This chapter examines the construction and history of one of the largest social housing projects in Latin America, which began in 1963 with the arrival of a Soviet-financed factory in Santiago de Cuba to produce large concrete panels. The introduction of the Soviet large-panel factory was important to the Cuban Revolution, as it demonstrated how industrial technologies could standardize ways of living and advance Fidel Castro ’ s plans for an egalitarian socialist utopia. Although it further involved the Soviet Union in the activities taking place on the island, the large concrete panels produced in Cuba became not merely a Soviet but a hybrid Soviet-Cuban technology as they were redesigned by Cuban architects and engineers to make the system feasible for use on the island. In this essay, we analyze how architects and engineers adapted this technology for local conditions, and the intercultural dialogue this exchange entailed between the Soviet Union and Cuba.
...MoreBook Marcos Cueto; Eden Medina; Ivan da Costa Marques; Christina Holmes (2014) Beyond Imported Magic: Essays on Science, Technology, and Society in Latin America.
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