Introduction

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For this Project in Lieu of Thesis, I will present a redefined version of tropical architecture that responds to the current circumstances of Puerto Rico. I will design an apartment complex that will respond harmoniously to the climate of Puerto Rico. Following design techniques associated with tropical architecture, the project will provide the necessary comfort of living by mainly utilizing passive design tools. Due to the island’s recent “encounters/confrontations” with natural disasters, resiliency must also play a key roll in the design.

In order to achieve this goal, I will be conducting research on various aspects of tropical architecture and Puerto Rico. Understanding what constitutes tropical architecture as a branch of the discipline is a must in order to have a base from where my design shall start. By conducting case study analysis from projects from various tropical countries, I will comprehend the characteristics of tropical architecture and see what aspects can work for my design.

I will also undergo a brief dive into Puerto Rico’s history to recognize the trends of architectural typologies that have been utilized and how they have inspired or affected the contemporary designs. I will take a specific interest in the architecture of the island’s modernization during the 1950s as this is the time where many of the design standards being utilized today first started to appear. From this investigation, case study analysis will be conducted of modern and contemporary neighborhoods and projects from Puerto Rico to formally understand architectural techniques being utilized on the island.

Another aspect to research is the recent natural disaster events that have devastated the island. From historic hurricanes like Irma and Maria in 2017, to the ruthless earthquakes that hit the South of the island to start 2020, Puerto Rico has been battling to survive. By understanding the various statistics from the recent events to see the damages caused by them, I can design a structure that can withstand future events while also being resilient to recover once the damages have impacted.

As climate change continues to worsen, and as services on the island continue to increase in price (food, gas, electricity, water, etc.), the idea of this project is to broaden the minds of those affected by these issues and demonstrate that a different course of action must be taken to combat them. Puerto Ricans should accept the climate as part of our culture, as part of who we are as people. By providing a refreshing alternative to housing on the island, Puerto Ricans will be willing and eager to demand tropical architecture in the future.

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When people think of Puerto Rico, a few things always come to mind. Beautiful sandy beaches, mesmerizing blue oceans, and delicious mouth-watering foods. Others might think of the wonderful landmarks like “El Castillo San Felipe del Morro”, the Old San Juan Historic District, or the El Yunque National Rainforest, the only tropical rainforest in the United States. Some might think of the tourist attractions of Condado and Isla Verde or some of the municipalities like Ponce and Rincón. Many things just scream tropicality when talking about Puerto Rico. While all these different attributes exemplify “tropicality”, one of the most important, personal, and human aspects doesn’t. The typical Puerto Rican lower-class and middle-class housing, whether it is a single-family, duplex, multi-family, or mixed-used building, doesn’t live up to the island’s tropical or cultural identity.

If we take a closer look at the housing developments throughout the island, we can find an overwhelming amount of [properties/structures/houses] that don’t respond well to the necessities of the average Puerto Rican. Flat roofs, small window openings, little overhang, and poor shading techniques are some of the characteristics that are lacking in most of the housing options for lower- to middle-class residents. It’s outrageous to contemplate living on a tropical island with those architectural typologies being used.

To further understand the contradictory positions that many Puerto Ricans have been accustomed to, we must first define the most important phrase of this investigation. Tropical architecture can be defined in many ways. A concise definition can be the following [look for definition]: a branch of architecture that takes into consideration the tropical climate as a design parameter. Costa Rican architect Bruno Stagno’s work can be defined in four main themes: a) architecture for a latitude, b) Environmental syncretism, c) More design than technology, and d) Architecture of materials. ^footnote. These themes better exemplify what tropical architecture is and how it can and should be practiced in any tropical country.

To better comprehend the contemporary architecture practiced in Puerto Rico, we must first see how the different architectural typologies have changed, starting with the native Taínos and their community arrangement, the Spanish Era, which brought the urban organization, and ending with the Americanization and modernization of what we have today. A particular focus on the modernization of Puerto Rico during the 1950s will be important to understand because most of the typologies that are practiced today originated during this time.

In the end, comprehending and recognizing these events and what constitutes tropical architecture will help present a refreshing take on architecture on the island and demonstrate to Puerto Ricans that there can be a better way to live and that everyone is deserving of good architecture, not just wealthy individuals.

It is fair enough to say that Puerto Ricans are obsessed with urbanization, or closedgated communities, composed of single-family homes with front and back yards, garages, and cookie-cutter designs. Most, if not all, of the new private housing developments around the island, are for gated communities of all shapes and sizes. To understand Puerto Rico’s current urban sprawl, we must take a closer look at why and how it first occurred.

Living Through the Hurricane

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing the beauties and charm that make it “La Isla del Encanto”, The Island of Enchantment. I lived in a typical 1960s suburban house built during the modernization of the island. While I love my previous home and all of the memories that I made in it, there were many times when the structure just felt unbearable to live in. As I will discuss further in the research, the typical suburban house in Puerto Rico is a single-family, flat roof, concrete box that where mass produced at a time were there was a housing shortage. The issue with this typology is that they don’t necessarily respond well to the current problems the island is facing, such as climate change and high energy bills.

I’ve lived through hot summers where my house felt like an oven that always stayed on. While the house was well positioned, taking advantage of the easterly winds and having a big canopy tree that provided shade to the west façade every afternoon, the days and nights still felt excruciatingly hot. All of the windows were “Miami style” windows which helped those prevailing winds enter the home and provide cross ventilation to almost every space inside. The problem is that at some points, the cross-ventilation effect diminished as it moved through. All these difficulties were worsened when hurricanes Irma and Maria passed through the island in September of 2017.

I was still studying for my undergraduate degree at the University of Puerto Rico. It was the first day of class for the 2017-2018 year. I was attending my only class that day when by the afternoon, the governor declared a state of emergency for the incoming Hurricane Irma. My mom was at work, while my dad was living in Tampa. I came home, called my dad, and he told me a list of things I needed to do to prepare the house for the incoming weather. I completed all of the tasks on the list while my mom finished the day at work. At the end of the day, we went to pick up my grandparents from their apartment so they can pass the storm with us. We were felt without power as Irma passed through the island. Thankfully, Irma didn’t cause much damage to my home or my community. We were left without power for only a couple of days, which was a relief for the standards of the electric grid in Puerto Rico. Some people didn’t have the same luck as my family had with the passing of Irma. What made things worse was that Maria was just 2 weeks away from hitting the island.

On September 20, 2017, at 6:15 am, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Yabucoa, Puerto Rico as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained winds of 155 mph.1 I was in my house in the suburbs of San Juan, in a community known as Cupey. I lost power the night before Maria made landfall. I tried to sleep, but the howling of the wind was so deafening that I couldn’t. By sunrise, my mom and I were awake in our living room just looking through the windows at all the chaos that was happening outside. Around noon, I was helping my mom handle the water leakage that was entering through the window seals and the TV cable outlets. All of the TV cables meet up on the flat roof, where they then spilt into the main network. There was so much water entering through the outlets which meant that the roof was flooded. The drains along the parapet of the roof couldn’t handle the amount of water. I had to find a hammer and go outside in the middle of the storm to break the PVC pipes so the water could flow out. The sensation of those raindrops hitting my skin at 100+ mph is something that I will never forget.

After I broke the pipes, the flooding inside the house dissipated dramatically, so my mom and I could finally “relax” a little and just weather the storm. The rest of that day was just my mom, my grandparents, and me sitting looking at the windows and seeing all the debris flying through the stormy sky. The street in front of my house started to flood fairly quickly. We saw how the front lawn was slowly submerged in rainwater. Thankfully, the water never entered my house, but some of my neighbors down the street weren’t as lucky. As I reflect on that day, I don’t recall what I ate for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, if I even ate something. I don’t remember how I went to bed that night after the eye of the storm had already passed. I believe that the event was such a stressful one that I just “passed out” and woke up the next day.

The next morning, my mom and I walked outside for the first time after the storm had passed. As we assessed the damages, the amount of wreckage and debris around the house, the streets, and the community was immense. We found a lot of rubbish and junk that we don’t even know where it came from. Some of the zinc roofs from the gazebo my dad had built went flying off, and we

1 US Department of Commerce, NOAA, “Major Hurricane Maria – September 20, 2017,” NOAA’s National Weather Service, 13 July 2021, https://www.weather.gov/sju/madon’t know where they ended up. That big tree that provided shade to our backyard and West façade was naked. The flood in front of the house had dissipated. My aunt lived in the same gated community, so she asked my mom if I could pick her up in my dad’s 4x4 truck and take her close by to a friend’s house and to the area where she fed some stray cats.

As I picked her up and went to the feeding area, the number of tree branches and debris that were on the road was intense. When we got there, my aunt just started to cry at the sight of the damage that Maria had created. She was so worried about the animals and their safety. We then went to pick up her friend. The roads were almost undrivable. Thankfully, some people around the area had already started to clear it up so they can go and see their loved ones or find some supplies. The roof of the nearby gas station was blown off and got tangled up by the nearby tree. Some power and telephone lines had been broken off from the poles and lying on the floor. An entire electric pole had fallen. The road to the friend’s house wasn’t that bad, so we just helped her get her things and headed back to my aunt’s place.

I would say that my mental state at that moment was one of survival mode. I wasn’t fully reflecting on the damages that I was seeing. I was just focused on the task at hand to try and live a “normal” life after a natural disaster. As my mom and I continued to assess the damages to our property, we just decided to slowly start collecting all of the green waste and debris from our backyard. My mom frequently repeated to me to not worry about finishing the cleaning so quickly since we were surely going to be without power for a while and, since there was nothing else to do, we might as well leave things to do for the next days to come.

And that was what we did. For the next couple of weeks, my mom and I created our post-hurricane routine. We would wake up at sunrise, fire up the gasoline generator, turn on the fans in my grandparents’ room so they can continue to sleep a little longer, watched some close, turn on the radio to hear the news, eat a light breakfast, and continue with the cleanup. Some days I got up at four or five in the morning to go with my uncle to the nearest gas station because there was a rumor going around that they would have fuel available to sell. We arrived and made a three- to four-hour-long line to end up not being able to buy fuel. Everybody

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on the island was desperately trying to find a gas station that was selling fuel to refill their generators to keep passing the days.

The days right after Hurricane Maria left Puerto Rico were excruciatingly hot. The days weren’t necessarily sunny. The problem was that there was no wind blowing. Maria had taken all the winds in her direction, so we were left with cloudy, muggy, humid, and suffocating weather. Being inside the house made the suffocation feel much worse. Whenever we powered up the generator, we would go straight to the ceiling fans in the living room, kitchen, and bedroom and turn them on so they could cool and freshen up those main spaces. As the days went by, I was thankful that my family had the economic stability to purchase a generator and the fuel to maintain it during these difficult times. But this also made me think of my fellow neighbors who didn’t have the same luxury.

The family right across from me had no generator. We would connect an extension cord to our house every day so they could power a few fans and their refrigerator for a couple of hours. All these situations happening around me made me start to think about the design of the houses in my community. Why do all the houses have flat roofs? Why do they only have two to three windows in the front façade? Why have people remodeled their homes and changed their “Miami” style windows for full glass windows with no opening?

These were some of the questions that started to pop into my head as the days went by without power or running water. As the weeks went by and cellular connectivity got better, devastating images started appearing on social media about the devastation that had happened all over the island. Wooden houses were blown away. Houses on the mountain side all flooded by the rise of the nearby river. Apartment buildings in the city with windows and sliding doors gone, some of them even had walls torn off. While it’s understandable that even though a structure is made out of concrete it might not necessarily be able to withstand 150+mph winds, one can start to see that the overall design of these buildings and houses isn’t suitable for the climate of Puerto Rico on a day-today basis.

After Hurricane Maria, as I continued my education in architecture, I’ve become more and more intrigued as to why houses and condos in Puerto Rico are designed and built the way they are. Why do wealthier families and individuals aspire to acquire or commission houses that can be seen in architectural magazines and don’t respond to the climate of the island? Why do we design houses that are so dependent on A/C for them to be “livable” when electric bills are one of the highest in the USA and the grid is so delicate and unreliable? Why are the options for lower- to middle-class families similar to the options from the 1960s with more modern finishes? Why do we continue to design structures that depend on active cooling systems and don’t offer other options for comfort?

Since Puerto Ricans continue to aspire to the same type of typology years, there has been little to no innovation. My research paper intends to understand these questions that have been presented and provide a new perspective on the idea of living on the island. As climate change continues to worsen, and as services in Puerto Rico continue to increase in price, the idea of this project is to broaden the minds of those most affected by these issues and demonstrate that a different course of action is possible and necessary. We must accept the climate as part of our culture, as part of our lives, so we can learn to deal with it in a way that benefits us the most. By learning about the possibilities of tropical architecture and passive design, Puerto Ricans can be willing and eager to demand it in the future.

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