Mario Romañach (1917–1984) was a Cuban modernist architect, planner, and university professor.
Biography
Mario Romañach finished his higher studies at the University of Havana and, along with Max Borges Jr., Frank Martinez, Nicolás Quintana, Ricardo Porro, Antonio Quintana Simonetti and Emilio del Junco, was one of the architects students who participated in the "Burning of Vignola" event. They sought to rebel against the education system in force until then in Cuba. The event took place in the courtyard of the School of Architecture of the University of Havana in 1944, when a group of students and recent graduates burned several copies of the Practical Elemental Treaty of Architecture or Study of the Five Orders of Vignola (1507-1573), exponent of the teaching of classical architecture. From this date, Mario Romañach began his career as one of the most outstanding professionals of modern architecture in Cuba.
1956 Plan Piloto
"Fulgencio Batista in the modernity of the 50s hires the important Catalan architect Josep Lluis Sert who had worked with Le Corbusier in his atelier on Rue de Sevres 35 in Paris. Sert elaborates the Havana Master Plan in collaboration with Paul Lester Wiener and Paul Schulz in 1956. For the Republic of Cuba, the architects Nicolás Arroyo, Minister of Public Works of the Batista government and the talented architect Mario Romañach participate in its construction."
Mario Romañach, collaborated on the Plan Piloto under the auspices of the Minister of Public Works, and the National Planning Board of Cuba between 1955 and 1958, in the development of the Plan Piloto for Havana. The Town Planning Associates, a consulting firm from New York, led by the Catalan architect Josep Lluís Sert, and its partners Paul Lester Wiener and Paul Schulz, was hired by the Minister of Public Works with the intention of guiding the development of the continuous growth of the city of Havana during the next decade. The entire metropolitan area of Havana would have been affected by the Plan Piloto which included recommendations for the development of unbuilt areas and the distribution of the four functions of the Athens Charter as outlined by Le Corbusier's manifesto for urban planning published in 1943 for the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne resulting in "The Functional City" through new, modernist zoning. The most significant element of the Pilot Plan was a comprehensive transportation system for Havana. The aim of the Plan was to contain the different efforts of the various historical periods within the city planning conceptual order. The Sert and Wiener Plan focused on providing improved accessibility for traffic to the heart of the old city. "Two major north-south dual carriageways were planned to cut through the center of the Old Havana on Calle Cuba and Calle Habana. A further dual carriageway was to cut through the center on an east-west axis along Calle Muralla, and alternate streets on the city grid in both directions were to be widened. In true ‘tabula rasa’ fashion the city blocks in the entire area enclosed by these dual carriageways were to be demolished and replaced with a series of classic modernist slab blocks." The remaining blocks were to be hollowed out in order to improve automobile access and parking, demolition would have been required to accommodate the widening of other streets. The Pilot Plan would have resulted in the division of the old city into four quarters separated by major traffic lanes, widespread demolition of historic buildings and with the character of remaining city blocks being fundamentally altered.
The Plan Piloto included the project by Romañach, Gabriela Menéndez and Josep Lluís Sert for the new Presidential Palace, which would be located near the Castle of San Carlos de La Cabaña and the Castle of the Three Kings of El Morro, a work that was never executed.
Notable projects
In 1944 he worked with the architects Pedro Martínez Inclán and Antonio Quintana in the Residencial Obrero de Luyanó neighborhood, located in an area south of Havana Bay. The project was project was an exercise of modern architecture. It had 1,500 homes, eight apartment complexes in four-story buildings and all complementary services: markets, schools, sports fields and parks.