ABSTRACT
In most Caribbean countries the historic habitat expressed the culture of dominant and subordinate groups. In house form this has evolved into two referents, the grand houses and the small huts of the dispossessed. In southern Puerto Rico, the casa criolla and the casita fit this scheme. Both dwelling types, keeping social traditions of the past, have however been reinvented and improved for over a century, showing evolving responses to climatic and social imperatives. The casa criolla became a sophisticated socio-climatic artifact while its poor cousin, the casita, flexibly responded to proletarians’ need for simple, basic and functional – frequently movable – shelter. The tension between both house types spread over the agricultural and mercantile landscape following the evolution of a maturing society and economy. Though both types are threatened and no longer constructed, their physical and cultural presence is still a constant.
