Acosta overseeing renovation of Cuban National Ballet School

Carlos Acosta is guiding the renovation of the Escuela Nacional Cubana de Ballet with designs by London architect Lord Norman Foster of Foster + Partners.  According to World Architecture News, 

In the ultimate rags to riches story, Cuban ballet dancer Carlos Acosta is preparing to return to his roots in Havana and transform Fidel Castro’s unfinished School of Ballet on the edge of the city into a flourishing Cuban School of Dance with a little help from globally-renowned architect Lord Norman Foster.

Here's Nigel Young's rendering of the finished site:

Speaking to The Sunday Times, Foster explains his connection to the project: “Carlos is a great dancer, who is inspiring the regeneration of an iconic ruin of early modernism outside Havana.” Acosta’s motivation is more businesslike however, as he details: “I see myself going back not just because it is where I was born but because the country is going in the right direction. The changes of the past two or three years are positive, in particular the incentive to create more of a market economy.”

Sounds like a good plan.

Here's the link.

Comments

[Comitato Vittorio Garatti]

This is really important! We can't permit to another architect to put his hands on the National Schools of Arts. We can't forget how important is the complex to let Foster do his own project in the School of Ballet. The original architect is Vittorio Garatti and he is alive and well, he should be the one at the helm of any design or development at this site. He is the father of his project and no one should be allowed to redevelop the original building without his approval. Please share! www.facebook.com/comitatovittoriogaratti

[Haglund]

Hello Milan! Thank you for reading Haglund's Heel. We did not know that the selection of Norman Foster as the architect for the Cuban school was controversial in Italy. Do you object to specific parts of Mr. Foster's plan for restoration or is your objection primarily that Mr. Garatti, who was the original architect, was not hired by Carlos Acosta to perform the job?