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Cuban Mortar Tiles Chapter 3: Development of Styles
Chapter 3 Development of Styles
Types of building in which mosaico hidráulico fl ooring is found
In the fi rst four decades of the 20th century, mosaicos hidráulicos were commonly,
almost ubiquitously, used as the fl oor fi nish in the more modest private
homes. This is true throughout Cuba from Havana to the provinces, both for
new houses and apartments and for new fl oors in older modest colonial houses.
Grander mansions of this period used mosaico hidráulico fl ooring in bedrooms
and service areas but generally, although not always, tended to lay marble in
the more important rooms. (The Palacete Bosch in Santiago de Cuba is an
exception which is fl oored throughout with mosaicos hidráulicos in elaborate
layouts.) In Havana and the richer cities, marble was usually the fl ooring of
choice for public buildings – government buildings, banks, libraries, hotels etc
- in the ground fl oor and public spaces, whereas mosaicos would be confi ned
to the upper fl oors. In smaller, less wealthy towns, mosaico hidraulicos can be
found in the important public spaces (the Ayuntamiento, or Town Hall, in Santa
Clara is an example, along with churches in many provincial cities).
Standard product serving a market
Unlike in Spain, where architects had designed bespoke fl oors for high-end
houses for the rich bourgeoisie, the losa hidraulica was used more in middleincome
houses. It is unlikely that specially designed fl oors would have been
commissioned in Cuba as the high-end houses tended to use marble. The
losa hidraulica was an off-the-shelf product designed by artisans. As a product
serving a market, mosaico hidraulico styles would have followed a trend set by
the other arts and by bespoke architecture. The easy graphic adaptability of the
manufacturing process meant the losa hidraulica could follow quickly, with a
sharp-eyed artisan designer keeping pace with the latest developments.
Marketing
Many Catalan mosaico producers had marketed their product with lavishly designed
catalogues, the most lavish of which were produced by ‘Escofet’. Surviving
Cuban mosaico catalogues are rare – in fact the only currently knowncatalogue
held in the Archivo Nacional was printed in Barcelona for ‘La Cubana’,
the largest Cuban factory. Cuban producers tended to market their products
through Exposiciones. 2
1. Felicia Chateloin, conversation 19 August 2009
Styles of Architecture and of Mosaicos Hidráulicos
Broadly speaking, architectural styles in the fi rst half of the 20th century in Cuba
developed from Art Nouveau to Eclecticism to Art Deco with a fair amount of
overlap, then moved into Modernism in the 1950s. Eclecticism is cited as the
period in which mosaico tile manufacture fl ourished, but tiles were produced
in patterns corresponding to all of these styles. Floral and fi gurative themes
were common to Art Nouveau and Eclecticism - Art Nouveau favouring more
asymmetric designs. These themes gave way to geometric patterns in Art Deco
period – a time in which decorative effects for fl oors were also increasingly
achieved just in layout (colocación). By the 1950s, with some exceptions, tile
design had simplifi ed to a minimum in keeping with the plainer fi nishes, including
the newly fashionable in-situ terrazzo, which characterised that period of
Modernism. The rare exceptions were designed by some 50s Cuban architects
who were seeking a ‘national’ architecture 1 , and who saw in hydraulic mosaic
tiles an intrinsically Cuban product.
However, while they mirrored architectural styles, by no means were mosaicos
hidráulicos of a certain style always used strictly in buildings of a matching style.
In fact, the choice of fl oor pattern was fairly random, with only the occasional
coincidence between architectural style and fl oor pattern. There was much
mixing and matching of tiles between the Art Nouveau and Eclectic buildings
who could easily swap fl oral patterns. There tended to be more consistency
between the Art Deco buildings and their fl oor designs, although there are still
instances of abstract, geometric architecture with fl oral fl oors (El Colonial, in
Calle Reina, Havana is just one example).
This choice of fl oor, and clash or otherwise of styles, would have depended
largely on Clients’ taste. Even if a building was designed by an architect (which
many were not), the specifi cation usually only dictated the type of fl oor
(mosaicos hidraulicos) leaving the fi nal choice of pattern to the Client. But most
buildings in Havana were erected by builders and artisans and the building
warrant plans simply signed by architect “fi rmones”. Builders or their Clients
were likely to have selected fl oor tiles according to availability/personal taste
and may have shown less concern for strict aesthetic rules than architects.
2.0 Daniel Taboada interview 3 June 2009