Housing in Cuba -Technocrats Prefer Plastic

Housing in Cuba: Technocrats Prefer Plastic
August 9, 2013
Erasmo Calzadilla

"I feel like I'm in a herd of buffalo, and they're all stampeding
towards a thousand-foot drop and they're all just falling over the edge,
and I'm in that herd (…) so I have to somehow affect the whole herd so
that they will take a left turn or a right turn and not go off this edge
(…) I'm trying to save my ass." – Michael Reynolds

HAVANA TIMES — Construction work is a tough, dirty, dangerous and
badly-paid job (particularly when the State is your employer). Havana's
middle class tries to avoid it more than they do the devil himself, and
happily let the newcomer from somewhere in Cuba's eastern end, the
former convict who can't get a job anywhere or the poor fellow who'll do
anything to be able to eat, take their place on the scaffold.

A few days ago, I had to do some repair work around the apartment where
I live and had no other choice but to shut down the computer and bite
the bullet. When I finished working every night, exhausted, I would ask
myself how anyone in their right mind could devote their entire life to
something like that.

That is what I thought only days ago, but my aversion towards
bricklaying has begun to dwindle since seeing Oliver Hodge's 2007
documentary "Garbage Warrior."

US architect Michael Reynolds is the head of a group of friends who
build homes using locally-recovered waste materials (beer cans, car
tires, bottles and plastic containers) and locally produced sand and gravel.

In addition to being pretty, exotic (each of the houses shows an
over-abundance of creativity) and comfortable in all seasons (requiring
no heating or air conditioning), Reynolds' Earthships are very
affordable – not only because the construction process is cheap, but
also because they can do without electricity, water services and even
traditional waste disposal infrastructure (sewage waters are processed
and used to irrigate the interior garden-orchard). With these features,
the Earthships contribute to the prevention of global warming.

What attracts me about this whole business the most, of course, isn't
the prospect of spending entire days stuffing dirt into an old truck
tire or stirring cement-mix under the desert sun. What inspires me is
the philosophy behind the project and, above all, its results.

Before seeing the documentary, what was team of construction workers to
me? Nothing less than drudgery incarnate. On the one hand, the boss
breaths down your neck, prods you and blackmails you so you will work
extra hours. On the other, you have the ill-tempered workers who care
very little about the end result of the work.

These things couldn't be more removed from the work methods of the
Earthship company. It's incredible how even the toughest, dirtiest jobs
can be done with pleasure if they are undertaken within a community that
one feels part of, within a system that encourages creativity, with the
certainty that the fruit of one's labor will not be alienated and
knowing that one is working for the good of others. I hope to be able to
have an experience of this nature before I'm deep in the ground.

Shouldn't Cuba, supposedly a socialist country with a fragile economy
and a chronic housing deficit, promote initiatives like this one? In my
modest opinion, yes, but the wise decision-makers in our government have
apparently put their bets on a project that is diametrically opposed to
this one: petro-houses.

Petro-houses make us dependent on oil and technology (which is no
laughing matter, considering fossil fuels are becoming ever more
scarce), their ecological impact is considerable and, to top things off,
since they are expensive and cannot be constructed by their inhabitants,
increase our dependence on the State.

Why then, are these cute plastic houses the ones the technocrats prefer?
Could it be that they are more in keeping with their vision of the
world? Is it because it secures them prestige, leadership and dividends?
Or are they merely a pretext to continue this boastful business of the
fraternal unity between Cuba and Venezuela?

The day in which initiatives like the one impelled by Reynolds and his
company will be thinkable in Cuba seems far off, but perhaps it is not
so distant after all. The energy crisis that is beginning to rear its
ugly head today will force people to build with whatever is at hand –
one of the principles of this mad architect.

If it's a question of saving our asses, the best way to do this is to
prepare for the coming crisis. We must do this so that this crisis
doesn't take us by surprise, which is what happened with the last one,
which one of its main architects christened with the name "Special Period."

Source: "A New Way of Looking at Construction, Creative Ideas for Cuba"
- http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=97664