Скачать или смотреть The Cuban National Art Schools Under Construction in 1962, 1960s Revolutionary Architecture F856

Some footage from 1962 showing the Cuban National Art Schools (Escuelas Nacionales de Arte) under construction. Fidel Castro and Che Guevara came up with the idea of a free school for artists at the location in 1961.

International embargos meant the the inspirational buildings would need to be made from local materials, and so the architects (Ricardo Porro, Roberto Gottardi, and Vittorio Garatti) made use of the Catalan vaulting method. This uses locally baked tiles in the construction of organic forms.

The project fell out of favour shortly after its creation, and most of the buildings lay derelict for many years. The cultural importance of the design was recognised by the 1990s. Today, although not restored to their full glory, the buildings are protected in some measure as items of both architectural and cultural importance. They give a striking example of how different building could be at a time when international conventional modernist architecture was in ascendance.

Music by Bensounds.com