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May
22
Your Jamaican Kitchen
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Building a dream kitchen in your Jamaican Villa can be a bit of a nightmare for some of us. The resources available in Jamaica are pretty limited. Unless you are willing to import certain items for your Jamaican Home you may find it restrictive on your design.
Doors and windows can be bought easily enough, but if you want something special you may have to import or build it here. Look around and you can find some very good craftsmen who can build you your item to a very high standard before you start to import. JA Projects can help you to get your item built, from beds, sofas, doors and kitchen units to a very high standard, just let us know your needs.
My interest at the moment is in kitchens. The kitchen is maybe the most important room in the house, yet we often ignore its uses. With fast food around the kitchen is left out. But in Jamaica the kitchen is still alive and kicking, turning out some of the best dishes in world cuisine. As with most of the newer Villas the kitchens are made for cooks. Often the maid may cook for the guest or a chef is called in for that special occasion, the meals are prepared with plenty of room for the cook and extractor fans are put in place to keep everyone cool.
Often kitchens are designed in Jamaica as a static, concrete, never to be change again room. Too much concrete is being used in Jamaican homes, I am not a lover of concrete, the kitchen must reflect the home and the people in it. You must be able to change it with little effort and cost in the future, after all it’s an important room.
Designing a kitchen takes a cook, the lady of the house or the chef of the Villa, not just someone who sees it as a load of cupboard and work surface. We work with you to help you get that dream kitchen at a cost you can afford and a quality second to none.
You must be able to work in comfort and little ease, no matter how big the kitchen is. You need an area for preparing your food, which means waste to be thrown away, make it close by. You then have to wash the food so your sink need to be close to the food preparing area. The Fridge, how often do you use it when you are cooking, often one or two trips can get you what you need so think where the Fridge goes, too often it’s in the way. Keep the cooker away from the windows; I have seen that too many times, it’s dangerous and not very cost effective.
Jamaicans love to cook outdoor, the sunshine makes it a must when you can, if not eating outdoor is another great pastime. This makes it a good idea to leave an area outside your kitchen for just that, eating and cooking outdoor, make it part of the kitchen design and it will extend your kitchen area without you realizing it. If you are a gadget freak like me you will want to make sure you have adequate plugs in the kitchen for your needs, the last thing you wand is a clutter of wire in the kitchen.
Last and very important, do not restrict your kitchen design on where to put your units and equipment. I was designing a kitchen recently when the owners insisted that the cooker must be against the outside wall because of the gas bottle. That was what they were told. Your cooker/oven/stove can go anywhere that its best suited by extending your gas line, often the short, quick way is not the best, work with you design and you will not regret your kitchen. Also if you use an electric oven make sure the wiring is correct, electric cookers use a lot of power so make sure the correct regulation is in place.
Val Barclay
JA Projects – Keeping an eye on your Construction in Jamaica.May
21
Villa Design in Jamaica
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When deciding what villa you are going to build in Jamaica it might be worth finding some information about its interior design.
In today’s modern interior design, simplicity is the key to an efficient design. Today’s modern interiors spaces are simple to understand, simple to construct, and project a kind of simplicity. In the villas with contemporary design every element has an order.
Traditional Design
The term traditional house is frequently used when someone can’t be more precise about a particular style. You may hear traditional Country or Victorian, often lumped together as traditional house plans in many Villas. With the arrival of the American design in Jamaica we see larger Villas with varying styles built as single and 2 story buildings. My own beliefs stand firm in keeping Jamaican design as part of our heritage, one of the most important parts of our heritage.Jamaica National Heritage Trust - Please note also Falmouth
What is a traditional design house her in Jamaica, that’s a question I would love to ask our architects here in Jamaica. If you visit Falmouth in Trelawny along the North Coast you will see Victorian-style houses all over the town. Victorian-style is named after The Victorian era. These houses were considered traditional in its time and are still looking as beautiful as ever.
Jamaican Country Villas
Often know as Jamaican Cottage designs, these Villas are of simple designs with plenty of arches and a common area for relaxation, a place where the breeze flow. Colourful ceramics, terra cotta vessels add interest to a Jamaican Cottage decor. No high-tech design here, just simple and clean and allowing for lots of light.
Modern Design Villas
This is where we can make it or break it here in Jamaica, modern design. What is a modern design Villa? Is it modern because it has a lot of chrome? High tech buildings are built to look like functional and efficient machines, using metal and glass as building materials. However, functionality is often lost to aesthetics which are also often more important than the cost.High tech architecture is unsuited to an urban environment, requiring freestanding buildings and spacious areas. High tech buildings seem to control the environment around them rather than adapting to it.
My own preference is to create modern Villas with the influence of the Victorian design. This leaves the door open for us to create and leave our heritage that we can be proud of.
We have to remember that when Estates were being built in Jamaica the best architects were used, they could afford to use these guys, after all tap water was introduced here before even New York, Jamaica was ahead of its time in many ways and I believe the architects were used to reflect that.
The shape of the Villa need not be square, have it hexagonal or semi-circle, you may have whatever shape you wish. My main thing is, lift it off the ground and add as much balcony as you can, put air vents in the roof and keep it Jamaican. If you go to Europe you will see what I mean, France, Italy, Spain, Britain, Holland etc., all have designs that belongs to that country, we should start thinking that way too here in Jamaica.
The British and Spanish started something here in Jamaica and I think we should finish it and make it part of our heritage, after all we have the sea, the breeze and the sunshine to make it happen.
Val Barclay
JA Projects – Keeping an eye on your Construction in Jamaica.-
Build without always being in Jamaica.
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