Towards a History of Architecture in the Caribbean A study on frameworks and writing methods in architectural historiography. Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St. Eustatius, and St. Maarten Ichmarah Kock 2016 TOWARDS A HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE IN THE CARIBBEAN A study on frameworks and writing methods in architectural historiography. Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St. Eustatius, and St. Maarten Ichmarah Kock Student number: 10335404 Master thesis History of Architecture Faculty of Humanities Universiteit van Amsterdam / University of Amsterdam Prof. dr. Lex Bosman Dr. Petra Brouwer Augustus 2016 Image front page: “Ocean Fan” (Photograph by Armando Goedgedrag. Copyright by Artmando Multimedia, accessed August 13, 2016, http://www.artmandomultimedia.com/paintings-2/wave-photography/). © 2016 Ichmarah Kock ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Acknowledgements Foremost, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor prof. dr. Lex Bosman of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Amsterdam for his support of my MA thesis research, for his motivation, enthusiasm, guidance and immense knowledge. Additionally, I am also grateful to dr. Madelon Simons for her encouragement and providing useful suggestions about this thesis. I would also like to acknowledge dr. Petra Brouwer of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Amsterdam as the second reader of this thesis. A special thanks to Helen Lambert and Francis Rugebregt for their supportive input and advice. Finally, words cannot express how profoundly grateful I am to my parents Marcia Kock- de Cuba and Inrich Kock, and my brother Inrich Kock, for their continuous encouragement and their unfailing support through the process of researching and writing this thesis. Thank you. Ichmarah Kock 1 Contents List of figures ............................................................................................................................. 4 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 5 A brief overview of historical, geographical and linguistic facts .......................................... 8 Reasons to study this area .................................................................................................... 10 Research relevancy .............................................................................................................. 11 Research method .................................................................................................................. 13 1. Western European architectural historiography development ............................................. 15 “Mysterious” architecture and the East-West dichotomy: Spain ......................................... 17 Eurocentrism questioned and criticised: The United Kingdom ........................................... 22 Marginalised and “unrepresentative”: The Netherlands ...................................................... 26 Learning critically from histories ......................................................................................... 30 2. Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba, St. Eustatius and St. Maarten ........................................... 32 Focus on monument preservation ........................................................................................ 34 Focus on architectural history itself ..................................................................................... 43 From Eurocentric, to inclusive and cross-cultural ............................................................... 48 3. Case study: Former British colonial islands in the Caribbean ............................................. 50 A variety of publications ...................................................................................................... 51 Crain’s Historic Architecture in the Caribbean islands ...................................................... 52 Hobson’s dissertation: Breaking away from the Eurocentric framework ............................ 54 Multi-cultural and cross-cultural .......................................................................................... 57 4. Case study: Former Spanish colonial islands in the Caribbean ........................................... 58 Prominent publications ........................................................................................................ 59 “Latin America and the Caribbean” ..................................................................................... 61 Erwin Walter Palm’s Eurocentric framework ...................................................................... 65 Thematic approach by Scarpaci, Segre and Coyula ............................................................. 66 More inclusive: Scarpaci et al., Klooster and Bakker, and Hobson .................................... 67 5. A guide: Caribbean islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands ......................................... 69 Research and writing ............................................................................................................ 70 2 Considering important factors .............................................................................................. 73 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 77 Suggestions for further research .......................................................................................... 81 Reference list ........................................................................................................................... 82 Articles ................................................................................................................................. 86 Reviews ................................................................................................................................ 87 Websites ............................................................................................................................... 88 Further readings ....................................................................................................................... 90 General ................................................................................................................................. 90 Architecture .......................................................................................................................... 91 3 List of figures Figure 1. “Map of the Caribbean islands". ...................................................................... 9 Figure 2. Arcaded hypostyle hall of the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba, also known in Spanish as Mezquita de Córdoba. .............................................................................. 18 Figure 3. Cathedral of Teruel in the Mudéjar architectural style. ................................... 21 Figure 4. Fletcher and Fletcher’s “Tree of Architecture” in the fifth edition of A History of Architecture, 1905. ..................................................................................................... 23 Figure 5. Fletcher and Fletcher’s "Comparative system for each style." ........................ 25 Figure 6. Wooden houses in the historic inner city of Paramaribo. ................................ 31 Figure 7. Breedestraat 24, Willemstad, Curaçao (demolished in 1953). ........................ 35 Figure 8. A small domestic house in the western part of Philipsburg, St. Maarten. ....... 39 Figure 9. Two houses in the main street of Kralendijk (Kaya Grandi), Bonaire. .......... 41 Figure 10. The “corner braces” in the interior of a hurricane resistant house on St. Maarten. .................................................................................................................................... 42 Figure 11. Saba. House with rectangular floorplan. ....................................................... 42 Figure 12. Villas in the neighbourhood Scharloo. .......................................................... 45 Figure 13. A typical example of a cunucu house on Aruba. ........................................... 47 Figure 14. The Government House, c. 1882, Basseterre, Saint Kitts. ............................ 54 Figure 15. Philip Reinagle, Holy Trinity Cathedral, 1823, Port of Spain, Trinidad. ...... 54 Figure 16. Hurricane resistant house in Gingerland, Nevis. ........................................... 56 Figure 17. “Town houses in Basseterre with a shade entry.” ......................................... 56 Figure 18. Francisco Guerrero y Torres, Capilla del Pocito, 1777 – 1792, Mexico City, Mexico. ....................................................................................................................... 62 Figure 19. Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Merced, 1865 – 1867, Camagüey, Cuba. ... 64 Figure 20. Bird’s eye view of The Bottom, capital of Saba. .......................................... 76 4 Introduction The publication of the book Bouwen op de wind1 in 2007 had a great impact on my interest in the history of architecture in the Caribbean. Written by two Dutch architectural historians, the book is a result of a comprehensive research on the history of architecture on Aruba in relation to its culture. Bouwen op de wind is the first survey textbook on Aruba’s historic architecture. The same year of its publication, I started with my bachelor’s programme in Art History at the University of Groningen. However, during my second year, when I chose to specialise