Caribbean architecture has receives many influences, from the Arawak Indians to the European colonists passing through Africa

When Columbus first landed in the West Indies at the end of the XV century, he found some houses completely different from those in Europe. The Caribbeans, as well as the Arawak slept inside oval or rounded cabins, built with wood, and with a conic roof made of palms or with herbs that grew in the swamps.

The first Europeans that stayed in the islands to establish commercial posts, built houses copying the Indian style, though later started to built houses with walls, wooden beams, and splint roofs. However, even after the abolition of slavery, the former slaves never used stones to build their homes.

A Mixture of Styles
When the sugar cane trade started, European ships arrived loaded with red bricks and stones, that were used as dead weight- The plantation owners and traders of the islands, used these material to built their mansions. At that age warehouses were also built at the docks, and diverse architectonic styles developed. The Spaniards took some elements from Arab architecture. For their part, the French introduced cast iron. Years later, an American invention, the sewing machine, allowed delicate decorations and wooden traceries in house fronts.

ROLLING HOUSES
For the black people in Barbados, transport was, for some time, important for survival. After the abolition of slavery, plantation owners began to hire workers. But owners were still in control of the freed slaves, so they allowed them to established, in small villages on their lands. Workers depended of the owner’s will, and in case of problems, they should go somewhere else. This contributed to the creation of rolling houses: small wooden constructions that could easily be dismantled and transported on a car towards the next plantation. Supported by rocks or cement piles, so rainwater could flow below them, these houses had only one room, though it could be divided using some wooden boards. Some improvised steps took to the only door.

The basic structure of these houses is almost the same now in many houses in Barbados. Some years ago, the lack of water forced some people from a small town, to take their houses from the top of a mountain into a valley.