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.

BETA-LOCAL, EXPERIMENTAL PRACTICE/RESEARCH PROGRAMME, CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

Beta-Local, Call for Applications

La Práctica
La práctica is an experimental study and production program for individuals coming from an art, design, architecture background, or from a related field. The program is aimed at people who are interested in thinking through the work itself and who are critically engaged with the here and now. There is a strong emphasis on production and collaboration. La Práctica is specifically designed for those interested in creating new conditions, relations and positions that will allow them to work in other contexts, not necessarily the established art circuit, and who, because of the particularities of a place’s adverse conditions or a lack of well functioning professional art structure support, have the need to create their own practice and space. We propose a structure through which each individual brings projects to the table which are discussed, critiqued and developed individually or collectively through a process open to collaboration. Visiting artists, program directors, program peers and workshops give shape to each year's program. La Práctica is flexible enough to sustain the kind of organic relationships that we hope take place between participants and visitors to Beta-Local from many fields.

Beta-Local
La Práctica is one of Beta-Local's programs. Beta-Local is an independent organization in San Juan, Puerto Rico founded in February 2010. Beta-Local fundraises for its programs through the general public, private foundations, and individual donations, from $10 dinners to larger grants. Beta-Local was founded by Tony Cruz, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz and Michy Marxuach, who are its current directors.

Program Details
The program is one (1) academic year in length (September 2011 - May 2012) and represents a commitment of at least 20 hours a week during which each Fellow participates in a group seminar, attends visiting artist lectures or workshops and develops their work. The program costs are $6,000 USD per participant; Beta-Local fundraises the cost of the program in order to make it effectively free of charge. Travel and living expenses are covered by the participant. Beta-Local can facilitate the process of relocating for those not currently residing in Puerto Rico. Our flexible space is available to all the participants to use in the development of their projects. Besides focusing on their projects, every participant must offer at least one class through La Ivan Illich, [an open school]. 





Visiting artists, during 2010/11 included: Tania Bruguera, Carla Zaccagnni, Ashley Hunt, Jeanine Oleson, Ethan Spigland and others. Applicants should be able to converse in both English and Spanish to get the most out of the program.

To Apply send us this information:
-Send in one document your contact info, cv and two references who know your work well and who we can contact.
-A description of the projects or series of projects that you would like to develop during the following year. Put this in context in relationship to your previous work.
-A well organized zip file, pdf or web link to a well organized portfolio. (Plesase send through yousend it or similar service)

Send this info to info.betalocal@gmail.com

We will respond to all applicants and interview those applicants whose interests and projects are most compatible with the program. The selection committee is composed of 3 current participants of the program and two international artists.

For more information:
info.betalocal@gmail.com

http://lopublico.betalocal.org/963068/Call-for-Applications

http://www.betalocal.org

'BETA-LOCAL' AN INDEPENDENT SCHOOL, LIBRARY, TALKS PROGRAMME, RESIDENCY, VEGETABLE SHOP IN SAN JUAN, PUERTO RICO

Beta-Local is both an organization and a physical space in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Beta-Local was born from our interest in promoting an adventurous art practice as an end in itself, but also as a creative engine with social implications. Beta Local is a non-profit organization devoted to promoting critical and creative thought, action and production through an independent and flexible structure comprised of various experimental programs.
http://www.betalocal.org/

TANIA BRUGUERA TALK AT 'BETA-LOCAL' IN SAN JUAN PUERTO RICO

Beta-Local is a study and production program, an experimental education project and a platform for critical discussion and production immersed in our local reality (San Juan, the tropics, the Caribbean, the unplanned city) and our present moment (the economic crisis, the infinite potential, the skills and ideas of people who live here, now).
http://www.betalocal.org/