Guatemalan Architectural Innovations No7b : Siguen los chapuces

Guatemalan Architectural Innovations No7 'el chapuz'

One doesn't need to be much of an expert to start counting the ways this little project could go horribly wrong both now and in the future.

Guatemalan Architectural Innovations - 6

This situation on the Reformador kind of speaks for itself. Suffice to say that the developer erected a perimeter wall (fake brick: how very Guatemala City) and then found the need to disassemble those parts of it where the interior construction has been planned to back up right against it and the builders need space to fundir the support columns running through the blocks. It remains to be seen whether the wall can eventually be refitted, and whether there will be just enough of a tiny gap between it and the house for dampness, creepy crawlies etc to accumulate.

As for the tree, they are maintaining a resolute 'we'll cross that bridge when we come to it' attitude.

Guatemalan Architectural Innovations - 5

A couple of state-of-the art Guatemalan building techniques can be witnessed in this image.

Firstly there's the fake Spanish terracing along the edge of the roofline favoured by developers wanting to build cheap and sell premium.

Then there's the rather odd sequencing one often sees in speedy constructions of this sort, with one man applying the repello to an outer wall before much of the rest of the house has been completed and the electricity and plumbing fully installed.

Having said this, the developers here haven't skimped on iron reinforcements; indeed at least twice as much hierro holds up this house compared to the one with the anti-grav tubing illustrated in the previous post.

I'm starting to get a good idea about which of my neighbours I'll have to start digging for, come the next big quake.

Guatemalan Architectural Innovations - 4

These cutting edge anti-gravity tuberías are perhaps unique to Guatemala.

Water rolls off the roof tiles* into a gutter and down into this pipe and then up again into the main body of the construction.

On a separate note, V recently remarked to me that she now regrets not hiring Richard Rogers to design our house, as she's lost track of where many of the pipes are. (And it's not that we don't have a proper set of blueprints.)

*Laminas in fact. Actual tejas were apparently deemed a luxury extra by this developer.

Guatemalan Architectural Innovations - 3

The shape of the block wall to the left of this house (being built behind our own) provides a pretty strong indicator of the forthcoming presence of a fountain and probably also some sort of garden. Shame then that nobody indoors will be able to see it, as there are no windows on that side.

Guatemalan Architectural Innovations - 2

Note how the clay pipe gargoyle on this house serves to take the water off the flat roof and down into a trough below where it can be most efficiently converted into rising damp.

Guatemalan Architectural Innovations - 1

Which came first, the house or the wooden post?