Type: Direct commission
Location: Havana, Cuba
Brief: Housing (230 rental apartments), commerce
Client: City of Havana
Area: 21,000 m²
Phase / Status: Study
Architects: Habiter Autrement / Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Mia Hägg / Jean Nouvel
Team members: Pawel Krzeminski, Karolina Slawecka, Lina Lagerström, Nicolas Métro, Noélie Sénéclauze, Viktor Ung

HAVANA
Housing

Havana’s historic city centre, close to the Gulf of Mexico, is the site for new social housing commissioned by the city government. It is a project of two buildings with simple exteriors, each concealing a lush courtyard, protected from the city and filled with indigenous vegetation – a valuable yet low-cost resource that grows easily and naturally in the tropical climate. Between the courtyards and the apartments is a semi-public circulation space, inspired by research into Havana’s traditional housing typologies, where balconies and galleries often create a progressive transition between public and private space. These communal spaces are used by their residents for a variety of activities – chatting with neighbours, taking naps, letting their children play safely – and they frequently have a sculptural presence.
In this project, this particularly Cuban quality of space is extended and reinterpreted by circular bamboo tubes with sliding panels, which connect the apartment interiors with a gallery surrounding the courtyard. The tubes can be closed to create an extra room, semi-opened to create a protected loggia, or completely opened to establish continuity between the apartments and the circulation space. The bamboo is typical of the building materials, which are simple and, wherever possible, recycled the concrete walls of the galleries are embedded with pieces of recycled glass bottles. At night, light slips through the bamboo cylinders and the coloured glass glows, creating a radiant baroque facade.
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Type: Direct commission
Location: Havana, Cuba
Brief: Housing (230 rental apartments), commerce
Client: City of Havana
Area: 21,000 m²
Phase / Status: Study
Architects: Habiter Autrement / Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Mia Hägg / Jean Nouvel
Team members: Pawel Krzeminski, Karolina Slawecka, Lina Lagerström, Nicolas Métro, Noélie Sénéclauze, Viktor Ung

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