Radiography
Personal Role: Created the character Horacio Cuprak whom I would design his old San Juan brownstone.
Medium: Physical modeling
Main Challenges: 1. Consolidate a formal relationship between the structural datum, with one that narrates Horacio's life, and experiences.
Unraveling: 1. Hands on modeling was the best strategy to mass, and design the the latter's relationship. In which the structural datum (Horacio's experiences) is inherently dependent for the space's (Horacio himself) integrity.
Institution: University of Puerto Rico | Prof. Emilio Martínez
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The design of this Old San Juan brownstone is inspired in the life of the fictional artist Horacio Cuprak. The house reflects the vicissitudes that marked his life from a young age. A holocaust survivor, Horacio witnessed the deaths of his parents in the horrific concentration camp of Auschwitz. Thus, his life has been molded by sordidness. It is through art that he finds inner peace, often escaping reality for weeks. Horacio has learned to live with his psychological baggage, and as time passes, more inclusive he is about it. Having lived in extreme precariousness, he severely dislikes unused spaces and prefers small, “just about right” alcoves. But what is a half Spanish, half Czechoslovakian man doing in Puerto Rico? His eccentric behavior one day at a vacation cruise, convinced him to ditch his daughter Beatriz, and decided to stay in the walled city of San Juan for a couple more weeks. Captivated by the island's enchantment, he afterwards decided to establish permanently in Old San Juan.
