time. According to documentary, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro, whose are 2 figures of Cuban revolution, were playing golf at yard, then they thought, what if here is serving for education for social arts? Rather than Luxurious usage, it is possible to serve these yards for public usage. The revolution exists with an imagination and spirit of revolution must be built, must be constructed as a building. Then they found Ricardo Porro and asked him to construct a place in two months. He found 2 Italian architects whose are Roberto Gottardi and Vittorio Garatti, they simultaneously started the project. Also, space organization and gatherings are informal and open-ended. They designed spaces according to spirit of communist society which means that undetermined space organization between nature and construction. Rather than a singular spaces or enclosed structures, they tried to combine and arrange nature and structure. Columns set rounded, where main space was emerged, then they articulate other spaces, which makes design open-ended. I tried to relate documentary with Deleuze and Guattari Theory of Assemblage, because their criticize was emerged communist societies and social structures. In that sense, while I was watching the documentary, I realized that their architecture is an assemblage itself. For an example of it, Ricardo Porro was imagined body of an Afro-Lady, then he designed the domes of the structure, and he placed a Papaya (fruit) sculpture at the center of the piazza, which he imagined sexual organ of a lady. Another example is, they tried to extract the essence of communism. According to documentary, students of the arts worked in cooperate with workers to built faster; after construction built, there is no determined spaces between musicians, painters and theatre students. Main ideology of the education program was hands on working, and indeterminacy between working areas, all spaces begun social spaces and organization became social. They worked together and there was interrelationship between students, where creative atmosphere emerged.
In some years, after Cuban politics were turning their faces to Soviet Union, construction style was changed. Because, Porro, Gottardi and Garatti designed their buildings with terracotta (which they manufactured locally). However, new politics were made an agreement with Soviet Union to use prefabrication on construction. In that sense, ministry of Civil Engineering and Architecture was shut down their construction, and they were marginalized by organizations. Thus, Porro and Vittorio Garatti left from Cuba to Paris (Porro) and Milano (Garatti). At the beginning of the 21st century, their design was researched and criticized, and 2008 government decided to rebuild, restore and conserve buildings. Because after construction was stopped, buildings became ruins. At 2008, government invited architects to finish and rehabilitate their buildings. However, it won’t because of the government policy again. However, while they were talking about to rehabilitate the project, Gottardi said priceless sentence, ‘’this is a project that you can’t view as born at one time. It is a project that has been evolving for over 45 years.’’.
The Documentary named unfinished spaces, at the first look, I guess that project is shut down and never ever finished, however, after I watched the documentary, I realized that it will never ever finish and has an end.
to discuss and compare more: Paolo Soleri-Arcosanti / New Babylon-Constant Nieuwenhuys
pictures ref: Unfinished Spaces, Alysa Nahmias and Benjamin Murray, 2011
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