Cuban heritage: the architecture of the revolution

The Cuban Socialist Revolution - one of the most important pages of contemporary Latin American history - deeply changed the internal relationships of the country's political, social and cultural structure. With its anthropocentric influence, architecture suffered the most from these changes given its close connection with society and the economy. From its earliest moves, the Revolutionary Government initiated a vast plan of "Welfare Architecture" intended to change the irrational and immoral social divide traced by the dictatorship and the bourgeoisie. The pressing need to build houses, schools, factories and hospitals quickly and at minimal cost brought with it the increasing use of prefabricated elements with their consequent uniformity, monotony and aesthetic mediocrity. New urban and suburban areas emerged as the result, putting at risk the beauty of the natural environment and cities, threatening to turn their inhabitants into cogs in an unstoppable housing and production machine, but conceiving in some cases works of profound architectural value.