Patagonian Architecture 101

The houses here are small cottages frequently with a roof that slopes in just one direction. They are sided by tin, or some sort of metal, and roofed with corrugated tin. Frequently they're painted nice bright colors, which makes a nice contrast to the gray threatening sky. There are really old houses with wood siding, but those deteriorate relatively rapidly. There are lots of wooden skeletons standing around empty. The older metal sided houses usually have wooden windows. The window frames weather rapidly. The wind blows through them pretty easily. If you're a fresh air fiend like me, it's great. You get lots of fresh air without opening the window.

Because of the weather, the metal sided houses require frequent painting. Sometimes the beaten condition of the house can be a bit off-putting. But the inside can be quite comfortable. The newer houses have aluminum siding and they seem to hold up great. The newer houses also have metal aluminum framed windows, so I'm sure they don't have the sealing problems that the older houses do.

There are usually two sets of front doors. The outer door lets you into a little room, the size of a phone booth, where you can close the outer door before opening the inner one. Sometimes instead of an inner door, there's a heavy curtain. This keeps the wind from blowing through the whole house. The two story houses frequently look like cubic boxes. After you enter the front door, there's a hallway and a staircase. The upstairs rooms are rarely heated, since they're the bedrooms, and, after all, heat rises. These two story houses will frequently boast a raised roof that slopes in two directions (un techo de dos aguas).

The houses are poorly insulated or not at all. When the wind howls, some of the metal siding bangs against the framework. The wind makes weird noises and the curtains next to the drafty windows billow out. As in the mountains of Bolivia and Peru, each bed seems to come equipped with up to 75 lbs. of wool blankets. You pile them at the bottom of the bed and you keep pulling up an extra blanket until you get warm, or can't breathe anymore.

Attached is a photo of the house I stayed in in Puerto Natales. Althought pretty weather beaten on the outside, it was quite nice inside. As in the states, some of the older houses, such as this one, have wooden floors. Others just have linoleum. The wood in the floors and staircases exudes a nice odor reminding me of teak, but I don't know what kind of wood they use, or where they get it from.

All the homes are heated with natural gas, which I'm told is relatively cheap. Usually one stove is left on all the time, either the one in the living room or the kitchen. It can be damped down during the day when the sun is shining and the weather is not too cold, or during the night.

Next time....more on food!
Hasta luego!