Graciela González Quintans

Architect and professor

Name:

Graciela González Quintans

Country:

Cuba

Positions:

Since 1970 architect  in Havana

Full Professor at the CUJAE

Field of expertise:

Education:

Polytechnic José Antonio Echavarría CUJAE, Havana

Memberships:

National Union of Architects and Construction Engineers of Cuba (UNAICC)

President of the Technological Innovation Commission and Standardization Committee of the MICONS

Short Biography

Throughout her career, Gonzalez has developed energy-efficient housing as well as low-cost community building projects based on concepts of sustainability with environmental sense and people’s participation. More than anything else, Gonzalez’s work was focused on the standardization and typification of housing projects from Havana to the provinces and urbanizations. After Hurricane Joan in 1988, which caused the severe destruction of many Caribbean islands, she helped the Cuban government to build energy-efficient houses in Nicaragua and Honduras. Today she works as a second year professor in the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at CUJAE.  

Work

González initially worked for the ‘Institute for the Development of Social and Agricultural Works DESA’, today known as the Ministry of Construction (MICONS). After that she went to work at the Social Works Project Company in Havana. Since 1985 she has worked with U.S. architects to develop new concepts of urban planning reflected, for example, in urban developments such as Las Arboledas and Villa Panamericana. During the ‘Special Period’, due to scarcity, she developed the PERFLEX system which is a soil-cement foundation.

Figure 1: Graciela González Quintas
Figure 2: The main concepts of the general plan by González
Figure 3: Plan of the Villa Panamericana

Bibliography

Interview with Graziella González
Cuadra, M. (2019). DE PRIMERA MANO: La Arquitectura de la Revolución Cubana 1959-2018 ENTREVISTAS CON SUS PROTAGONISTAS Y CRONISTAS. kassel university press GmbH.

Illustration credits

Figure 1: https://www.unaicc.cu/acerca-de-la-unaicc/984-se-inaugura-exposicion-de-posters (last accessed on 08.02.2022)

Figure 2: http://www.groundwork.org/English/cuba-es/concepts.html (last accessed on 08.02.2022)

Figure 3: Cuadra, Manuel: Träume und Räume einer Revolution, Kassel 2019, S. 178.

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