Roofing in Seychelles

The Seychelles is an archipelago of granite and coral islands in the western Indian Ocean. Its signature building is the timber Creole house with a high-pitched roof, large verandah and raised stone foundations. The earliest roofs were thatched with pandanus leaves; corrugated iron replaced them in the early 20th century, and since the 1970s concrete construction has largely displaced the Creole house.

Climate and hazards

High-pitched roofs and large openings provided natural ventilation and light in the hot, humid climate. Heavy rain also brings landslides: on 12 October 1862 a landslide in Victoria washed away many thatched houses.

Roofing history

According to the historian Tony Mathiot, the first traditional Creole structures were designed and built by some of about 70 French Jacobins exiled to Mahe for allegedly plotting against Napoleon; the deportees arrived in 1801. Creole dwellings developed in the early 19th century, attributed to French settlers from Ile Bourbon (Reunion). Early roofs were thatched with pandanus leaves. The Building Ordinance of 2 August 1902 restricted thatch in Victoria, after which builders there used corrugated iron sheets; thatch was out of fashion by about 1910, though it remained in use in suburbs and districts. Many Creole houses were still lived in during the 1960s, but most were demolished after independence, and virtually no new traditional Creole buildings have been built since the 1970s. About 95% of such buildings are estimated to have been lost.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Creole house: timber frame of hardwoods such as capucin, bois rouge, albizzia and takamaka, with hand-hewn casuarina beams joined by mortise and tenon, a capucin ridge pole and rafters of bodamyen. The pitched roof, of thatch and later corrugated iron, could have small vertical windows in projecting gables, and a loft or garret was standard. A verandah with raffia blinds was also standard, and the house rests on masonry plinths or stone piles. Kitchens were separate outbuildings. See Seychellois Creole house.
• Plantation houses: larger houses with living rooms opening through up to ten pairs of double doors and windows.

Roofing today

Concrete and modern construction dominate new building. Coral lime is no longer used, partly to protect reefs.

Codes, standards and regulation

The Building Ordinance passed on 2 August 1902 restricted thatch in Victoria.

Notable roofs

• Kenwyn House, Victoria (built 1855 for Dr James Brooks; renovated 2003): a declared National Monument.
• Grann Kaz, L'Union Estate, La Digue (last quarter of the 19th century; restored in the late 1970s).
• Kaz Zanana, Victoria: a restored Creole town house.

Local roofing terms

• bodamyen: timber used for rafters.
• madriye: planks.

Sources and gaps

No information on domestic roofing manufacturers was found in published sources.

Census roof-material shares, the date when corrugated iron first reached the islands and current building regulations: published information is limited.