Anti-Blindness League

Anti-Blindness League

Fernández

Marianao

1956-1960

Developed from 1956 to 1960 in Marianao, the Anti-Blindness League complex was Fernández’s boldest and most eccentric project.[i] Located obliquely to the street to accommodate an auditorium which was not built, the five-story hospital slab with an entrance of X-shaped concrete pilotis played a construction game of brick panels and a bone-like suspended structure. Construction was Interrupted with the Revolution, and the building never received the full sunscreens that were to be inserted between the post-tension elements. The second building, the outpatient wing, was in fact built first. A thin wave-shaped awning supported by light metallic tubes leads to the glass wall entrance, which connects to an extravagant concrete ramp that runs under the pilotis of the hospital slab before joining the second floor of the dispensary. The interior combines brick works, decorative screen panels, glass partitions, whose assemblage was a demonstration of the architect’s concept of Baroque “integral ornamentation.” [ii]

[i] Album de Cuba, Vol. 6, n.p.; Rodríguez, The Havana Guide, p. 229.

[ii] Notes presented to authors, 2/4/2019.