REFLECTIONS ON THE VERNÁCULA HOUSE IN CRUDE EARTH: THE CALDERON AND MONSALVE HOUSE AS CASE STUDY OF THE ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE IN CABRERA, SANTANDER

Abstract

The aesthetic value of vernacular architecture is associated with the intangible heritage that its inhabitants represent, the ways of life and the house that brings together the natural beauty of the forms, the irregularity of its components, the fusion between the site and the materials that produce the object and the absence of aesthetic canons, because the act of building is as natural as the people who produce it are.

The vernacular architecture in Cabrera is manifested as a material footprint of the sustainable habitat, built with traditional materials and techniques adapted to the needs of the human group that has inhabited them since its founding beginning in the early nineteenth century. The efficient use of land, stone and wood has left traces in the region of a bioclimatic architecture adapted naturally to the predominantly rural environment.

The Calderon y Monsalve house stands for vernacular architecture representative of the material heritage of two families and is a repository of traditional folk knowledge, of genuine constructive techniques.

The study has focused on the materiality, the historical past and the families that inhabit it through the registration, identification and analysis of the components that it intends to contribute to the academic knowledge to apply them to the recognition and conservation of vernacular architecture in a changing modern habitat.