Apartment Building Indalecio Pertierra

Apartment Building Indalecio Pertierra

Frank Martínez Justíz

Miramar

1952

Frank Martínez Justíz displayed his rationalist mastery with the Edificio for Indalecio Pertierra in Miramar, also known as the casa de los ocho hermanos.[i] The eight apartments are organized as a tri-dimensional U-shaped complex around a pool and a garden. Occupying the first two floors are the long wing along the street with a ten-car garage (now transformed) and a long apartment on top. To the left are one two-story duplex and two superimposed apartments, square in plan and with a central patio. On the third and fourth floors, these two structures become long arms containing the four other apartments, with a third-floor terrace on top of the street wing. In doing so, the architect created a powerful intersection and assemblage of volumes and breezeways that unite all the families together. In addition to louvers and screening devices, the functional and tri-dimensional complexity was articulated with galleries, terraces, and other visual transparencies, that guaranteed the cross-ventilation and shaded areas.

[i] “Apartamentos en Miramar,” Espacio 1, no. 4 (July-August 1952), pp. 10-15; Rodríguez, The Havana Guide, pp. 98-99; and Gómez Díaz, De Forestier a Sert, pp. 445-47.