Apartment Building of the Goods & Bonds Investment Co.

Apartment Building of the Goods & Bonds Investment Co.

Mario Romañach

Vedado

1956-1958

The Bienes & Bonos Apartments occupies a deep and narrow lot, on the edge of El Vedado at the back of the Castillo del Príncipe.[i] Romañach imagined a very plastic front façade, but here quite opaque to the western sun. It is an elaborate composition developed on two parallel planes: the recessed one contains both small vertical windows, and long horizontal ones placed at the level of the ceiling and above the closet-like bow-windows that cantilever out. The entrance takes place in the middle of the alleyway, to the right of the ramp that leads to the semi-underground garage; the staircase services three split-levels floors, each with two apartments placed back to back and organized on a regular post and beam concrete structure. Behind the front façade, the apartment plans—7.5-meter wide by 29 meter in depth—are spatially inventive, using of recessed sections, cantilevered rooms and closets, jalousies, and perforated ceramic blocks to create complex spaces, enhanced by sophisticated lighting and natural ventilation.

[i] Rodríguez, The Havana Guide, p. 144, La arquitectura del movimiento moderno, pp. 98-99; and Gómez Díaz, De Forestier a Sert, pp. 550-53.