How to Travel Like an Architect in … Havana

In this ongoing series, we aim to give you a travel guide to cities around the globe — with an architectural twist. These tours offer chances to experience great design away from the traditional tourist hotspots and an alternative angle on the world’s metropolises. After New York City, Los Angeles and Detroit, we head across the water to Cuba’s colorful capital: Havana.

Without setting foot in a museum, visiting Havana offers a living history lesson. In part due to its lack of real estate development in the past several decades, walking from neighborhood to neighborhood acts as an illustrated guide to different housing styles as well as a lesson in how the built environment’s formal qualities can be taken on by its users in informal ways. An example: What better spot than the window of a neoclassical mansion, now home to six families, to get your morning coffee?

Architecture’s connection to the social and political is as clear as can be and — to make the lessons all the more interesting — in as vivid color as you would expect.

Vedado

Stay at: a casa particular

In terms of architectural typology, Havana is most well known for its residential housing. Its colorful neoclassical (and neocolonial) houses — whether they be shoulder to shoulder in La Habana Vieja or more spread out in Vedado — are what come to mind for most people when thinking of the city, and staying in one of your own gives you an instant push into avoiding the more touristy side of the destination.

Further west of the city are larger modernist houses in Miramar, and social housing blocks from the same period can be found along the water between Vedado and the Old City. Given the city’s political and economic organization, it should come as no surprise that “sharing economy” groups such as Airbnb are common and easy to use.

La Habana Vieja

Aventanilla in Regla; a residential neighborhood one ferry ride outside of the city

Get your morning coffee at: a ventenilla

Buying a café cubano and breakfast from a ventenilla continues this idea of exploring Havana’s residential life. A ventenilla is essentially an open window to someone’s home, offering coffee, fresh juice, Cuban sandwiches and more. A walk down an alleyway or look inside someone’s colored window gives you a glimpse of the day’s offerings and is a nice way to keep your eyes open to the city’s design details when wandering the streets, as well.

Estadio Panamericano

See a baseball game at: Estadio Panamericano

Baseball has been a hugely popular activity in Havana since the 1800s, though the reasons for its popularity have changed over the years. Following the Revolution, the game became an important part of the country’s nationalism, and it is during this time period that many of the stadiums that are used (or neglected) today were built. The Estadio Panamericano is where exhibition games are held now and is an example of the colorful modernism that crops up throughout the city.

Well-maintained Fords in Habana Vieja

A bus stop in Vedado, before leaving the city

Drive in a taxi economica to: Playa del Este (and notice the bus stops along the way)

Design attractions in and of themselves, the old Fords — now with Japanese engines — that 10-plus people pile into to get around Havana make for great tour buses within and outside of the city. Take one traveling east toward Varadero to Playa del Este or Guanabo for a day outside of the city.

On your way you will notice the colorful, 1960s-designed bus stops, which are distilled versions of the buildings that surround them. Each one is distinct and at certain points will expand into a larger version of itself in the form of a gas station, restaurant or mercado. This is true in the city itself, as well, but as you leave the busyness of Havana, these colorful, unassuming structures become all the more noticeable.

El Cocinero; photo by Sergio Lubezky

Start with dinner and spend the night at: El Cocinero and Fabrique d’Arte Cubano

Opened in 2013, El Cocinero restaurant is one of several contemporary tenants in an old peanut oil factory in Miramar. The space is an understated example of new construction in the city. A renovation rather than a new development, you can spot it blocks away due to its silo that still marks the destination.

Housed in the same former factory, Fabrique d’Arte Cubano has become an important cultural force in the city and where visitors and Cubans alike claim to “live” from Thursday to Sunday (its opening hours). The space is three stories high and divided into different exhibition and performance areas. Part of their mandate is to host architectural events, exhibitions and conferences “with emphasis on areas of interest to the Cuban reality,” and this is clearly reflected in its diverse programming.

A ‘coco’ taxi stand

Hotel Nacional; via TheCubanHistory.com

Take a ride in a ‘coco’ taxi along the malecónto: Hotel Nacional by McKim, Mead & White

Take a miniature ‘coco’ along the malecón and gaze up at Hotel Nacional. Designed by American architects McKim, Mead & White in 1930 — before the US embargo — the hotel is a destination in and of itself. Due to its size and place on the harbor, the building has been host to many political events over the years — it was Fidel Castro and Che’s headquarters during the missile crisis — and houses extensive history within its walls. Architecturally, the structure references several styles but certainly maintains a grandness that speaks to its time of construction.

Hotel Manzana

Stay the night at: Hotel Manzana

Several new “six-star” hotels are currently under construction that will soon offer a similar experience in a contemporary design environment, such as the refurbishment of Hotel Manzana — built in 1910 — and Hotel Packard, which will be designed by Rafael Moneo. Havana’s locals have mixed opinions when it comes to the near future of the city, and its built environment will certainly be a large part of this. Whether or not it can be called a “new chapter” or not, the years ahead will certainly add to the story written in Havana’s design.

All images via Juliet Paperny unless otherwise stated; top image via Shuttershock