Cas di torto (also called cas di lodo or cas di bara) is a traditional building technique from Aruba. It refers to a type of houses made of adobe with rounded corners. These houses were usually found around the plantations. The few structures that still exist are the oldest structures that are left standing in the country. The technique probably came over from the

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

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in the 18th century. Existing houses date back 150 years. Until 1925 many houses on Aruba were built using this technique, afterwards it fell into disuse. In 2005 there were 62 cas di torto houses left, of which only four were in good condition. The skeleton of the houses is made up of round wooden poles placed with distances of 1.5 feet between them. Branches are interwoven between them, completing the structural support. On this basis, loam is applied, mixed with sand, water and

para grass ''Brachiaria mutica'' (''Urochloa mutica'') is a species of grass known by the common names para grass, buffalo grass, Mauritius signal grass, pasto pare, malojilla, gramalote, parana, Carib grass, and Scotch grass.Stone, Katharine R. 2010''Uroch ...

. This is then coated with aloe vera juice, which gives the white colour and helps to protect against the weather. On top of the poles pieces of wood are fitted that serve as the base for the roofbeams. Until 1815 the roofing usually consisted of

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...

stems, afterwards the nuclei of columnar cacti were used. The floor is made of loam, mixed with cement or cow dung. The houses were usually divided into a kitchen, a living room, a porch and a bedroom. In the kitchen would be a wooden or metal barrel for storing water that was collected in small rain ponds. Around this barrel a thick loam wall would be erected. Often large families would live in these houses; people would sleep on mats on the floor. In the Arikok National Park some cas di torto houses can be visited.

References

External links

* Departamento Arubiana (2005)
Cas di torto
{dead link, date=November 2016 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes '' Biblioteca Nacional Aruba Architectural styles Aruban culture