Havana/The building of the Higher Institute of Design (ISDI) of Havana, located in Centro Habana, suffered a new collapse on Friday, this time outside. The news was released on his Facebook wall the Yosvelito Danielito user, a neighbor of the place, who published images of the incident, occurred shortly after two in the afternoon. Subsequently, it was retaken by the official journalist Lázaro Manuel Alonso.
In the images, much of the outer wall of the property is shown down to San Carlos Street, one of the four of the block occupied by the property (the others are beascoaín, Maloja and Enrique Barnet) is observed. That route had been closed to the passage of vehicles for a while for the poor state of the ISDI, interrupting not only traffic but also making the lives of families living in it, who had to move only by a narrow passage on the sidewalk.
Similarly, in videos shared in social networks you see how the rubble reach the building in front, so that its residents now cannot leave their homes.
In videos shared on social networks you see how the rubble reach the building in front
This collapse adds to others that the building had already suffered before, in the rear and inside. The latter It happened last July. Then, in the absence of a few days to finish the ISDI classes, the authorities suspended them and reported that they would be given remotely.
Since mid -2022, an area of the center’s headquarters was shore and closed, but this Tuesday he couldn’t stand it anymore. Access to the building was prohibited “until new notice.”
In March 2022, the institution explained in a statement the problems that existed with the headquarters. “The property presents a complicated architectural failure. Teaching activities are being developed in other spaces of the UH (University of Havana) momentarily. The formation of Cuban designers has not stopped, ”he said.
“Uncertainty gains ground to trust. The revolution founded the universities and always accompanied them. The country’s management maintains the commitment and recognition of our ISDI, the Cuba Design School that gives and contributes. You have to fight and trust. The lack of a physical place should not eclipse our creative will, ”said the statement issued then, in which it was announced that classrooms would be reopened in“ solidarity spaces of different faculties of the University of Havana ”.
Among the comments to that announcement, the extensive text left by the architect Lourdes Martí, which was next to Iván Espín, creator of the ISDI and its rector until mid -1989. A year later, in 1985, he moved to the current building, in Belascoaín between Estrella and Maloja. “Remodeling began to the area where the workshops would be located on the first floor and a general repair. Although it was not really in such bad conditions, its termination took a long time, ”he said, while regretting the lack of interest of the authorities.
“What happened during the last 33 years? Was never maintenance again? What architectural failure is that that does not allow to recover the building or part of the building? Do you want to destroy the building or do you want to eliminate the formation of industrial and informational designers? Are we witnessing the end of the country’s industrial development? ”
A user thanked the clarification of the school with a simple one: “Thank you, maybe it ends at a hotel.” ISDI himself replied exposing that he tried to “recover that great building”, but the truth is that, according to the students, only some areas were open and the vast majority remained with the forbidden to pass.
The area where the building is located, away from the historic center of the Cuban capital, more tourist and the modern neighborhood of El Vedado, with hotels and ministries, suffers a deep process of deterioration in its constructions. Decades of lack of maintenance and erosion, product of the proximity of the sea, hurricanes and overcrowding, have turned that area into a sequence of cracked balconies, cracked columns and old collapsed buildings. Walking through the neighborhood has become a danger to pedestrians.
