Por:
Botero López Juanita
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Fecha:
2016
The main purpose of this research is to demonstrate the connection between the vernacular architecture of La Cabaña and El Chuzo, two coffee regions of Caldas, Colombia, and how their ordinary domestic spaces of everyday life are defined and intimately related to the process of coffee production.
The study of both veredas will lead us to understand an architecture that has been shaped by the two systems of coffee production in Caldas, known as Latifundios1 (La Cabaña) and minifundios2 (El Chuzo). Both systems determine the social and economic structure of the Caldas coffee region and therefore also its vernacular architecture and its peoples’ everyday life. This study will demonstrate the tangible and intangible qualities of these places, enabling us to understand in a deep way their values, meaning, and change over time.
In Colombia, a country just starting to document its history and to create a written patrimony, being able to narrate what people do not know about La Cabaña and El Chuzo is a way to work toward a better understanding of the coffee region´s vernacular architecture and cultural landscape, and its sense of place and identity.
To achieve this understanding of the coffee region, the project is undertaken in the emerging field of Cultural Landscape studies. This methodology aims to identify and analyze the essential and fundamental qualities of specific places, to then reveal their sense of place and identity.
The study is done through historic photographs, oral histories, interviews, direct observation and documentation of peoples’ everyday lives around the process of coffee production. Only by studying how people live and the activities that take place in their domestic spaces and by being part of their everyday life, will we be able to understand how the vernacular architecture of La Cabaña and El Chuzo has been shaped by the process and culture of coffee production.
