The huts observed today (figs. 1, 2), called "na" in Maya language and built by farmers, are similar to those of the Precolumbian period. Even if modern materials (ciment, brick, metal) sometimes replace traditional materials (dirt, wood, leaves), their form has remained unchanged when compared with remains of huts dating from 1000 B.C. This demonstrates the strong conservatism in Maya architecture is obvious.

There are several variations of the Maya hut depending on local materials and techniques (fig. 3) but all recall a common basic form divided in three main components (platform, walls, roof) and characterized by several organizational principles such as linearity, symetry, centrality, closure, exiguity and verticality.

The most simple and widespread model of hut is an exiguous space (3x5 meters or 10x16 feet) of absidal or rectangular shape, closed by wattle-and-daub walls (intertwined branches covered with mud and sometimes plaster) and without any other opening than a central square doorway in one of the longer walls. This space is sometimes raised by a low dirt platform and is covered by a high and steep thatch roof (made with palm leaves or grass). Usually, smaller buildings such as a kitchen are joined laterally to the hut as appendages to form a "house group" (fig. 1). Such huts existed in the Precolumbian period of which are left only platforms and post holes.

Family growth eventually requires the complexification of this basic model to get a larger residential space. According to Maya norms, expansion consists in the multiplication of the components following the above cited rules. But the dimensions that a hut can reach are limited. It is at this point that Maya architecture reaches another level of complexity which is the "patio group", the grouping of houses around a communal court (fig. 4). This second level is the basic form of building grouping.

In terms of social organization, it is presumed that the patio group in Precolumbian times was inhabited by an extended family, each hut being the residence of a nuclear family and the largest the one of the patriarch. The grouping of several patio groups then formed a larger unit representative of a lineage.

Fig. 1: Hut. Petén, Guatemala.

Fig. 2: Hut. Yucatán, Mexico.

Fig. 3: Hut forms. (after Wauchope 1938)

Fig. 4: Patio group. Petén, Guatemala

Since the 19th century, researchers have underlined the structural similarities between the domestic and monumental forms of Maya architecture (fig. 5) as well as the relative uniformity between the regional styles of Maya monumental architecture.

From these observations was born the "prototype theory" according to which Maya monumental architectures followed a multilinear evolution from a common domestic prototype. Monumental architecture would thus be a transformation of the basic form in durable materials (masonry). In fact, the high value of the domestic form is visible in its use as a decorative design (fig. 6).

Fig. 5: Plans of a hut (a) and temples (b, c, d). (after Fauvet-Berthelot 1986)

Fig. 6: Hut as decorative design. Uxmal, Mexico.