There are few remaining traces of the earliest constructions at the site since before 1869 commoners were not allowed to build with permanent materials (which were reserved for the royal family and tombs). Houses were closely built of wood, bamboo, thatch and were vulnerable to the frequent fires that swept through the community.

A typical Fianarantsoa “English Cottage”

In a push for modernization (in part provoked by the increasing rarity of wood around cities), Queen Ranavalona II lifted the restriction against use of permanent materials. This opened the way for the introduction of more modern and durable building techniques. The basic house model in the Old City is called the “English Cottage” and combines a floor plan introduced by the missionary James Cameron with certain aspects of traditional Malagasy architecture (such as the way the houses were oriented, eastern facing walls without doors or windows, attic kitchens, etc).

A typical house had two rooms per floor, with a central (or sometimes exterior) staircase. The kitchen was usually located in the attic. Larger houses were built by adding a wing perpendicular to the main house or a second story.

The decorations were the pride of the house: roof edges and pinnacles were sculpted, the balconies were decorated. Unfortunately, the old sculpted wood decorations are rapidly disappearing.

Two stories with an attic created by the steep pitch of the roof. Attic windows on some houses introduce light. Tile roofs need a steep pitch (at least 45°) for water resistance.

A covered balcony extended the length of the house with sculpted balusters. The balcony roof helped to divert rain water away from the foundations of the house. In many cases parts of these balconies have now been enclosed to create another room or space for a kitchen.

The walls were 40- 60 cm thick, depending on the material used for construction. Wealthier owners used fired bricks for the walls, others used bricks only for the corner columns, filling in the walls with adobe (compacted mud) or unfired bricks.

The Roofs of the Old City

The first houses in the Old City had thatched roofs. By the early 1900s these roofs had been replaced by tiles so as to reduce the risk of fire. The roof beams were made of forest hardwood, with horizontal bamboo struts. Small bamboo “pegs” held the tiles in place. Up until today the tiles are made by hand from clay in the valleys around Fianarantsoa.

The subsidy of corrugated sheet metal in the 1980s pushed some families to replace their tile roofs; at the same time they usually reduced the slope of the roof in order to save money. In general, however, the population remains convinced that the quality of life is superior in a house roofed in tile: tiles resist storms better than sheet metal and they last longer, the steep roof pitch creates useful attic space, and a tile-roofed house is rarely too hot or too cold.

The Walls

A walk around the Old City allows the careful observer to note how building methods evolved at the site. The oldest houses (as well as those of families of more limited means) are usually built of adobe (compressed mud). The clay is applied in layers about 30 cm high. The walls of these adobe houses are more than 70cm thick in order to support the weight of the roof. While these houses appear large from the outside, much of the space is occupied by the walls, leaving only very small rooms inside. The earliest bricks were sun dried. These bricks do not resist water and so a protective surface of thick mud (nowadays mixed with a couple of handfuls of cement … eggs were used in the past… ) must be applied to prevent rain from attacking the bricks. Walls constructed of such sun baked bricks are usually about 50cm thick. “Modern” bricks, lightly fired, are more durable, more resistant to water, and able to support more weight. These improvements allowed the thickness of the walls to be reduced to about 40cm (compared to 22 cm, the typical thickness today of a wall built with properly fired bricks).

The colors of the buildings in the Old City come from the natural clay and earth around the site, which is mixed with water (and a tiny quantity of cement) to paint the walls. While all natural, the color range is quite diverse, including shades of grey, tan, yellow, orange, and red. The houses seem to glow, especially when they absorb the colors of the rising and setting sun.

The many natural shades of clay brick

Water from the roof compromises the walls

When old bricks or adobe walls develop cracks (often the case in older buildings with leaky roofs) it is possible to “sew” the walls back together and save the building (the leak must be fixed at the same time, of course). This involves cleaning out the offending crack and inserting bricks across the gap. These are sealed to the old wall with a mud “glue” and the entire wall is then plastered with a protective layer of adobe.

A covered balcony with sculpted banister now serves as a room