Produce less. Distribute it fairly. Create a greener world for all.

Cuba’s Post-Revolution Architecture Offers a Blueprint for How to Build More With Less

Around the world, there’s a conjoined crisis of climate change and housing shortages … Construction and buildings account for more than one-quarter of global greenhose gas emissions. Tile vaulting is a technique that flourished in the eastern Mediterranean after the 10th century. It involves constructing arched ceilings made of multiple layers of lightweight terra cotta…

Written by

M. Wesam Al Asali

Originally Published in

Around the world, there’s a conjoined crisis of climate change and housing shortages … Construction and buildings account for more than one-quarter of global greenhose gas emissions. Tile vaulting is a technique that flourished in the eastern Mediterranean after the 10th century. It involves constructing arched ceilings made of multiple layers of lightweight terra cotta tiles….In Cuba, From 1960 to 1965, a range of vault experiments and projects took place across the country… Cuba’s vaulted architecture reflects the relationship between necessity and invention, a process that many people mistakenly think of as automatic. It isn’t. It is a relationship based on perseverance, trial and error and, above all, passion.