RADAMES 'JUNI' FIGUEROA, TREE HOUSE/CLUB HOUSE, A LIVE MONUMENTAL SCULPTURE AT A FOREST IN NAGUABO, PUERTO RICO

Radames 'Juni' Figueroa, Tree House in Naguabo, Puerto Rico

the Tree House is painted in the same colours as the surrounding Eucalyptus forest to camouflage with it

construction process of the Tree House


Radames 'Juni' Figueroa (to the left)

and Radames 'Juni' Figueroa camouflaged with the eucalyptus


Tree House in Naguabo, Puerto Rico

a project by Radames 'Juni' Figueroa

Tree House – Casa Club - was a project developed for the Residency Program La Practica at Beta Local by Radamés “Juni” Figueroa. Figueroa is a Puerto Rican artist who developed a "collage" or architectural assembly made of the site’s timber (El Bosque Auxiliar, Naguabo), as well as materials collected in the city of San Juan. Among the materials employed were wood of various types, glass windows, tropical windows, zinc and plastic roofing, and other discarded materials found throughout the city. With these myriad objects, Radamés Juni built a structure in the forest that serves as a haven to relax, enjoy the scenery, partake of live music and even meditate. Juni Figueroa’s initial idea was to create a space to get away from the city and he thus ventured into the tropical forest. Most materials were transported from the city and, once in the forest, they began to manifest their contrast to the organic state there present. The project's goal from the very beginning was to create said contrast between what is “pure” and the elements that were appropriated and transported from the city. The project could be read both as a sculpture or a painting that has been integrated into the forest. The artist used as a reference for the selection of colors the “psychedelic” tree called Rainbow Eucalyptus, present in the forest. The Grand Opening of the Club House was held last June 8, 2013. It was a sunny day full of magic and the intensity of the forest. A BBQ was held, craft beer was available and two rock and roll local bands performed – Las Ardillas and Reanimadores. As it began getting dark, fireflies emerged and were joined by psychedelic sounds introduced into the forest by Joelito el de Magueyes. The recent opening marked the beginning of a series of events and exhibitions that will be organized by Radamés "Juni" Figueroa in the Tree House – Casa Club.

El Bosque Auxiliar is located on the former San Eloy Estate in Naguabo, Puerto Rico. It is a sustainable forest that manages timber that is employed in cultural endeavors, a project by Luis Agosto Leduc.

This project has been possible thanks to José Hernández Castrodad, Mima and César Reyes, Beta Local, Diego De la Cruz, Luis Agosto Leduc, Tabatha Rosa, Adelaida Ortiz, Francisco Rovira, Jorge González, Karenin Biaggi, Beatriz Santiago, Joel Rodriguez, Giancarlo Cervoni, Reanimadores, Las Ardillas and all the good people who enjoy and live in the Island...

Credits photos: Tony Cruz y Gretchen Ruiz Ramos

http://lopublico.betalocal.org/Juni/solo

HENRY KLUMB HOUSE, TROPICAL MODERNITY IN RUINS IN RIO PIEDRAS, SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO. A VISIT

Henry Klumb's house in Rio Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico

Klumb's rotating table

view of the dinning room from the outside

the kitchen area, badly affected by a hurricane

gate to Klumb's house

at the house with Klumb expert Enrique Vivoni

Beta Local friends and fellows visiting Klumb's House

earlier in the morning giving a talk at Beta-Local on the Novo Museo Tropical and Tropical Modernity

and Klumb furniture at the documentation centre of the Archivo de Arquitectura y Construcción de la Universidad de Puerto Rico http://aacupr.uprrp.edu/

See a previous post with original photos of the house here

with thanks to Enrique Vivoni from the Archivo de Arquitectura y Construcción de la Universidad de Puerto Rico for opening the house for us

with thanks also to Michy Marxuach and Beta Local, for making my wish come true and organising the visit to Henry Klumb's house, and making possible that finally, after 10 years of going continuously to Puerto Rico I could finally visit Klumb's house. See Beta Local's post on the visit here

Henry Klumb was born in Koln, Germany in 1905 and emigrated to the USA in 1927 to work with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesen West, he also later collaborated with Louis Kahn. In 1944 he moved to Puerto Rico, where he developed an agenda of modernist architecture for the tropics, and was in charge of the new master plan and most of the modern buildings of the University of Puerto Rico. Klumb's own house was located in Rio Piedras, in the outskirts of San Juan, not far from the University where he was designing most of the buildings. The house, located in an existing pineapple plantation, was a traditional wooden house from the XIX century, which was intervened and opened up by Klumb. Walls were brought down and palms planted outside the house to create shade and view. The house was bought by the University after Klumb's dead, but the lack of use and maintenance and the effects of the climate have had an effect on the house, which has become almost a ruin. Now the house has been declared a modern monument and new efforts are being done for its renovation. Hopefully the future (and expensive) renovation, will bring the house back to it's old glory and not transform it into a cartoon of its former self. Klumb's example of tropical modernism becomes even more relevant today in Puerto Rico's contemporary landscape of air conditioned architecture and inhabitants isolated from the exterior world.

download a pdf on Klumb's architecture by Vivoni here.