Creole, West Indian in the West Indies? What term, what expression should we use to describe the architecture of the Guadeloupe Islands? According to J-M Guibert (Big Caribbean Encyclopaedia), there are several architectural styles.

The housing style:

The mansion is generally set up on a hill which enables the master of the house to keep watch over his house and to keep it dry. Its social identity is clear and is also the basis of the structure. Thus, this kind of house contributes to the creation of the society of the West Indies by establishing an exploitation model as well as a social integration model. Before 1848 the mansion was the reference and now it belongs to the collective imagination in which it is an architectural model that was given the name of "colonial style".

The mills:

One can see ruins of mills that are more or less well preserved on the Guadelupian territory. They still show how significant this past architecture was in the plantation’s economy. Their size, building materials, even their shape show the improvement and evolution of the productivity at that time. The mill is the founding component of the whole housing by protecting mainly the grinding mechanism of the sugar cane and of the coffee. It symbolizes a whole age and is the very functioning basis within a residence. This aspect is so significant that the appearance of the steam was often considered only as an extension of the traditional factories. Animal, water or wind mills still leave indelible traces in our memories.