Roberto Segre
Italian-Argentine architect, critic, and historian Roberto Segre, a key figure in Latin American and Cuban architecture, passed away March 10th in Brazil, at the age of 78, the victim of an automobile accident.
Born in Milan, Italy, in 1934, Segre was a teacher to many generations of architects and art historians in Havana and at universities across Latin America and Europe. He moved to Cuba in 1963 with the intent of devoting himself to academic pursuits.
With Fernando Salinas, Segre edited the journal Arquitectura/Cuba in the 1970s. He studied Cuban colonial-era fortifications and their significance of that system for the Caribbean region. Among his Cuba-based projects, Segre is remembered for his work at the Second Havana Biennial in 1986.
Segre's books are indispensable materials for architecture students. Among them, Diez años de arquitectura en Cuba revolucionaria (1970); América Latina en su arquitectura (1975); Arquitectura y urbanismo de la Revolución cubana (1989); América Latina, fin del milenio: raíces y perspectivas de su arquitectura (1991); and Arquitectura Antillana del Siglo XX (2003). His last publication explores the work of Oscar Niemeyer.
Roberto Segre received an honorary doctorate from the José Antonio Echeverría Polytechnic Institute and was a Doctor of Art Sciences from Havana University and a Doctor of Regional and Urban Planning from Rio de Janeiro Federal University.
As a posthumous tribute, the Visual Arts Association and the Culture, City, and Architecture Commission will hold a panel discussion In Memoriam Roberto Segre on Thursday, April 4th, at 4:00 pm at Sala Villen.
