travel

This little house mixes the modern and the traditional --- mud and straw construction on a wooden frame, but a concrete floor, zinc roof and electricity. Old-fashioned houses in this Panamanian architectural vernacular often have Spanish tile roofs and frequently feature packed dirt floors and lack indoor plumbing or electricity. Photo by Eric Jackson

This little farmhouse, a work in progress in the foothills of Cocle province, is an adaptation of a building style that was old before the Spaniards got to Panama. (In a bilingual dictionary they might call it adobe, but that's a Mexican word: in Panama they call it "quincha.")

Wouldn't it stand to reason that the pre-Columbian Coclean culture, renowned for its ceramics, would also build its homes with Panama's red clay? That's exactly what they did, and it's how many Interior residents of modest means house themselves to this day.

In recent decades there has been a "vernacular architecture" movement among some of Panama's best architects to incorporate materials and techniques used in the various regional building traditions into creative new works. To see an excellent example of quincha in more modern buildings, go see the horse stables at the riding club in Coronado.




Also in this section:
Fort San Lorenzo
The ups and downs of ecotourism
Panama Vacation Quarters
Casa de quincha

Back to top

Financial services at Finansbanken --- http://www.finansbanken.dk/english/index.html
Build a home in Las Cumbres with Villa Concordia --- http://villaconcordia-pma.com/
Make the Executive Hotel your headquarters in Panama City --- http://www.executivehotel-panama.com
Let Alegria Web Design handle your Internet needs --- http://www.alegriawebdesign.com