Mapping Endangered Architectural Heritage in Havana

By Max Scott

"Centro Habana is one of Havana’s poorest and most overcrowded neighborhoods, yet it also has the highest concentration of endangered and unprotected architectural heritage in the city. Partial or total building collapses are a daily occurrence in the district, but because it’s outside Havana’s World Heritage District it receives little attention from UNESCO and international preservationists - and neither the Office of the Historian of Havana (OCH) or the Cuban state has the resources to intervene effectively to protect Centro Habana from gradual collapse.

This ongoing research project’s two main goals are to preserve the architectural heritage of Centro Habana by documenting, through a photographic archive, all buildings in the district and to work with the OCH to build a coded, searchable photographic database for future researchers investigating Havana’s heritage.

Over the course of a year, I took over 20,000 photos of more than 15,000 buildings in Centro Habana, creating the first-ever comprehensive photographic archive of the district. I’m currently in the process of working with the OCH to create the database and generate maps of historic patrimony based on the visual data in the photos, which has never been done at this scale.

As this is an in-process research project, many of the main findings are still to be determined. However, the biggest contribution this project will make to the fields of planning and preservation, and to planners and policymakers in Havana, is the creation of a comprehensive database of all buildings in Centro Habana. This will help preservationists at the Office of the Historian understand where the buildings of highest architectural value are and which ones are most at risk of collapse. It will also allow planners and policymakers to intervene more effectively in the urban fabric by focusing on the areas most in need."