Huis in Tulum in aanbouw

House in Tulum (3)

House under construction in Tulum

Casa Noor is a house under construction in Tulum. We talked about it in an earlier post. Meanwhile, the shell construction is just about finished. The house consists of concrete floors and the walls are constructed of hollow concrete blocks. The advantage is that you can work quickly and in the hollow space there is room for pipes. The concrete floors are cast on site. A layer of mortar is then applied to the walls to level them out. After this layer comes the finishing touch. This consists of very smooth yet matte plaster in which chukum is incorporated.

Chukum Plastering

This ancient Mayan stucco technique has been revived fairly recently. This technique is known as “chukum,” a name derived from the colloquial term for the Havardia albicans tree, which is indigenous to Mexico. Made from the bark of the chukum tree, this material possesses distinct characteristics that set it apart from traditional stucco. These characteristics include impermeability and a natural, earthy hue. While chukum had fallen into disuse after the Spanish conquest of the Maya civilization, it has been rediscovered and reintroduced quite recently.

Earthy, warm hue

The chukum tree, a semi-hardwood thorny tree found throughout the Yucatan peninsula, has historically served multiple purposes, including textile dyeing and leather tanning. To create chukum stucco, the tree’s bark is boiled twice and then blended with cement, resulting in a versatile material suitable for finishing concrete walls or even lining swimming pools. The presence of chukum bark imparts water-resistant qualities to the stucco, distinguishing it from other stucco types that require artificial additives or topcoats to achieve a similar level of impermeability. Consequently, chukum stucco can be applied both indoors and outdoors. Its inherent earthy, pinkish hue, attributed to the chukum bark, imbues Yucatan’s buildings and homes with a warm, rustic ambiance.