August 24, 2009 · The New School, New York, United States
Mario Coyula-Cowley (Havana, 1935) is an architect, urban designer and critic. Profesor de Mérito (University Professor), National Prize of Architecture (2001) and of Habitat (2004), both life-long awards. Former director of the School of Architecture, of the Architecture and Urban Planning department, and of the Group for the Integral Development, all in Havana; and first president of Havana’s Landmarks Commission. Co-author of two competition-winning commemorative monuments considered innovative in that field. Author or co-author of five books and more than 190 essays, articles and reviews in 31 foreign and 19 Cuban publications. A book he co-authored, Havana. Two faces of the Antillean metropolis, received in 1998 the Choice prize for relevant academic books in the United States.
Fellow of the SIGUS program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and member of LIAT (Laboratoire de Recherche sur les Infrastructures, l’Architecture et le Territoire), at l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture, Paris-Malaquais. Member of the editorial board of Revista Bimestre Cubana, Arquitectura y Urbanismo and Temas (all published in Havana), and of Archivos de Arquitectura de las Antillas (Santo Domingo) and Topos (Belo Horizonte). In 2002 he was the RFK Visiting Professor from the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, teaching for a semester at the Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. In 2006 he was Guest Professor at the Urban Strategies graduate program in the Angewandte (Applied Arts University), Vienna, teaching two full-time urban design workshops. In 2007 he was commissioned by ICOMOS International to evaluate the nomination of Buenos Aires as a Cultural Heritage in the List of World Heritage. Coyula has lectured extensively in Cuba, United States, Canada, Spain, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Ecuador, Costa Rica, and Dominican Republic.
