crane-like ship wall of animas is designed to unite the casablanca community in havana

the ‘ship wall of animas’ by pico colectivo is an artifact looking similar to the cranes of the havana bay, able to interlock all functions of a space for public use. this strategy obeys the condition for establishing an approved rendering with the existing infrastructure’s ecosystem present at the industrial environment. the construction is done by welders and community builders who manage the shipyards technology, based on pattern design, series parts production, handling of coupling systems and replicable modules.

materials and basic supplies come from the popular hardware, in addition to other steel components with minimal imperfections, separated from the main inventory of the metallurgical industry of the city. pico’s intervention is located at casablanca community, an old shipyard settlement to the east of havana bay, which is inhabited by working class plentiful in manufacture knowledge. this process manages to activate a residual physical space, annulled by a geographical condition.

the main operation is to correct this pathology through heavy engineering, facilitating the soils formation, slopes stabilization, and concrete buttresses reinforcement, avoiding walls collapse, and generating the supports for subsequent assembly of the metallic elements. whole self-construction work of the project is carried out in 28 continuous days, making available various workforce groups for each of the work tasks.

the formwork carpentry crew makes boards from cut-outs of second-hand wood. these boards are installed, removed and reinstalled constantly, using minimal technical resources to apply more than 160 cubic meters of concrete. in the same way, handling of metals is made through a production line accomplishing to chain the manufacture of up to 14 elements each day.

this structure works as a network of political operators that addresses social mobilization tasks for protection and development of the community, being able to articulate strategies for linking to the project, submit proposals for discussion, make decisions in citizens’ assemblies and encourage volunteer work, besides generating interest of the cuba communist provincial delegation party, and state institutions provide enormous logistical and material resources. the infrastructure includes a series of devices that favor connectivity: elevators, stairs, ramps and floors allow to communicate neighborhood sectors previously unconnected, establishing a relationship environment that increases the capacity of neighborhood deployment for the development of cultural activities, sport and social exchange in different strata of use.

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: maria erman | designboom