Guyana’s wooden architecture can be an addition to the tourist experience

Dear Editor,
It was interesting to read in the international edition of the Guyana Times of February 3, 2013, an article headlined, “The historic timber architecture of small houses,” referring to Guyana’s architectural heritage. When truthfully explored, these smaller wooden homes maintained a style of architecture that exists on a far grander scale in surviving public wooden buildings that were once private mansions. We have to put aside our temptation to evaluate Guyanese historic data via a class/economic disparity, but rather by what was experienced practically as satisfying and beautiful, no matter the wooden material used to build, or which original colonial cultures influenced it.
On entering most of these one-floor little Guyanese houses, one first encounters a drawing or living room, to the right or left of which is a hallway beside a wall, with windows opposite one or two bedrooms, then a small dining room combined with kitchen, and small toilet. In slightly larger wooden houses, the hallway would begin at the living room’s centre, dividing the house floor equally with bedrooms on either side, followed by dining room and kitchen. The original design of these homes can be seen on a far grander scale in the Georgetown High Court, designed by Baron Siccama, and Castellani House, designed by Cesar Castellani, both architects of Italian origin, who helped lay the foundation to an evolved Guyanese wooden architecture (during British Guiana), which we often see deteriorating.
It goes without saying that the maintenance of such architecture throughout Guyana can add to touristic interest, beyond natural wild life and scenery in the country’s interior. We should understand that the first Flemish and Dutch pioneers to Guyana’s “wild coast” were mostly far from an “elite” background, but rather quite humble adventurous single young men who came from northern European cultures of an era filled with skilful wooden housing in the 15th, 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and even France championed stone architecture after Italy (excluding Venice); as such cultures contributed early skilful settlers, who today exist only as evolved mixed races.
The surviving grand elite wooden houses of Georgetown really only emerged under British governance during the 134 years of British Guiana, but contrary to what many Guyanese still tend to believe, they were not primarily of British or Anglo architectural influence. Nonetheless, it remains the architectural heritage of all Guyanese, beyond any preferences of race, culture or class.
Yours sincerely,
Terence Roberts