ArchWeek - Walls Still Growing Up

[Kevin Matthews]

This forum thread is for discussion of the ArchitectureWeek article:

[Landy]

Solid brick masonry is not common in Puerto Rico. Most construction in the island is made out concrete masonry units (CMU's) with minor use of other technologies. As far as structures are concerned reinforced concrete for beams and columns are the rule of thumb for design. Almost not to say all other methods for technology and structures weather in worst of ways.
Thanks only to foreign influence one can see use of steel, wood, EIFS, stone or wood cladding. For historic construction methods one can see the use of lime/sand mortar for construction. Even though this mortat is better for aesthetics is poor for overall performance (it "desolves" with rain, wind and human contact). The typycal detail for EIFS usualy uses a thin layer of stucco or textured mortar, however with only two or four years becomes awful. Not to mention steel or glass near the coast that salt in the seamist completely destroys structures and forget about steel finishes.