From Natural to Artificial: Vernacular housing in the Spanish Caribbean

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The Spanish American War of 1898 and the colonization of the Spanish Caribbean (Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic) by the Government of the United States (U.S.), brought about changes to local vernacular housing. The Spanish colonizers substituted indigenous traditional means and methods of construction and replaced them with continental techniques and new materials. The U.S. occupation produced yet another transformation through the extensive use of portland cement which became the protagonist for their new domestic architecture. Even though cement had been introduced into the region two decades prior, to build industrial structures and through the importation of pre-manufactured new materials made with cement, it was slowly accepted for residential buildings, being promoted as fireproof, vermin-proof, and with the strength to resist hurricanes and earthquakes. Erection methods were faster, the dwellings were lighter, and built with the use of repetitive methods facilitated by reusable molds. Catalogs produced in each of these territories with the new prefabricated cement architectural elements would maintain the essence of the vernacular translated into cement and reinforced concrete. These architectural evolutions are traced with the use of historic archival materials: cartography, architectural layouts, photography, and extant contemporary representations.