Intervening in a building or public space always brings with it great challenges, especially if the work must take into account the integrality and vision that a historic city requires. On many occasions it is the engineers who have to provide solutions on site.

In the Office of the Historian of the city, an institution close to celebrate a quarter of a century after its creation, the work of engineers in the different disciplines is not overlooked, from the good sense when defining a resource, to the optimal solution for the work to be carried out with the available materials, without overlooking the quality and needs of the project.

“The engineer is the one who has to guarantee the static-resistant capacity of the structure and enforce the requirements of the architecture. That is one of the differences with the work of architects, which is fundamentally dedicated to spaces, to volumes; while the civil engineer, for example, is more linked to the resistant capacity, to withstand the passing of the years, to fulfill its functions well, and not to collapse. Therefore, there must be a very strong content dedicated to the resistance of the materials”, says Noel Iraola Valdés, engineer of the Project Management of the Office of the Historian of Camagüey city.

Diversity of utilities

Due to the importance of their work, we can find them in various managements of this institution, such as in the Master Plan, the Management of Projects or the Investments one.

According to Iraola Valdés, not only civil engineers work in the Office, in each work that is executed also weighs the criteria of electrical, hydraulic or other engineers depending on the work to provide solutions.

“To further contextualize the work of the engineer, I give you the example of Camilo’s sculpture, of the José Villa Soberón National Prize for Plastic Arts, which is located in the roundabout near the Amalia Simoni Hospital. In these types of structures that weigh little and are in open spaces, the wind is a fundamental element to take into account. In that work we had to make several innovations, the main structure that looks like tubes are not, they are bent, welded sheets; We had to make some inventions to achieve what the artist wanted because he has his idea, his sketches, but behind it there has to be a team of engineers and architects capable of projecting and carrying it out. ”

Engineering is perhaps one of the most anonymous tasks that exists, but at the same time it is an essential and long-lived one in history; Without this professionals it would be impossible to continue building our cities; and also to restore the splendor and functionality of many properties.

Translated by: Aileen Álvarez García