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The Vernacular Architecture of the “Coffee Landscape” in Colombia A Study in the Three Types of Settlements and Lifestyles of La Cabaña and El Chuzo Presented by: Juanita Botero Lopez Supervised by: Dr. Robert Mellin Urban Design and Housing Program School of Architecture McGill University Montreal A project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Post- Professional Master of Architecture September, 2016 © 1 Abstract 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, recorded memories, 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. 1 Latifundios is the way in which large portions of land that belong to one landlord are named. In the coffee region of Colombia a land parcel between 30 and 40 hectares and a maximum of 60 is considered a Latifundio. 2 Minifundios are small portions of land that belong to one landlord, which do not exceed 5 hectares. 2 Acknowledgments My interest in studying the coffee region of Colombia emerged from a surprising and fortunate coincidence and event. In starting my masters, I was fortunate to have as my supervisor the architect and researcher Professor Robert Mellin, an expert and authority in Cultural Landscape studies. In addition, I am the fifth generation of a family who has been producing coffee in Colombia for more than 100 years. After mentioning this to Professor Mellin, he encouraged and supported me to study the coffee region of Colombia and to develop a cultural landscape study in the region where my family produces coffee. I want to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Robert Mellin, for his enthusiasm in my research, his support, and for encouraging me to develop this study. He not only motivated me to develop research in this region, but he also allowed me to see my family tradition of producing coffee with completely new eyes. I am also deeply grateful to my family. I will like to specially mention my grandmother, Julia Calderon de Botero, my father Jose Fernando Botero, and my uncle Ricardo Botero to whom I owe the most sincere thanks for being a key element in my fieldwork. They demonstrated profound interest and cooperation during the whole process. It was also a privilege to count on the support of all people in the coffee region. I express my profound gratitude to all the generous and helpful workers and peasants of the farms I visited; their cooperation was enormously important to my work. Last but not least, I am very grateful to my parents and brother, who always encouraged me in my academic and professional life and who have always inspired me to continue my studies and dreams as an architect. 3 Introduction It is not news that one of the best coffees in the world is Colombian coffee. Around its consumption a culture has been created in every country of the world, and in Colombia, around its production, a way of life. The relationship between Colombia´s coffee region inhabitants and the process of producing coffee has shaped much of the nation’s cultural values, way of life, socio-economic structure, and vernacular architecture and everyday life. The aim of this study is to document the everyday architecture and way of living of the people from one of the most representative regions of Colombia’s coffee cultural landscape. The study focuses on La Cabaña and El Chuzo, two veredas located in El Municipio de Manizales, Caldas, both of which have a particular way of producing coffee and living. In this region coffee is produced under two economic systems, which are Minifundios (El Chuzo) and Latifundios (La Cabaña). Both systems define the three types of settlements found in the rural areas of both veredas. The first kind of settlement is small coffee grower farms. The second one, big landowner farms, while the last is caserios, or small villages of big farm workers. In all three, I studied the construction techniques and materials, composition, formal structure, social orders, change over time, and everyday life of the vernacular architecture. To have a better understanding of the coffee landscape, a cultural landscape study, which is based in a qualitative and observational method, was undertaken. Interviews were conducted with people to know how they live their everyday life. These were accompanied by measured drawings, oral histories, photographs, and sketches to visualize and analyze the coffee landscape, to reveal the patterns, identity, and everyday life of the people from La Cabaña and El Chuzo. An understanding of the social, cultural, and economic forces that ultimately shape the architecture and everyday life of this region was sought and played a crucial element in this study. The starting point for the development of this research was to identify the main elements of the coffee region that have shaped the architecture of this region over time. Subsequently, to develop an analysis on the macro level of the territory, I developed a study on the micro-level of the three types of settlements. 4 For the first chapter, a literature review regarding the concepts, methodology, and importance of developing Cultural Landscape studies in vernacular architecture and the architecture of the everyday was done. Then an overview regarding the history of the region to understand its context and position in social, economic, and cultural terms was undertaken. Furthermore, a study of the territory, or the way land is divided and how people live and move around this landscape, will be illustrated. A fourth chapter develops a study of the three different kinds of settlements that exist in the rural area of La Cabaña and El Chuzo. The result is a document that reveals the identity, cultural values, patterns, and everyday life of La Cabaña and El Chuzo coffee cultural landscapes and vernacular architecture. This study will work as a departure point for future studies of greater detail in one of the houses or structures here identified. This study will also open up opportunities for other people to explore this area. 5 CHAPTER I Literature Review 98 percent of the built environment has been planned by ordinary people, not by architects or urban planners (Dendra, 2013). Therefore an immensity of landscapes, spaces, and structures that can be considered ordinary spaces are awaiting study, understanding, and documentation. In schools of architecture we learn different methods to study what is considered “monumental or important architecture.” In my personal case, when I was an undergraduate student, I studied some of the buildings by Francesco Borromini, Le Corbusier, Rogelio Salmona, Mendes Da Rocha, and Mies Van der Rohe, but never traditional or vernacular architecture outside of a very technical study of some informal settlements in Bogota and Medellin. But we cannot ignore that within vernacular and everyday architecture lies the essence and meaning of societies and cultures. As Paul Groth asserts, “Everyday experience is essential to the formation of human meaning. When only monuments or high-style designers are taken seriously, the everyday environment is overlooked and undervalued.” (Groth, 1997, pg.3) But how to study the everyday landscape and the vernacular architecture? How to undertake research to understand a cultural landscape, its vernacular architecture and its everyday spaces in a way that reveals its identity and values? Scholars in different fields and from multiple disciplines who are concerned about the study of the ordinary and everyday architecture and places have been able to interpret the built environment at different levels, to understand the culture, values, change over time and identity of a place, through Cultural Landscape studies. Such authors include John Brinckerhoff Jackson, Henry Glassy, Paul Groth, and Robert Mellin. The work of Jackson, who dedicated his life to understand and interpret the American landscape, and the studies of Robert Mellin, who for decades has focused on Tilting, a fishing town in Newfoundland, Canada to illustrate its everyday life, are perfect examples of how Cultural Landscape and Material Culture studies lead us to a better understanding of ordinary spaces.

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