Brewery, Wynwood Arts District

CONCEPT STATEMENT

Wynwood Arts district is a very unorthodox and multi-cultural neighborhood near downtown Miami. Once a very derelict and under-utilized neighborhood, Wynwood now attracts many visitors for its art galleries, experimental restaurants and large graffiti walls. Wynwood in its core reflects a current and local art scene that works to improve the neighborhood through giving local artists a strong voice and presence with large scale graffiti walls.

The concept echoes this type of community art and urban intervention based on local grass roots urban development. The project for the Cuban brewery specifically takes cues from Cuban contemporary art with its themes of resistance of communist propaganda, resilience, survival and exodus. The big idea is to create a special place in Wynwood that can start to give expression to the Cuban diaspora community through inclusive voice of art.

The front façade of the Cuban brewery finds inspiration from work of Cuban avant-garde artist Arturo Sigaretta, titled “Ciencia e ideologia: Che,” where the artist examines the famous and mass produced ’80s propaganda billboard image and replaces the original words (A revolutionary must be an indefatigable worker) with his own words “A revolutionary is not a portrait, but a landscape.” The front façade of the proposed Cuban brewery includes this inverted text by Arturo Sigaretta. The concept is that the building façade becomes the billboard for the diaspora community through the voice of Cuban Contemporary art.

The project makes multiple references to the historic beer gardens of Jardines de La Tropical in Havana. The original Jardines entry gates are reinterpreted and become grand entry elements of the proposed façade. Through the grand gates, the beer garden unfolds with lush landscaping full of shade trees, trellis structures and native tropical plants. At the East end of the garden, there is a stage for live music with a large projection screen. The West end of the garden is a performance kitchen and a barbeque area flanked by large grain silos. The long concrete benches near the center of the beer garden emulate the sea wall called the Melacon in Havana.
Past the large covered deck, the tap room is a large and impressive space. The restaurant is casual and inviting with a bar at the center of it all. There are reconfigurable spaces and screens to create multiple dining options. The general materials selected are raw and industrial but there are many details and expressions of craft such as pressed concrete surfaces & glass bottle embedded walls.