Public building as Greek agora.
Public building as Greek agora.2002
Installation. B/W photography, wood, cardboard, plexiglass.
Installation view at CA2M, Móstoles
Photo Oak Taylor Smith
The building is located in the Vedado neighborhood (13th and K streets), one of the areas where Havana’s modern architecture is most developed. It is an apartment complex in which the exterior and most of the interior walls are completely transparent. This translucency creates a sui-generis public-private space. In doing so, it challenges our traditional conception of such notions. This project demands absolute indifference to the outside gaze. We can observe the lifestyle of others, but they also have the right to see ours: we can look, but we do not; we can be seen, but we are not. To emphasize the public aspect of this private space, the building features a small plaza that resembles an agora. The location of the agora within the building not only divides it in two, but provides an area of interaction and dialogue that ultimately integrates it.