by infraestudio, 2016

In the 1920s, a French architect indulged in all the whims of a Cuban
aristocrat, designing what we know today as the National Museum of
Decorative Arts of Havana, but which at that time was only a private
home. On one of the sides of this building, the Copperbridge Foundation
requested that they grant it to make their new headquarters there. The assigned space consisted of 3 different but connected outdoor areas.

Surrounded by neoclassical statues and "orderly" vegetation, we were asked for a
program that would encapsulate activities such as restaurant, gallery,
offices, Convention Center, etc. Contrary to the client's pre-formulated idea, our response was based on reinforcing what was already happening abroad, instead of building a new architectural object. Well, we think that the real attraction of the place should remain the garden.

We concentrated the program in a main room and a bar 3.2m wide in the
boundary between the 2 courtyards, amplifying the differences between
them by widening the wall that separated them. The remaining program is located by amplifying to the maximum the existing service area that was hidden behind another wall, giving space for another narrow and deep room and the kitchen. In this way the architecture functions as an infrastructure of the exterior, as a machine that redefines the external functions and intensifies the existing garden, instead of being an object in itself.