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Los Pinos –La Comunidad Extendida
Within the heavily embargoed context of modern day Cuba, it is not surprising to see housing shortages, especially where it is high in need –neighborhoods where working Cuban families live. Although being responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the historic Havana neighborhoods such as La Habana Vieja, Centro Habana or El Vedado, they are not the major shareholders when it comes to splitting the spoils from the precipitously rising tourism revenues. Besides the profit, these neighborhoods are last in line when it comes to municipal hierarchy. Additionally, given the stringent conditions of the real estate/housing market, the best way to upgrade is to expand your unit with materials gathered slowly over time or wait years for a matching apartment swap to turn up. This situation engenders shoddy informal additions to pop up around the city with no stop in sight.
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Reno-TRIC High Trail
During the research phase of this project, I was motivated by faculty Travis Bradford’s work, titled the Solar Revolution. Bradford thinks that in the near future the direct solar energy will eclipse other fossil fuel based means of electricity production -not due to humane values but to economical concerns. Currently, 121800 terawatts of energy is coming down to the surface of the earth after reflections and deflections are accounted for. If we were able to extract only 8% of that energy, it would supply the whole world’s energy need for a year.