Patagonian Welsh (Andean Foothills)

FERNANDO WILLIAMS

Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World 2nd Edition

Bloomsbury Publishing

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2021;

In 1888, a group of Welsh people settled in the Andean foothills, Patagonia.Immigrants came from the lower Chubut valley ? some 560 km (350 miles) to the east ? andalso from Wales and the United States. Families were granted 2.500 Ha (6.177 acre) farms along a series of valleys formed by the River Corintos and its tributaries. The rich environment of the Patagonian Andes with its abundant pine forests, is reflected in the early vernacular architecture and makes it different from that of the Lower Chubut valley colony, founded in a more arid region near the Atlantic. The presence of Chileans and Welsh Americans also helped to give this architecture a distinctive character. Despite these technical and morphological differences, typologically the domestic architecture of both colonies do not vary significantly. The original two-room house (derived from the vernacular Welsh cottage) was extended to the rear, thus forming the most commonly found four-unit plan type. Typically, one of the back rooms was used as livingroom-kitchen where a brick chimney-stack was built in one corner. This room was usuallyconnected, through a central corridor, with the front door which, together with two sashwindows, forms the symmetrical façade that typifies Welsh architecture across Patagonia.