DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE is an integral part of Cartagena's character. In the centre of the city and near the port were the casas altos, the most prosperous houses, with two or three floors. The rest of the walled city is made up of lesser casas bajas, mostly on one floor. House facades have elaborate portals, extended balconies and windows decorated in an amazing variety of timber balustraded grills, influenced by Spain. Corner houses have special treatment and stand out as decorated elements along the street facade. Houses are planned around a courtyard where families conduct their daily lives. Many houses were originally designed with commercial ground floors.

Entrance to the house is through a space called zaguan leading into a vestibulo, a circulation area giving access to the various rooms (either as a corridor or as a continuous interior balcony). In these grand houses, the staircase (escalera), leading to the first floor became a monumental affair. Walls were of coral stone with lime mortars. Stone was in plentiful supply around Cartagena and was used not only for the robust fortifications, but also house walls, and was often carved into intricate facades, as shown in the Palace of the Inquisition. It was also made into quicklime in giant kilns. As stone became expensive, brick walls became popular, with lime plasters and fine washed sand mixed with banana oil. Facades and interiors were painted boldly in a variety of colours, including ochre, light blue, pink, and burnt red. Roofs were timber hipped, like inverted galleons, in the Andalusian tradition.

The historic buildings in Cartagena are finite and irreplaceable. Successful restoration in Cartagena is the means of increasing the viability of resources, establishing confidence in further conservation work and hence, the flow of financial aid. Interest in restoration has progressed steadily since 1918, when the importance of the city walls and fortifications was established. Attention was also given to conserving facades, although many modifications were made. By 1940, the historic district was declared a national monument. But without a buffer zone to protect the historic centre, the commercial area of La Matuna was developed adjacently on a new intrusively large scale. Now, some houses have been restored by prosperous absent landlords (albeit in a gentrified manner, rather than as a socially dynamic solution) and are used as homes for a few months of the year. Yet each has a unique role to play in the development of Cartagena.

ADAPTIVE RE-USE OF OLD BUILDINGS (not just their physical restoration) is needed to enable Cartagena to provide livelihoods for current and future generations. Similarly, the Santa Clara Convent and the Santa Teresa Convent, which for years served as the police headquarters have now been restored and turned into luxury hotels. The appearance of the historic area has been much strengthened over the last 20 years.

The concentration of commercial activities inside the core of Cartagena has kept it lively and dynamic (although the commercia area is now expanding into surrounding residential areas). So, the very qualities which make the historic core of particular interest also help to encourage pressure for development which, unless adequately controlled, can destroy the very characteristics which make these areas so attractive. To counterbalance these pressures for redevelopment, physical enhancement measures should involve major investment. Efforts are being made by the municipality to control and guide development in the historic centre and to preserve the cultural values of the city.

The heritage of Cartagena derives from the pattern of streets and alleyways and the general historic topography, which together make up the grain of the city. The same applies to the architectural styles of the many historic buildings, the shop frontages and the street furniture which provide Cartagena's distinctive development pattern. So conscious efforts must continue to be made within the core of the city to improve the appearance, attraction-and use of the many historic buildings, streets and squares, with preference given to people rather than vehicles.

The challenge for the municipality is to define what gives lasting identity to Cartagena and to assess the extent to which the new can be absorbed sympathetically among the old. The significance of Cartagena is that it has been built by a succession of architects and has managed to retain the inherited qualities of the past that have survived to the end of the twentieth century. Conservation has not only to do with the city's major monuments, but also with the range of buildings that give identity to many styles. The groupings of buildings (whose significance is as much due to social history as to architectural quality) give character to the area, rather than individual structures.

One of the critical issues in respecting the context of Cartagena is the visual consequence of introducing new buildings into the traditional setting. A delicate balance must be reached between variety, which creates a lively, visually exciting contrast and that which has chaotic consequences. Invention, variety and change are possible within consistent visual tradition in Cartagena.

ANOTHER CRITICAL ISSUE is large developments, such as Chambacu (an area of 96 500 sqm, located north-east of the historic core and north of the Castillo de San Felipe). To prevent conflict, the aim must be to establish relations between Chambacu and the historic areas and work out their mutual influences.
A careful balance is needed between the traditional emphasis on dense and diverse development (as is the historic core) and new large-scale uses demanding space and accessibility at an accelerated pace of development. The manner in which the new development in Chambacu is made to blend with the adjacent historic areas is a fundamental urban design issue which has to be faced.

Jim Antoniou first had an opportunity to examine the city of Cartagena when in 1996, as senior consultant to Banco de Colombia and Fidecolombia SA, he provided advice on a feasibility study for an appropriate development for the extensive area of Chambacu on land adjacent to the historic core. The architects for the project were 3D International of Houston, Texas. Since that time, local consultants have adapted these proposals and the project is under construction in phases. Recently, Jim Antoniou returned to Cartagena and wrote and illustrated this article.

Last, but not least, Cartagena cannot be enhanced in isolation from the people who live and work there. Experience shows in other conservation projects that where little community participation has taken place, many problems have arisen, such as indifference and neglect by local people, misuse of historic buildings, inappropriate designs for new additions. A great deal can be achieved through working with the communities and there are clear signs in Cartagena that this is already in progress. The people of Cartagena have knowledge about how their historic city works, much of it unavailable to outside professionals. It is all important to ensure that conservation schemes become part of the process of sustainable development.