Havana Libre
Libre Building, Havana, Cuba
We visited Cuba some time ago when Castro was still president and there were two currencies - one for the tourists and one for the Cubans. A fascinating and revealing adventure in a beautiful country with many happy memories of the people, music, cars, architecture, rum and jogging in the sunshine along the Malecon promenade - and a not so happy memory of food poising from one of the state run restaurants…
In the centre of Havana we found this interesting and strangely beautiful residential building dominating the skyline with its colour and faded glory. It must have been built in the late 70’s with Soviet assistance and incorporated an office block in the lower section. It appealed to me as the arrangement of windows and coloured balconies seemed to be very unusual, almost like an abstract painting, and I took the design as the starting point for a cocktail cabinet - possibly in celebration of all the mojitos we drank on the trip!
The cabinet was divided into two following the architecture of the building, with the lower block used for bottle storage and the upper for display and preparation. All of the grey veneers on the doors were cut at 45 degrees and flipped to create the pattern of the windows as the light is reflected from them and the window frames were carefully inlaid into the pattern in plain and ebonised sycamore. The cabinet was exhibited at Cheltenham where it won the Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers design prize and later sold to a client in Cheshire.
Interior Detail
Base Cabinet
Havana Libre Cocktail Cabinet
Drawer Detail
Pull out Preparation Tray
Internal Detail