Arquitectura popular dominicana

Foreword Manuel A. Grullón President Banco Popular Dominicano This book is the result of a concerted effort to save the tradition of popular architecture in the Dominican Republic and to integrate it with the Caribbean multicultural tradition. The beautiful photographs bear witness to an inherited knowledge that, in many cases, is disappearing: the use of tejamanil1, typical of the southern region; of wood as the sole building material; and of decorative elements such as gables, valances, and transoms that still adorn the façades of many houses in different geographical areas of the country.

The desire was to show, in all its beauty and splendor, the cultural identity of a people whose history is etched in the history of the Caribbean, and thus, the work of architects from nearby countries has been included along with photographs. The Caribbean historical and anthropological cultural heritage is essential to the development of vernacular architecture.

Fifteen years ago, two outstanding and dedicated architects, Victor Manuel Durán Núñez and Emilio José Brea García, began to explore the cultural roots of popular architecture in our nation and its expression in the West Indian context, a commitment which led them along dusty, stone paths, up mountains and down again. They took shelter from the rain and sun in coconut groves; they crossed rivers and wandered along them as they visited remote villages, amassing the documentary and photographic evidence which we, under the auspices of our financial organization, today place in the hands of the public with the title: Dominican Popular Architecture.

This work takes us on a special architectural tour of the landscape that goes from the indigenous forms of dwelling structures to the foundation and development of the structure of family houses at the present time, a development which puts together, and therein its cultural prominence, the knowledge of architecture as a discipline involving systematic artistic skill and the inherent creativity of the popular imagination.

Its pages show, with investigative skill, explanatory clarity, and beautiful, illustrative, educational style, the way in which a people builds its dwellings, a way which is interwoven with an architectural tradition of significant historical, artistic and anthropological value.

With the publication of this book, Banco Popular Dominicano once again shows its commitment to reclaiming and broadening the scope of the cultural values that are part of the most authentic and diverse meaning of being Dominican.