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Cuban Mortar Tiles Chapter 7: Conventions for Installation and Layout
Chapter 7:
Conventions For Installation And Layout
‘La Cubana’ catalogue gives succinct instructions for the laying of mosaico
hidraulico tile fl oors which are both technical and aesthetic. The instructions
describe the recommended layout in a typical room and contain advice about
the use of decorative borders, and the use and recommended widths of a plain
tile margin.
The layout in typical modest townhouses refl ects the hierarchy of spaces (i.e
the more important the room, the more elaborate and expensive the design of
the fl oor). Common principles for thresholds and distinctions between spaces
can be found in buildings across Cuba, but vary slightly to suit the typical house
in different cities. This chapter describes colocacion in a typical Havana house
and notes some comparisons with colonial houses in Trinidad and grand
mansions of Cienfuegos and Santiago.
Plain tile margin (faja)
‘La Cubana’ catalogue advises that every fl oor should be installed with a plain
tile margin or faja between the border and the walls. The note explains that this
will absorb any irregularities in the walls and avoid the need to cut any patterned
tiles.
The ‘La Cubana’ factory would choose a suitable colour of the faja if the client
did not include this information in their order. (Apparnently such decisions could
be taken by a factory in those days of artesanal initiative.)
For “the purposes of practicality and good taste” the catalogue suggests a faja
of 150-200mm in very small rooms, 300-400mm in rooms 3m to 5m wide and
600-800mm in larger rooms.
This advice was often ignored however. Bedrooms in many a typical modest
house ran patterned fl oor tiles wall-to-wall, omitting the border and ‘faja’ entirely.
Some larger houses included elaborate borders in the sala and saleta and then
fi lled the gap with more of the expensive patterned tiles.
Border
‘La Cubana’ catalogue includes a border with each tile design. Client orders had
to specify the design reference and whether or not the border would be
required. The catalogue suggests that borders should not be included in small
or very irregular rooms as they tend to emphasise irregularities and accentuate
the smallness of the rooms. The catalogue did not offer the option of combining
different body tiles and borders. But, witness the number of different
combinations seen throughout Cuba, this limitation was also ignored and
borders swapped freely across the island.
Typical Havana House
The house at Neptuno #1166 shows some of the conventions for the laying of
decorative fl oors in Havana houses of the Eclectic period. The house was built
in 1910 and it is likely its mosaico hidraulico fl oors were supplied by one of the
Havana factories. The fl oors follow many but not all of the conventions -
variations from the norm likely a function of cost saving or personal taste.
Sala and Saleta (parlour and family room)
The sala, as the most public room and at the front of the house, required the
fi nest most elaborate tiles. Except in the poorest and smallest of houses, the
fl oor would include a border of one of two-tile thickness. Usually separated from
the sala by a columnar screen or quasi “triumphal arch”, the saleta provided a
slightly less formal space for family gatherings. The main fl oor tiles in the saleta
often differed in design in order to mark a distinction between the two spaces.
However this was by no means a hard-and-fast rule, and one sees many house
such as Neptuno #1166 in which the fl oors in the two spaces are similarly fi nished
(fi gs. 73 and 75 show the sala and saleta at ground fl oor). The line of the
columnar screen between the sala and saleta is usually demarcated by a band
of plain tiles formed by the junction of the faja of each room (fi g. 76).
Bedrooms:
Mosaico tiles in the bedrooms were almost always of a different (and cheaper)
pattern to those in the sala and saleta. The fl oors in bedrooms in Neptuno
#1166 (fi g. 77) have no borders or even fajas but run wall to wall and continuously
through each doorway which emphasizes the connection between all
bedrooms as a continuous enfi lade.