Project's goals

The project is promoted by UNIDO ITPO Italy, in collaboration with Historian’s Office of Havana City and the Region Friuli Venezia Giulia in Italy and the private sector, to enhance the architectural and cultural heritage of Havana.

The objective of the project is to encourage Cuban SMEs and local stakeholders involved in cultural and creative industries to foster international partnerships through investment promotion activities and know-how transfer, ultimately providing local job creation and sustainable development.
Regional and international institutions, in close cooperation with the stakeholders, have defined a Road Map and identified a set of initiatives with the aim of supporting the architectural and cultural heritage of Havana for the reuse of the most relevant buildings in the City.

The key themes are sustainability and competitiveness, which are aimed at fostering the partnerships with local stakeholders to promote the cultural & creative industry and the heritage of Cuba.

Within the international context, cultural and creative industries (CCI) are defined as «cycles of creation, production and distribution of goods and services using intellectual capital and creativity as primary inputs» acting as an innovation driver, facilitating new knowledge processes which in turn lead to economic change and development.

Creative industries are also often associated with a “new economy”, driven by “digital” technologies and closely related to the “information” or “knowledge” economy. The services and products –tangible and intangible–  are often a drive for the sustanable development and have a strong social  impact  for the communities.

Relationship between popular knowledge, culture, art and economy is evidenced in Cuba and the CCI sector have a significant impact on the local economy  through marketable goods such as live or recorded performances and indirect tourism expenditures encouraged by these performances.

Call for Ideas

The Message is

“how does design shape or transform historical building and how does it structure and
transform our individual lives and society as a whole ?”


The call intends to gather the best innovative ideas for the reuse of historical buildings in Havana, and promote innovative and sustainable "locations" for cultural & creative industries.

The creative industries is grouped into nine categories: advertising and marketing; architecture; crafts; design; film, TV, Video, Radio, Photography; IT, software and computer services; publishing; museums, galleries, libraries; music, performing and visual arts. 

Potential participants are invited to reflect on the theme of sustainability of Culture and Heritage and come up with a proposal able to satisfy social needs and to implement an economic impact for creative industry. 

Applicants are invited to consider how design can empower the Cuban heritage through the use of spaces for the cultural & creative industry using "creativity" as an asset to change the world. Applicants are free to express their creativity to elaborate the project’s idea.

All contributions have an equal chance of being selected. A jury composed by architects, entrepreneurs and representatives of Innovation hubs and Universities of both Countries will selects three project's concepts that will be awarded in Italy and Cuba. 

The three grant winners will attend a four-week program, held in the Region Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy. The program engages in a series of lectures, workshops, drawings and exercises with Universities and SMEs operating in the field of sustainable urban renewal sector. Winners will have the opportunity to build relationships with potential academics and architects in Italy and in Cuba and have a unique chance to showcase their projects concept to potential investors.

How to apply

Applicants are invited to submit  a project’s idea for the architectural and urban reuse of one of the two historic buildings of Havana that have been identified by the Historian’s Office of Havana City in collaboration with UNIDO ITPO Italy and Friuli Venezia Giulia Region.

The historical buildings are:

Old housing building San Ignacio No. 214 between Obrapía and Lamparilla

Hospicio of San Isidro: San Isidro No. 231 / between Picota and Compostela

The project's proposal should include a total of 5 images related respectively to each side of the building, (i.e. façades and roof), as well as of the internal layout, and of the surrounding environment along with a small-scale site plan showing the project in its context. If possible, please include a rendering that illustrates the project's concept including images before.

Applicants are invited to submit their own unique architectural project concept by September 30th l 2019 (GMT).

Applicants are free to select the one of the two building to draw their project’s idea.

Participation to the initiative is free of charge.

Admissible Candidates

The competition is exclusively reserved to cuban citizens.

Applicants must belong to the following categories:

  • Architects
  • Students of the Faculty of Architecture
  • Multidisciplinary groups of architects, designers, civil engineers with a team leader

Deadlines

Call for proposals
Open from July 15st to September 30th 2019

 

Selection process
within October 20th 2019 

 

Admission and evaluation criteria

The applications sent by admissible candidates will be submitted to an initial screening phase and will be considered only if complete in all their parts and coherent with the tender’s objectives and themes. Only the admissible proposals if meeting the evaluation criteria and feasibility requirements, will enter the evaluation process. The selection process will end within October 20th 2019.

The proposals considered as admissible will be evaluated by the jury. The jury in charge of the evaluation and selection of the best innovative ideas will be composed by designers, architects and highly-recognized representatives coming from different backgrounds, including international and Developing Countries’ institutions, research centers and academia, and business & financial entities.

At the end of the selection process, the jury will announce the 3 winners, one for each category: architects, architecture students, multidisciplinary groups of architects, designers, civil engineers with a team leader.All candidates will be informed about the decisions of the jury. The designation of the winning proposals will be expressed in a collegial way, and the judgment will be considered final.

The composition of the jury is available at the following link: https://www.unido.it/heritage4cuba/jury.php

The evaluation of the project proposals is based on the defined criteria, here below

Criteria Score
Creativity&Design 40% score
Economic,social and innovation impact of the proposal (SDGs Goals) 30% score
Expected occupational return 30% score

The evaluation process, carried out by the jury on the basis of the above-mentioned percentages, will be cumulative and in line with the highest ethical standards.

The absence of the participants’ conflict of interest, the process’ transparency and tracking, certifications obtained from recognized organs, and motivations of merit identified by the jury will be considered as key elements in the evaluation process.

Support the Cuban Government to enhance the architectural & cultural heritage of Havana