Studies of La Habana// Rafael Fornes
Monday, 02/16/2015 – 02/28/2015 05:30 pm – 09:30 pm
University of Miami School of Architecture
1215 Dickinson Drive Coral Gables FL 33146,
1215 Dickinson Drive, Florida 33146
Webpage Link
Cost: Free
Experience a beautiful collection of large-scale Caribbean town plans, developed while Rafael Fornes taught at the University of Miami School of Architecture.
The compositional layouts draw from historic sources, including the Vatican Museum’s Gallery of Maps, pre-WWII American town plans and Giambatista Nolli’s legendary 18th century plan of Rome. Local and ecological references are also highlighted on the maps, as elements of folklore and geography are woven into the compositions, providing a more complete and colorful understanding of the cultural identity of each town or city.
Rafael Fornés is a Cuban-American architect and artist with architecture degrees from the Instituto Superior Politécnico José Antonio EchevarrÃa in Havana, Cuba, and Budapesti Müszaki Egyetem in Hungary.
He practiced at Dirección Provincial de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Fondo Cubano de Bienes Culturales, both in Havana; the Budapest Föváros VárosépÃtési Tervezö Budapest, in Hungary, and, more recently, at Duany & Plater-Zyberk & Co., in Miami.
Fornés taught courses at the University of Miami School of Architecture, including Studies of Havana, Rome program graduate courses, and Open City Studio in Russia, in collaboration with the prestigious St. Petersburg Academy of Arts. He was honored with the UM SoA Faculty Award for part-time faculty in 2006, before becoming a visiting professor at the University of Notre Dame. Additionally, he served as lead coordinator of field trips and charrettes in Havana for the International Network for Traditional Building, Architecture and Urbanism, and for both Notre Dame and Yale universities. He is currently working on a postgraduate program between the Institute of Classical Architecture & Arts and Colegio San Gerónimo, the oldest university in Cuba.
The exhibition will run from February 16 through February 28.
