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HAITI HERITAGE: The Gingerbread style, a heritage in dangerHaiti: Gingerbread
HAITI HERITAGE: The Gingerbread style, a heritage in danger
Haiti: Gingerbread
  • June 15, 2024
  • | 0

HAITI HERITAGE: The Gingerbread style, a heritage in danger

This style of Gingerbread house made its triumphant entry into the project of a new model of building in the middle of the 20th century in Haïti with the arrival of new Haitian engineers studied in Europe, more precisely in France, who were going to provide Haïti with a new form of construction. At that time, the Haitian landscape was flourishing, the city of Port-Au-Prince is full of trees where the weather is beautiful in the heights of the city of Princes, it was a heavenly place where businessmen, mixed with politicians depending on the time began to live in this green space. Today, the Gingerbread house style, a built heritage in danger.

The Gingerbread house style, a heritage in danger.

The State says nothing about the devaluation of these old houses which marked the post-colonial era. These houses, which experienced their glory days in the first half of the 20th century, are today in danger. Some of these houses which are in ruins, the majority, in a state of disrepair. Faced with natural disasters, the materials from which they were built were mainly wood, they could not withstand bad weather, because their lifespan is limited. This new style marked more than a century in the history of a new model of architecture in Haiti. However, their maintenance is too expensive. As wood is now scarcer, repair work becomes very expensive.

Following the adoption of new construction models towards the second half of the 21st century, we could see the virtual disappearance of this Gingerbread house model in Haiti. A new form of construction would replace the Gingerbread style, this is the moment when concrete offers possibilities for larger constructions and on larger spaces. Hence uses which accelerate their degradation or their frequent demolition in favor of concrete constructions.

Several attempts to evolve gingerbread, from wood and masonry, to reinforced concrete, remain very limited. In addition, these new houses built in concrete no longer have all the traditional characteristics of gingerbread. For Mr. Doret, “it’s a radical change, the style has disappeared”.

These old houses, in danger of disappearing, were affected and damaged during the earthquake of January 13, 2010. To reduce the damage caused by the said earthquake, private institutions, FOKAL jointly carried out an operation with one of the Haitian State organizations ,ISPAN, in order to safeguard the few Gingerbread style heritage which were not damaged during the earthquake of January 12, 2010.

Gingerbread style, heritage in danger, the Haitian state and the private sector should act to be able to save these old houses for future generations. Does the country exist without its historical heritage???

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