Colombo-Colonial architecture in Columbia is a style characterized by rammed earth walls, stone masonry, and tile roofs.
Architect Alejandro Saldarriaga recently designed a country home where “The closest airport is a three-hour drive,” he says. The 2,600-square-foot home reinterprets the Colombo-Colonial vernacular, but he was challenged to work with a sloping site with extreme topography. The project doesn’t “fight against the terrain but is placed on different levels, distributed from the highest topography to the more public zones,” he says. Furthermore, it was done on a budget and came in at under $100,000. He named the home La Hoja Sobre el Cerro, or “The Leaf on the Hill,” to honor the legacy of the area’s architectural history.
Saldarriaga spent time visiting many construction sites before starting the build. “There’s no glass, and if you want glass you have to bring it in through a larger urban center and that’s unusual due to price.” Instead, they rely on locally sourced wood, clay, tile, brick, and stone, along with rammed earth and stucco.
The home’s design organizes space through “level changes rather than walls,” says the architect. “This generates an open yet differentiated relationship between the kitchen, living room, and terrace. The bedrooms—the most private areas of the home— are at the top of the plan, while the more public zones rest below. Thick “stone-like white walls, analyzed as the secondary element of the Colombo-Colonial aesthetic, serve as structural cores that rest upon stone bases,” he adds.
A single-pitched roof is typical in Colombo-Colonial homes and here he has added a playful spin with a double slope “tapered in two directions with roofing tile placed diagonally to facilitate water runoff,” he says. By incorporating this feature and working with locally sourced materials with minimal material transpiration, the rural home minimizes emissions by 60 percent, all while achieving a balance between legacy and innovation.
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