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Architect
Christina Klausmann, last edited on 22.06.2022
Name:
Matilde Ponce Copado
Life Dates:
1932 – 2001
Country:
Employers:
Municipal Urban Department in Havana
Field of expertise:
Architectural design
Education:
Universidad de La Habana, Havana
Matilde Ponce Copado was born in Trinidad in 1932 and began her architectural studies at the University of La Habana in 1949. At the university she collaborated with her professor Antonio Quintana Simonetti and realized with him some buildings in La Habana. She was also invited to Rome and studied for some time under the civil engineer Pier Luigi Nervi. For her graduation thesis (1955) at the University of La Habana, she designed a commercial center for which she not only received excellent grades, but which was also described and commented on in the Brazilian magazine Acropole.
After graduating, she stayed in the capital and worked in the urban planning department, designing new parks and a casino, among other projects. A career in Cuba seemed preordained. Ponce Copado was part of an avant-garde movement that arose in the 1940s and 1950s.
Despite her success in her studies and profession, Ponce Copado immigrated to the USA. Subsequently, little is known about her further career after immigrating to the USA.
An example of her architectural achievements is the hexagonal elementary school type designed by Matilde Ponce Copado together with Alberto Robaina. In 1959, the government initiated the construction of about 200 such schools throughout the island.
The geometry of the school type is based on a hexagon, which is divided and repeated in three interior spaces and one exterior space. The design thus features a classroom (centered), a workroom, and an apartment for the teacher (each to the right and left of the classroom). These three interior spaces in turn create a central small square in front of the entrance to the school, also hexagonal.
Ponce Copado and Robaina thus contributed significantly to the planning of new rural elementary schools by developing a type of building that was easily expandable due to its geometric form.
This entry is based on the student essay “200 Schulen in zwei Jahren. Der sozialistische Schulbau von Matilde Ponce Copado und Alberto Robaina“ by Christina Klausmann and was translated into English.
Quintana Leo, M. Sobre su madre Matilde Ponce Copado, Interview by Karina Caballero, https://undiaunaarquitecta2.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/entrevista-hija-de-matilde-ponce-copado-karina-caballero.pdf (last accessed on 09.01.2022).
Peñate Díaz, F. (2012): La obra de las arquitectas cubanas de la República entre los años 40 y fines de los 50 del siglo XX. Revista Científica De Arquitectura Y Urbanismo, 33(3), 70–82., http://scielo.sld.cu/pdf/au/v33n3/au070312.pdf (last accessed on 29.12.2021).
Zardoya Loureda, M. V. (2015): La arquitectura educacional de los sesenta en Cuba. Revista Científica De Arquitectura Y Urbanismo, 36(3), 5–19., https://rau.cujae.edu.cu/index.php/revistaau/article/view/455 (last accessed on 29.12.2021).
Rebellón, J., Garrudo, A. & Ruiz Calcines, H. (1965): Escuela Primaria Rural. Arquitectura Cuba, (333), 9., https://www.arquitecturacuba.com/2010/05/revista-arquitectura-cuba-n-333-1965.html (last accessed on 11.03.2022).
RCI (Arquitectura Cuba, Hrsg.) (2013): Escuela primaria rural, 1959., https://www.arquitecturacuba.com/2013/01/escuela-primaria-rural-1959.html (last accessed on 09.01.2022).
Cuadra, M. (2019b): Träume und Räume einer Revolution. Architektur und Städtebau in Kuba 1959-2018. Kassel: Kassel University Press. https://doi.org/10.19211/KUP9783737650892
Main image: https://undiaunaarquitecta2.wordpress.com/2016/10/20/matilde-ponce-copado-1932-2001/ (last accessed 02.06.2022)
Fig. 1: https://www.arquitecturacuba.com/2013/01/escuela-primaria-rural-1959.html (last accessed on 02.05.22)
Fig. 2: https://www.arquitecturacuba.com/2013/01/escuela-primaria-rural-1959.html (last accessed 02.06.2022)
Fig. 3: https://www.arquitecturacuba.com/2013/01/escuela-primaria-rural-1959.html (last accessed 02.06.2022)
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