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Report on the Development of Cayalá, Guatemala

The town of Cayalá was masterplanned in 2003 by Léon Krier with the Guatemala-based firm of Estudio Urbano. The project was designed in a charrette directed by Pedro Godoy in consultation with the local development company Grupo Cayalá, the family owner of the land and public authorities.  In 2006 and 2007, additional charrettes involving some 20 architects were held under the direction of Juan Pablo Rosales firm RyR Desarrollos in which Lèon Krier fine-tuned the masterplan of the town center. In 2010, the architectural designs were superseded by programmatic, urban, and formal revisions solicited by the client. Alterations to the masterplan and new designs for the buildings of Phase I were entrusted again to Estudio Urbano and Lèon Krier. Marc Landers coordinated the landscape design. The design team responsible for the realization of Phase I, currently close to completion, and Phase II which has now been initiated, comprises the architects Pedro Godoy and Maria Sánchez of Estudio Urbano (alumnus and alumna of the University of Notre Dame), Lèon Krier, and Richard Economakis, a faculty member at the University of Notre Dame. Their new designs are being realized by Grupo Cayalá under the supervision of Estudio Urbano.

Masterplan

The masterplan seeks to create a sustainable, mixed use, pedestrian-oriented environment, where buildings reinforce a sense of place and defer to the human scale.  Commercial, residential and other buildings belonging to the private realm are invested with individual character in accordance with their particular site, program and relationship to the context, but simultaneously contribute to the making of a congruous urban fabric.  The consistency of scale, architectural expression and materials allows the more elaborate public edifices and monuments to stand out as proper urban set-pieces, overturning the established practice of building isolated self-referential object-buildings irrespective of use and location.  Concern for sustainability has guided many of the decisions made by the design team, for instance the use of natural ventilation and lighting throughout, preference for natural materials over synthetic products, reduced dependence on the automobile, etc.

These approaches are expected to have a positive effect not just on the lifespan of the buildings, but also on the welfare of residents and the economy of Cayalá.  The town facilitates healthy interaction between residents with its mixed-use, small urban blocks, three to four-storey building heights and closely-knit network of streets and squares designed as Shared-Space -- its geometry, paving and planting without traffic demarcations stimulating pedestrian speed by all users.  Here, casual daily encounters are normal and enhance a sense of community and security.  Local and national cultural identity is enhanced through the use of an architectural language that respects historical precedent and adapts familiar types for new purposes.  Porticos, loggias and arcades are used liberally in order to take advantage of the site’s salubrious climate and spectacular views.  Finally, Cayalá establishes a variegated skyline in which towers, domes and cupolas punctuate the roofs cape.  These emphasize important buildings and urban nodes, in the manner of traditional towns and cities across Guatemala; the effect contrasts dramatically with the jagged building heights or uncompromising uniformity of rooflines in most contemporary developments.

Architectural Expression

The architecture of Cayalá embraces regional Spanish and indigenous traditions, which are employed creatively and adapted to a variety of contemporary building types.  These include multi-storey, mixed-use apartments, commercial structures, and public buildings such as parking pavilions, cinema complexes, market sheds, and larger civic and sacred edifices.  Elevations are typically plastered, with stone trim and moldings.  Balconies are either wooden or employ decorative ironwork, and roofs are finished in traditional red tiles. Commercial streets and squares are lined with colonnades that make reference to the characteristic wooden porticos of Spanish plazas in the New World, such as the Parque Central of Antigua Guatemala and the Plaza at Santa Fe.  The incorporation of colonnades and terraces along commercial streets is something of an innovation, as in Guatemala and Latin America more generally these features normally occur around squares where public gatherings and celebrations are held.   At Cayalá they are employed more frequently to take advantage of the dramatic views and salubrious climate, and to shelter shoppers during the rainy season.  Occasionally the porticos employ exaggerated robust Tuscan and Doric columns of a sort peculiar to Guatemala’s colonial architecture, as in the well-known examples at the convent of Las Capuchinas, the Ayuntamiento, and Palace of the Captains in Antigua Guatemala.

Other nods to local traditions include ‘figural’ windows (octagonal or rosette), stepped tiled cornices, corner bollards, ball finials, consoles, and occasional ‘mudéjar’ (Moorish) details like wall fountains, wooden window lattices, and chamfers.  These motifs are adapted and used to punctuate elevations, establish formal rhythms and alternation along streets, and create textures that enrich the streetscape and enhance the human scale.  Classical detailing in the more important buildings is derived from Renaissance and Baroque sources of Guatemalan civic architecture. Though treated individually, buildings are designed to work together like good ‘urban neighbors’, the overriding effect being one of variety within unity.  At Cayalá streets are made of elevations which, to use one of Lèon Krier’s analogies, “are aligned so that they make sense, like the words that form a coherent sentence”.

Public Edifices

The Cayalá masterplan provides for three major public edifices, which are a Tower by Krier, an Athenaeum (civic hall) by Economakis, and a Church by Godoy and Sánchez.  Of these buildings, the first to have been completed is the Athenaeum, which is a large gabled structure with pyramidal steps, pedimented portico and octagonal cupola tower situated at the center of the town.  Phase II will see the realization of the Church and Tower, which occupy the north and south ends of the masterplan, respectively.
 

 Tower

Krier’s Tower is intended as the principal landmark at Cayalá, marking the southern entrance to the town and the approach from Guatemala City.  When viewed from the bottom of the ‘paseo’, or main street, the building forms a clear antipode to the bell tower of the Church of Santa Maria Reina de la Familia by Godoy and Sánchez (planned for Phase II), and sets up a sequence of public buildings, at the center of which stands the Athenaeum with its octagonal cupola tower. While its forms make obvious reference to regional details, they are inventively adapted to the vertical proportions and scale of the building.  For instance, the projecting stone dados and wooden lattice boxes at the topmost level are derived from familiar mudéjar forms (the streets of Antigua Guatemala abound with these), as are the deep projecting eaves.  The low hipped market structure at the base of the building employs the attenuated wooden columns of the traditional Guatemalan portico to form an unusual hypostyle hall.  Its long shallow roof is meant to contrast dramatically with the Tower, thereby enhancing its apparent height.  The spire that finishes the Tower adapts a motif of stacked alternating moldings, recalling both Spanish and Mayan apex figures.

Church

The Church of Santa Maria Reina de la Familia by Godoy and Sánchez has been an important feature of the master plan since the first stages of design.  Employing classical principles and forms, the building adapts a traditional church type to a sloping site at the northern end of the town.  With its Latin cross plan configuration, central dome, barrel-vaulted nave, ancillary chapels and rows of smaller cupolas over the nave and aisles, Santa Maria Reina will be the first traditional church to be realized in 21st century Guatemala, and the first of this particular type in 203 years.   The Latin cross plan type belongs to a tradition that stretches back more than 1,500 years.  While deferring at the street level to its context of simple three-storey plastered volumes, the church stands out as the town’s most significant public edifice.  This is achieved through its robust massing, rich architectural treatment, profusion of vertical elements, and also by its placement at a point where the most important streets converge, to serve as a visual focus for the entire town.  Santa Maria Reina has a capacity of 700 seated parishioners, measures 60 by 30 meters, and its central dome rises 36 meters to the top of its cross.   The subtly triangulated stone-built façade is conceived as a symbolic portal for the triumph of Heaven on Earth.  When viewed from the main street, three crosses stand out to form a composition: the first one being situated above the facade gateway, the second one above the main dome, and the third one on top of the bell tower; together these represent the Holy Trinity.  The church entrance podium will be graced by a bronze sculpture of Pope John Paul II, the Great.  The various domes of Santa Maria Reina de la Familia will be covered with blue glazed tile following the tradition of representing the Celestial Vault, or the presence of the Infinite and Eternal on Earth.



Athenaeum (Club Cayalá)

The design of the Athenaeum (officially the ‘Club Cayalá’) by Economakis makes reference to a number of regional precedents.  For instance, the large steps of the portico evoke the forms of Mayan temples, in particular the complex of Santo Tomás at Chichicastenango, which combines a pre-Columbian pyramid and Spanish church; the octagonal tower with its crowning lantern alludes to traditional cupolas in the historic city of Antigua Guatemala; the corner windows are derived from a local custom of fenestrating the ends of urban blocks; while the octagonal windows along the east elevation recall the deep-set clerestories along the north façade of the old University of San Carlos Borromeo in Antigua.  The Athenaeum comprises a large ceremonial hall placed on top of street-level shops that open onto a covered arcade / colonnade, lining the west side of the main street.  The entrance portico is slightly detached from the main building's volume, in the manner of the portico of the Chapel of the Resurrection at Enskede, Stockholm, by Sigurd Lewerentz.  The Athenaeum portico is treated less formally, however, to evoke a traditional market pavilion.  The portico’s Corinthian capitals incorporate a maize motif, which was an important feature in Mayan iconography.  They were modeled on Giuseppe Franzoni's corn capitals for the US Capitol building, and executed by the local sculptor, Maria Isabel Madriz.  The west elevation of the Athenaeum, which affords dramatic views of Guatemala City and the volcanic landscape beyond, is shaded by a two-storey wooden pergola.  This feature is derived from the attenuated porticoes of late-19th century resorts, especially that of the (aptly named) Athenaeum in Chautauqua, in upstate New York, by William Worth Carlin.  Besides their obvious reference to the Mayan temple type, the great steps in front of the Athenaeum at Cayalá are meant to be used as an occasional stage or theatrical cavea for outdoor celebrations; they were immediately put to use as a stepped podium for a youth symphony and choir at the inaugural festivities marking the completion of Phase I in November 2011.



Street Furniture, Pavilions, Monuments, and Parking

Here and there around Cayalá, benches and ledges have been carefully situated to provide areas for residents and visitors to rest and enjoy the unhurried atmosphere of the town.  Kiosks, monuments and fountains designed by Krier further reinforce the pedestrian nature of the public corridors and spaces.  This includes elegant glass and metal pavilions containing escalators (two of which have now been built) that lead to additional parking beneath the main street or ‘paseo’.

Materials and Construction

Shared-space streets and squares are paved with cobbles and flagstones; these establish an entirely pedestrianised ground plane that only subtly demarcates vehicular zones -- the car here deferring naturally to the walking individual.  This feature is another innovation in a country, which, like so many other places around the world, has gradually transformed over the last 50 years into a car-oriented society.  Buildings are finished in plaster over concrete block, supported by concrete frames.  While the design team’s original intention was to use traditional load-bearing construction, modern frame techniques were specified by the structural engineers.  Designs were then adapted to ensure robust exterior walls, deep reveals in openings, and vertical alignments of surfaces consistent with traditional masonry.

Image credits (top to bottom): view to the south of Paseo Cayalá, masterplan by Leon Krier and Estudio Urbano, architectural design by Pedro Godoy and Maria Sánchez, photograph by Vicente Aguirre; general view to the north of Paseo Cayalá, rendering of tower by Léon Krier; Santa Maria Reina de la Familia watercolour and architectural design by Pedro Godoy and Maria Sánchez; view to the north of Paseo Cayalá, Athenaeum architectural design by Richard Economakis.