What’s the architecture like in Cayo, Belize, including San Ignacio and Belmopan?

The people in Belize are a mixture of Latinos and Caribbeans. Caribbeans paint their houses purple, red, pink, and green and the Spanish are more likely to paint white and black. As a result, there’s a whole mixture of things here.

 

A lot of houses in Belize or Belizean houses are on stilts, in order to catch breeze under the house, which makes it cooler. Even concrete houses are still on stilts; it’s just a tradition. Many of the older houses...

The people in Belize are a mixture of Latinos and Caribbeans. Caribbeans paint their houses purple, red, pink, and green and the Spanish are more likely to paint white and black. As a result, there’s a whole mixture of things here.

 

A lot of houses in Belize or Belizean houses are on stilts, in order to catch breeze under the house, which makes it cooler. Even concrete houses are still on stilts; it’s just a tradition. Many of the older houses have small rooms. Americans tend to build a bigger house and more open. There’s no British architecture here, just a standard square house.

 

What I’m describing is in the Cayo area, in San Ignacio and Belmopan.  In Placencia and the Cayes there are more high-rise buildings.

 

(Pictured: House in construction on stilts in Belize.)

In Cayo, there is good and bad architecture like everywhere in the world. Certainly the majority of houses reflect the low standard of living. Many people come here with very distinct ideas of their homes. Some of them even bring drawings. The problem is that many people come from moderate or cool climates. Now they see the opportunity to build the home they have been dreaming of their entire lives. But if you build a house in Cayo that is optimized for Chicago, it is going to be a...

In Cayo, there is good and bad architecture like everywhere in the world. Certainly the majority of houses reflect the low standard of living. Many people come here with very distinct ideas of their homes. Some of them even bring drawings. The problem is that many people come from moderate or cool climates. Now they see the opportunity to build the home they have been dreaming of their entire lives. But if you build a house in Cayo that is optimized for Chicago, it is going to be a total failure because of the different climate. You must build in a different way. This is where the good architect comes in.

 

There are certain building rules that you should follow here. For example, make sure that the sun never shines on your walls. If they don't heat up during the day they do not radiate the heat to the inside at night when it gets cooler outside. The classic solution to the problem is a wrap-around veranda.  Turn your house in the wind like a sailboat. Make sure that the natural breeze goes through the house. Do not build many walls inside that obstruct the airflow because it will not be livable unless you use air-conditioning all the time. Build on stilts to catch the breeze, if your property is not on a hilltop. Choose big windows that go down to the floor so that you have some airflow even if you sit on the sofa. You need to build high ceilings with some opening so the hot air can escape. These are some very basic rules, which are very different from optimizing houses in the North.  

 

Of course these rules are not something that I invented. Study the old houses in the Caribbean from back in the day, when air-conditioning did not exist yet. You will find that this is how they optimized their floor plans. Of course it is much easier to design a house that just pleases the North American taste but I do not stop to preach these rules when I design homes. I want to make sure that my clients spend their money on a house with a modest energetic footprint that will work here in the tropics. 

 

(Franklin Syrowatka designed Tuscan home with tropical modifications in tropical Cayo, Belize, pictured.)

Most houses in Cayo are just square but recently there are adding multiple rooflines so they have more of a designer look. They look like tract homes that you would see in a typical small US neighborhood.

 

But there are a few people like Ken and myself that come here and build large custom homes on some acreage knowing we may never get our money back.  For us it's a "rest of our life" project.  One of our Cayo friends is a builder,...

Most houses in Cayo are just square but recently there are adding multiple rooflines so they have more of a designer look. They look like tract homes that you would see in a typical small US neighborhood.

 

But there are a few people like Ken and myself that come here and build large custom homes on some acreage knowing we may never get our money back.  For us it's a "rest of our life" project.  One of our Cayo friends is a builder, Franklin Syrowatka, who has moved here from Germany and can build anything from a quality Mennonite style house to a large custom home.  He has built beautiful hardwood houses with soaring open wood ceilings and verandas all around and he can also build a custom designer Tropical- Caribbean block and concrete home with a rooftop veranda like ours.   

 

(Tree house guest house built by Franklin Syrowatka, Cayo, Belize, pictured.)