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1. 1 2016-03-07T14:28:04-08:00 Sydney Burt a27c63e6fd632c314bf4cd3158e17d7f4e8e7614 Dense vegetation make the interior of the city block ideal for passing through or socializing. Sydney Burt 16 plain 2016-03-28T19:23:31-07:00 Sydney Burt a27c63e6fd632c314bf4cd3158e17d7f4e8e7614
2. 1 2016-03-07T14:39:29-08:00 Sydney Burt a27c63e6fd632c314bf4cd3158e17d7f4e8e7614 Annotation Sydney Burt 13 plain 2016-03-28T19:42:37-07:00 Sydney Burt a27c63e6fd632c314bf4cd3158e17d7f4e8e7614
3. 1 2016-03-07T14:22:19-08:00 Sydney Burt a27c63e6fd632c314bf4cd3158e17d7f4e8e7614 Coppelia and its surrounding park Sydney Burt 10 plain 2016-03-28T19:42:13-07:00 Sydney Burt a27c63e6fd632c314bf4cd3158e17d7f4e8e7614
4. 1 2016-03-07T14:39:51-08:00 Sydney Burt a27c63e6fd632c314bf4cd3158e17d7f4e8e7614 All paths in the park lead inward, Sydney Burt 4 plain 2016-03-28T19:42:38-07:00 Sydney Burt a27c63e6fd632c314bf4cd3158e17d7f4e8e7614
5. 1 2016-03-07T14:25:18-08:00 Sydney Burt a27c63e6fd632c314bf4cd3158e17d7f4e8e7614 The architect chose a democratic design for a democratic institution. Sydney Burt 3 plain 2016-03-28T19:23:34-07:00 Sydney Burt a27c63e6fd632c314bf4cd3158e17d7f4e8e7614

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• 1 media/EichlerFloorplan1224.jpg 2016-02-15T11:54:11-08:00 ARH 218 - Smith College - Spring 2016 50 vistag 235202 2016-04-23T04:33:29-07:00

  Modern Architectures of North America

  Recognizing that there are multiple ways of studying the built environment, these projects utilize different modes of inquiry to explore architecture. While each project comes to its own unique conclusions, many of these projects intersect in terms broader themes or questions that they raise. Through their organization into groups, these projects locate a number of productive ways of thinking about the built environment.
  
  Although these projects represent a variety of methodologies and topics, each highlight the dynamic relationship between humans and architecture. The grouping Identity: What Lies Beneath Style and Form explores the way associations related to identity become attached to architecture. These projects astutely portray the way in which these associations are not monolithic nor static, and can be utilized to reinforce group identities--whether regional, religious, cultural, gendered, or national--for different reasons and to different ends. Suburbia focuses more narrowly on the identities associated with suburban housing. Looking to points at which design intersects with the lived experience, these projects investigate the agency of those who live in these spaces. Though predominantly inhabited by white, middle class families, each of these projects locates the way in which other questions related to gender roles, modern living, conformity, nature, and climate can be teased out of a sustained study of suburbia. While architecture can serve as a liberating means to express identity, it can be used to oppress others. The grouping Patients, Prisoners, Politics explores the ways in which architecture is used to further differentiate people marked as others. Although both projects recognize that these built environments were meant to be used as tools to control certain groups of people, they highlight the ways in which people forced into these environments found ways to insert their own agency in these spaces.
  Architecture Relating to the Natural Environment shifts our attention to the way in which architecture is conceived in relation to the built environment. These projects explore the ways in which harmonious relationships between architecture and nature can be defined in aesthetic terms, climate conditions, or with attention to environmental responsibility. They invite us to consider who articulates this relationship, from trained architects to more informal architectural practices. Change and Adaptation reminds us that architecture has a life that extends beyond its conception and construction. This grouping takes on the issue of time--past, present, and future. Whether addressing the context of the moment in which the building is designed, aspirations for the future, or alterations over time, each of these projects also show how the issue of time intersects with the economy and hope for economic prosperity. 
   
• 1 2016-02-15T11:50:08-08:00 Sydney - The Coppelia Ice Cream Shop in Havana, Cuba: A Cultural Moment Manifested 22 plain 2016-04-18T17:37:10-07:00

  On any given day in Havana, Cuba, up to 35,000 people will line up to find relief from the glaring sun and tiring heat in the form of a few scoops from the Coppelia ice cream shop. Since opening on June 4, 1966, Coppelia has become a fixture of life in the city. It’s where locals go on their first date or take their mother on her birthday or meet up with friends (Stout). This social significance is due in part to the fact that ice cream from Coppelia is reliably cheap and delicious, although its flavor selection has dwindled recently (Scarpaci). In the establishment’s early years, Coppelia-brand ice cream was entered in international food fairs and sent abroad as gifts. Cuban President Fidel Castro sent three flavors to Ho Chi Minh city shortly after Coppelia opened (Stout). 

  The project began as a collaboration between Fidel and Celia Sánchez, who besides being Fidel’s long-time private secretary also wielded great power on the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party. In order to advance the ideals of the recent revolution like excellency and equality, Fidel conceived Coppelia as the world’s biggest ice cream shop serving the world’s best ice cream to the world’s greatest people. He found (or confiscated, depending on the story) recipes for 37 ice cream flavors and sent technicians to Canada to learn how to produce them. The shop continued to invent flavors until it reached about sixty in 1980 (Stout). Coppelia remains one of the largest ice cream shops in the world with a capacity of 1,000 guests (Elena). 
  
  Coppelia was an opportunity to reinforce Cuban identity in addition to immortalizing an exciting moment in the nation's post-revolutionary history. The striking design incorporates ideals of the revolution while referencing other parts of Cuba's history like its colonial era and recurring periods of American influence. 

  Sánchez enlisted architect Mario Girona for the project, who designed and managed the construction of Coppelia along with architects Rita María Grau and Candelario Ajuria (De Las Cuevas). This was not Girona’s only experience with ice cream-related design, as he also designed a Coppelia outpost in Santa Clara and a boutique ice cream shop for Expo 67 in Montreal (Cárdenas).
  
  The city block where Coppelia is located was originally the sight of Hospital Reina Mercedes (De Las Cuevas). In the years since the hospital was demolished, the park deteriorated into a low-brow beer garden. Girona described it as “a problem spot on an important artery.” Cuban leadership wanted to return the block to a respectable state and hoped a refurbishment could be completed in time for an international conference happening in the Yara Theater located across the street from the park. The Yara was considered the city’s best piece of modern architecture at the time. Also, the Russian delegation would be staying at the Hotel Havana Libre during the conference, which is diagonally across from the site. Fidel Castro and his colleagues thought an impressive piece of modern architecture surrounded by a lush park would be a welcome addition to the neighborhood (Stout).

  
  
  Many aspects of the structure's design reflect traditional Cuban architecture, especially those aspects that reference climate. As an emerging Communist nation, Coppelia can also be appreciated in the context of limited materials and resources. At the time of Coppelia's construction, Cuba was struggling with the recently implemented U.S. embargo. Girona proudly stated, "Everything [in the building] was from Cuba" (Stout). This condition was likely a result of economic circumstances as much as national pride. 
  
  
  
  Despite being given a short time frame, Girona developed a design suitable for an ice cream emporium that is both playful and iconic. As an informal town square, Coppelia and the park that surrounds it were designed to place importance on public rather than private or religious interaction. It has become a place where people of all ages, ethnicities, and social statuses can come together to enjoy a universally-pleasing frozen treat (Scarpaci).
   

  Bibliography

   
  Black, Alexandra, and Simon McBride. Living in Cuba. New York: St. Martin's, 1998. Print. 
  Cárdenas, Eliana. "Mario Girona: Una Rica Vida Profesional." Arquitectura Y Urbanismo 29 (2008): 77-78. Cujae. Web. 5 Mar. 2016. 
  Cummins, Alissandra. "Caribbean Islands: Architecture." Grove Art Online. N.p.: Oxford UP, n.d. Oxford Art Online. Web. 29 Mar. 2016. 
  De Las Cuevas, Juan Toraya. 500 Años De Construcciones En Cuba. Madrid: D.V. Chavín, 2001. Print. 
  Elena, Martín Zequeira María, and Rodríguez Fernández Eduardo Luis. La Habana: Guía De Arquitectura. La Habana: Ciudad De La Habana, 1998. Print. 
  "Harry Bertoia." Design Within Reach. Design Within Reach, n.d. Web. 28 Mar. 2016. 
  Rodríguez, Eduardo Luis, ed. La Arquitectura Del Movimiento Moderno: Selección De Obras Del Registro Nacional. La Habana, Cuba: Ediciones Unión, 2011. Print. 
  Scarpaci, Joseph L., Roberto Segre, and Mario Coyula. Havana: Two Faces of the Antillean Metropolis. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina, 2002. Print. 
  Stout, Nancy. "Havana, 1965-1970 The Household and the Coppelia Ice Cream Parlor." One Day in December: Celia Sánchez and the Cuban Revolution. New York: NYU, 2013. 391-405. Print.