Directors of the Residential Cooperative El Falansterio
Description
Men standing at one of the entrances to the El Falansterio residential cooperative in Puerta de Tierra. The men gathered in front of the entrance are the directors of the residential cooperative. It can be seen that the entrance has short stairs leading into a hallway that opens between two columns and the wall next to those columns has an ornamental design with holes that open into a rectangular shape. The building is made of concrete and has an Art Deco design.| Origin Name |
PRA 0016 F0005
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| Relation |
Archivo de Arquitectura y Construcción de la Universidad de Puerto Rico > Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration > Cartapacio 3
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| Geographical Coverage |
San Juan
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| Date |
1939
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| Descriptive Notes |
Title assigned by the cataloguing team. The general description contains information provided by the Architectural and Construction Archive of the University of Puerto Rico (AACUPR).
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| Descripción decolonial |
The directors of the El Falansterio residential cooperative, standing at its Art Deco entrance, embody the complex interplay of housing rights, cooperatives, and the colonial-decolonial tension. The men in the image seem to offer a propagandistic image of control and order, following the rhetorics of colonial-capitalist patriarchy. Yet, they also document community empowerment, which reached across multiple socio-racial lines. Built by the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration (PRRA) to replace slums, the concrete structures of Project A, later known as El Falansterio, were, at first blush, a colonial imposition aimed at modernizing and controlling urban spaces. “El Falansterio” was initially a mocking nickname given by opponents, referring to "Le Phalanstère," the utopian community envisioned by French thinker Charles Fourier (1772-1837). The similarities are striking. Both were designed around a public space for quiet activity, with a two-story building at the center serving as a communal hub. This project became an icon of collective housing, openly engaged in utopian potential. The men here are participants in that utopian effort, whose ultimate stakes might mean decolonization and self-empowerment in Puerto Rico. Transforming El Falansterio into a cooperative in the 1940s enabled tenants to purchase their homes, fostering a sense of ownership and community autonomy. This shift represented a decolonial possibility, where residents could assert their rights and redefine their living conditions beyond the colonial framework.
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| Historical Background | |
| Architectural Subject |
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| Decolonial Subject | |
| Rights |
The PRAHA does not own the rights to this resource. The user must contact the repository or archive that holds the physical document to determine the restrictions that may apply under the Copyright and Intellectual Property Law or by agreements agreed with donors.
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| Editor |
Fundación Luis Muñoz Marín
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| Resource Format |
JPEG
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| Resource Type |
Image
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