Lost Safdie project, a paradoxical inspiration to green architects everywhere?… According to a stubby entry in Archiplanet.org on Moshe Safdie: “Initially his ideas proved expensive and difficult to construct, but Safdie introduced the cellular scheme in several areas including New York and Puerto Rico where his ideas were successfully initiated.” Nonetheless, a chance encounter with a 2008 blog entry reveals something slightly less successful, but perhaps all the more thought-provoking: evidence of Safdie’s Puerto Rican project lost and abandoned amidst a jungle, located at the misnamed Berwin “Farm”. Or was that the success that was always envisioned? Is this a bit of accidental proof of how some architecture just so happens to be a fantasy about a deserted earth?
And I wonder…Did Minsuk Cho and Jeffrey Inaba go there, with fatigues and nightvision, for an inspirational visit as they planned this project? Or perhaps in this current era of overfertilized green architecture, all sorts of past forms of failed architectures get recast as disembodied lesson plans for the future. The new grand tour takes you to places like this one…
Safdie's module lost amidst Puerto Rico's vegetation. Photo by "Desayuno Calle", 2008.
See full entry with two more photos at Futriaca | To find out more about this project, and other Habitat experiments by Safdie, visit this matrix and this history.
Creo que en Benimaclet, Valencia, hay un edificio residencial diseñado por este señor Safdie. Es increible como al asercarte sientes la sensación de entrar en un microclima de bosque, los aromas, el sonido del viento y la gran cantidad de pajaros cantando. Es muy bonito, el acceso está super controlado. Me pregunto cuando diseñaremos espacios públicos así para Rio Piedras… ;o)