Mario Coyula Cowley

Doctor in Technical Sciences, Professor Emeritus of the Instituto Superior Politécnico "José Antonio Echeverría". Architect. Urban designer and critic.

Born in La Habana, Cuba. Participated in clandestine struggle with the Directorio Revolucionario, second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers of the Rebel Army upon the triumph of the revolution.

He was director of the School of Architecture at CUJAE; director of Architecture and Urbanism of Ciudad de la Habana, director of the Group for the Integral Development of the Capital and first president of the Commission of Monuments of Ciudad de la Habana.

Co-author of two commemorative monument projects winners in competitions and considered relevant in that field:
Monument Park of the University Martyrs, Infanta and San Lázaro, first important monument after the triumph of the revolution.
Mausoleum of the Heroes of March 13, Colón cemetery, both awarded.
Author of the Duplex House in the Camilo Cienfuegos School City.
Mention Co-author of the conversion of the old Caballero Funeral Home into a Cultural Center, La Rampa.

Publications
Principal author of the book Urban Design.
Co-author of the books.
Fundamentals of Architecture.
Introduction to the History of Contemporary Architecture and Urbanism.
Theory of Urbanism.
The Cultural Policy of the Revolutionary Period: Memory and Reflection.
Who Makes the City? (Cuenca, Ecuador)
Havana: Two Faces of the Antillean Metropolis (Chichester, UK; Chapel Hill, USA).
Citizen Participation for 21st Century Urbanism, Valencia.

All published in La Habana. Former editor-in-chief of the magazine Arquitectura-Cuba, and current member of the Editorial Boards of Architecture and Urbanism, Temas and Revista Bimestre Cubana.

Has published more than two hundred articles, prologues, essays and reviews in twenty-one Cuban journals and thirty foreign ones. Has been invited to give lectures, workshops, short courses and critiques in more than forty universities and cultural centers in twenty countries.

Was designated Fellow of the SIGUS program at MIT in 1990, and has been a member since 2001 of the International Research Group on Architecture and Infrastructure (GRAI), now LIAT (Laboratory for Research on Infrastructure, Architecture and Territory), based in Paris.

In 2002 he was the first Cuban visiting professor during the spring semester at the School of Design at Harvard University. In October-November 2006 he was Invited Professor in the Urban Strategies postgraduate program at the Angewandte in Vienna.

Presides the tribunal of Teaching Categories and is a member of the Scientific Council, both at the Faculty of Architecture. Vice-president of the permanent national tribunal of Scientific Degrees for Architecture of the Ministry of Higher Education, member of the Scientific Commission of the Technical Advisory Council of MiCons, among others.

Awards
"Joaquín Weiss" Critics' Prize.
Essay Prize of the Cuban chapter of the International Association of Art Critics.
Choice Prize for Relevant Academic Books in the United States.
National Prize for Cultural Heritage (2013)

Distinctions
Has received more than fifty academic, professional, cultural and social distinctions, among them:

Medal for the 250th Anniversary of the Universidad de la Habana.
"José Tey" Medal.
Distinction "For National Culture".
Distinction "For Cuban Education".
Distinction "Rafael María de Mendive".
National Distinction "Habitat".
Order "Frank País" of 1st and 2nd degree.
National Prize for Architecture.

Passed away on July 7, 2014 from cancer