Mario Coyula Cowley ( Havana , June 16, 1935 – Havana, July 7, 2014 ) was a Cuban architect and urban planner. He is a Doctor of Technical Sciences and Professor of Merit at the José Antonio Echeverría Higher Polytechnic Institute . He was director of Architecture and Urbanism of Havana, of the Group for the Integral Development of the capital and first president of the Monuments Commission of Havana. National Architecture Award (2001).
Summary
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- 1 Biographical summary
- 1 Contributions
- 2 Death
- 2 Publications
- 3Premios
- 4 Distinctions
- 5 Sources
biographical synthesis
While studying Architecture at the University of Havana , he participated in the clandestine struggle with the Revolutionary Directorate . At the triumph of the Cuban Revolution (January 1959) he was appointed second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers of the Rebel Army .
He was director of the School of Architecture, at CUJAE ; director of Architecture and Urbanism of Havana, director of the Group for the Integral Development of the Capital and first president of the Monuments Commission of the City of Havana.
contributions
He designed houses and projected urban landscapes, his greatest contributions are those of having thought about architecture and the city in the context of revolutionary transformations, contributing to the training of new architects, and promoting an awareness and practice of the preservation and rescue of a social and cultural urban environment based on a better quality of life.
It was thus that he multiplied an incessant intellectual and teaching work in the School of Architecture of the José Antonio Echeverría University City , in the Group for the Integral Development of the Capital, in the magazine Arquitectura y Urbanismo, in the Technical Advisory Council of the Ministry of Construction, in the Commission of Architecture and City of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba , in the Commission of Monuments of the capital, in the Model of Havana [1]
Co-author of two commemorative monument projects that have won competitions and are considered relevant in this field:
- Monument Park of the University Martyrs, in Infanta and San Lázaro, the first important monument after the triumph of the Revolution . Prize.
- Mausoleum of the Heroes of March 13, Colon Cemetery . Prize.
- Author of the Duplex House in the Camilo Cienfuegos School City
- Mention Co-author of the conversion of the old Caballero Funeral Home into a House of Culture, La Rampa.
Death
He died on July 7, 2014 in his native city of Havana , a victim of cancer. [2] [3]
Publications
He is not only one of the most important figures of Cuban architecture and urban planning of the second half of the 20th century, but also a personality of the national culture. This is endorsed by his work at the forefront of important tasks in the country and the books and articles where he reflected his thoughts on architecture and urban planning as a part of culture, on built heritage as something alive linked to man and life. .
Main author of the book Urban Design and the novel Catalina .
Co-author of the books:
- fundamentals of architecture
- Introduction to the history of contemporary architecture and urbanism
- urbanism theory
- The cultural policy of the revolutionary period: memory and reflection
- Who makes the city? . Posted in the city of Cuenca (Ecuador)
- Havana: two faces of the antillean metropolis. Chichester (UK), and Chapel Hill (USA).
- Citizen participation for the urbanism of the 21st century. Valencia (Spain).
He was editor-in-chief of the magazine Arquitectura-Cuba , and a member of the editorial boards of the magazines Arquitectura y Urbanismo , Temas , and Revista Bimestre Cubana .
He published more than two hundred articles, prologues, essays and reviews in several Cuban and foreign magazines. She gave lectures, workshops, short courses and critiques in more than forty universities and cultural centers in twenty countries.
In 1990 he was appointed “fellow” (member professor) of the SIGUS program at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and since 2001 a member of the GRAI (International Research Group on Architecture and Infrastructure), currently LIAT (Laboratory Research on Infrastructure, Architecture and Territory), based in Paris (France) .
In 2002 he was the first Cuban visiting professor during the spring semester at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University (in Boston). In October and November 2006 he was visiting professor at the Urban Strategies postgraduate course at the Angewandte University of Vienna (Austria) .
He presided over the Court of Teaching Categories and was a member of the Scientific Council, both in the Faculty of Architecture. He is vice president of the permanent national court of Scientific Degrees for Architecture of the Ministry of Higher Education and a member of the Scientific Commission of the MiCons Technical Advisory Council, among others.
