Housing and buildings: between colonial history, tourism and earthquake norms
The oldest buildings on the island are Amerindian. These dwellings, located along rivers and beaches, disappeared when the island was colonized. All that remains today are the sketches and descriptions made by the first settlers, carefully preserved in the archives of Guadeloupe's media libraries. Villages and reconstructed huts can nevertheless be seen on the island of Dominica.
During the period of colonization, mansions developed, often taking the name of the type of production they carried out. For example, they are referred to as "sugar houses", "coffee houses" or similar. The owner and his family lived in the main house, while the slaves who belonged to him lived on his property in villages called "rue case-nègre". Visible from afar, these Louisiana-style houses often serve as museums today. For the record, the Maison de Zévallos, between Le Moule and Saint-François, was created following an order from Louisiana to Gustave Eiffel's workshop. However, the ship carrying the building encountered technical problems on its journey to the United States, and had to call at Guadeloupe. The captain unloaded the goods and sold two houses to wealthy owners to pay for the repair of his ship, thus introducing the Louisiana style to the island! The second is the Saint-John Perse house in Pointe-à-Pitre.
You can also visit theHabitation Néron in Le Moule, the Château Murat in Marie-Galante, Fort Delgrès in Basse-Terre, Fort Fleur-d'Epée..
After the abolition of slavery in the 19th century, traditional Creole huts appeared. Guadeloupeans, now free, settled on vacant lots and built their homes. Huts are built on a square plan and measure around 5 to 6 meters on each side (3 meters for the smallest), with several doors, jalousies (blinds) and wooden shutters. They are traditionally topped with a sloping corrugated roof, to facilitate water run-off during frequent downpours. To prevent dampness, the wooden hut is set on large stones, or mounted on metal posts driven into the ground. Built on a simple two-room model, this modest dwelling can be completed with a perimeter veranda or a front gallery, with a toilet area or an outdoor kitchen. A courtyard, a vegetable garden with a breadfruit tree and a farmyard complete this traditional living space. Not very resistant, many of these huts were destroyed during Hurricane Hugo in 1989, and replaced by small permanent houses.
In the 1930s, the Ministry of Colonies commissioned architect Ali Tur (1889-1977) to rebuild some 100 government buildings destroyed by Hurricane Okeechobee in 1928. He introduced reinforced concrete, breaking with traditional wood and stone architecture and ushering Guadeloupe into a modern era with public buildings adapted to climatic conditions. His most emblematic works include the former law courts in Pointe-à-Pitre, the prefecture in Basse-Terre, the town hall in Lamentin, the departmental council building and the churches in Morne-à-l'Eau and Baie-Mahault.
Although Ali Tur's architectural influence had its heyday on the island, in recent decades architects have freed themselves from it. In modern Creole villas, the all-concrete era is over, and architecture has returned to post-traditional expressions that borrow as much from the maison de maître as from the popular hut. A symbiosis that combines wooden frameworks and metal structures, associating large volumes (on one or two levels), bioclimatic verandas and pergolas, with wrought-iron lacework or wooden frills on the facades... At the same time, the development of mass tourism in Guadeloupe has led to the construction of numerous hotel complexes whose aesthetics, unfortunately, clash somewhat with the landscape. In all cases, the main rule is now to comply with current paracyclonic and parasismic standards, as well as specific thermal regulations.
Mills: testimony to the power of the sugarcane industry
At the beginning of the 18th century, there were as many as 300 mills across the archipelago, including wind, water and animal mills. Long indispensable to the sugar cane industry, before the arrival of steam engines with their higher-capacity flat mills, these mills, and above all their remains, still dot the archipelago's landscapes. The Damoiseau distillery at Bellevue, in Le Moule, Grande-Terre, has been fully restored (the distillery can be visited). The Séverin distillery in Sainte-Rose, north of Basse-Terre, is still equipped with a paddle wheel that uses water from a mountain spring to drive the grinding mills.
You'll see many mills on your wanderings around the archipelago, particularly on the island of Marie-Galante, nicknamed "the island of a hundred mills". The Moulin de Bézard, in Capesterre de Marie-Galante, was restored in 1995 by the Compagnons du Tour de France, with the help of the Guadeloupe Region and the French government, and is now listed as a historic monument.
Today, these buildings, particularly in northern Grande-Terre, are unfortunately in very different states of repair. Some are located on private property. You can only see them from a distance. Most are in a state of abandonment, hidden by vegetation and the famous cursed fig tree, whose aerial roots manage to envelop any type of building over the years. One of the best-preserved mills is located on the Relais du Moulin au Hélleux estate in Sainte-Anne. Recently restored, it features a staircase leading to the top of the building.
Modernity: Guadeloupe on the road to architectural renewal
For several years now, Guadeloupe has been experiencing an architectural revival, supported by renowned institutions. In 2000, the Maison de l'Architecture de Guadeloupe (MAG) was created on the initiative of the Conseil Régional de l'Ordre des Architectes de Guadeloupe. The mission of this association is to stimulate architectural and urban planning projects through meetings, debates and exchanges. MAG organizes a number of events to promote understanding of architecture and enable professionals and artists to meet. La Maison is a project with a social dimension, advocating that architectural culture has the power to change societies and improve the quality of the living environment. In 2020, MAG is launching its first Prix de l'Architecture de Guadeloupe to raise awareness of local contemporary architectural production and inspire new vocations. In a similar, albeit more historic, vein, the impressive Mémorial ACTe or "Caribbean center for the expression and memory of the Slave Trade and Slavery", located in Pointe-à-Pitre, opened its doors in 2015. The building, designed by Guadeloupe architects Jean-Michel Mocka-Célestine, Pascal Berthelot, Mikhëm Marton and Fabien Doré, is a powerful symbol on an island marked by slavery and the slave trade. The museum was designed around the concept of a 7,800 m² black box encircled by silver roots. Symbolically, the black box is the case of memory, in which a permanent exhibition is housed, while the roots represent the souls of the thousands of human beings who disappeared during slavery. They are also a reference to the legend of the cursed fig tree, a plant that thrives on ruins and protects them from annihilation... An architectural metaphor fraught with meaning on an island where the past is still very present.
