Boundary and skin
Boundary wall
housing gated community school urban lot
It is the wall that marks the boundary between a lot and its neighbors or the street. The Spanish name comes from the rammed earth wall.
What it solves
It gives privacy and defines the property. If it is blank and tall it also cuts off the breeze, stores heat and leaves the street without eyes on it, so it is better to think of it as a living edge.
Today
Before closing everything off, consider a low wall with railings, a living fence or a wall with climbers. Leave low gaps for small wildlife and agree on a shared design with the neighbor.
Common mistake
Raising it higher and higher and topping it with barbed wire, which traps heat and leaves the street with no one watching it.
Tomorrow
The boundary wall can become a vertical garden, a bench facing the sidewalk or a wall that collects rain and carries it to a tank. Neighbors can share it with a vegetable garden, lighting or a common gate.
Fact In the United Kingdom an opening of 13 by 13 centimeters at the base of walls and fences is recommended so hedgehogs can pass. It is too small for almost all pets.
Where it comes from
- 1Yangshao and Longshan cultures China, around 5000 BC
They are associated with the first walls of rammed earth in formwork, the technique called tapia in Spanish. - 2Medieval city London, England, since the 11th century
Dividing walls between neighboring houses were required to serve as firebreaks. - 3Hispanic world Spain and the Americas, in current use
The Spanish dictionary records tapia first as a rammed earth wall and later as a boundary wall, of uncertain origin.
Masters
- Luis Barragán Luis Barragán House, Mexico City, Mexico, 1948
He raises tall, sober walls with few windows toward the street. Behind them he keeps an inner garden that works as an oasis from the urban noise.
See also
Also in Boundary and skin
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.