Funco (architecture)


Funco is a traditional Capeverdean house that originated from Africa.
These houses are represented in Guinea-Bissau., founded mainly on the islands of Fogo, Santiago and Maio. Their circular form is made of different kinds of rock. The conical thatch roof is made of palm fronds.
Henrique Teixeira de Sousa explored the social structure of Fogo, his native island, in his novels and in his essays. He showed the concern of white families with the rise of mixed families in the late 1940s. They feared the moment that "the blacks would be pushed out of the funco ; they would take the place of the mixed in the loja and the latter would put the whites out of the sobrado.
According to António Carreira in 1965, the term was used to mean a "small, poor and miserable building".

Notable examples

Notable examples of a funco house/building type include:
Settlements named after this type of house style, in the municipality of São Lourenço dos Órgãos, Santiago Island:
The Cape Verdean Architects’ Bar Association has created an to discuss architecture, named “Funco” to honor this particular Cape Verdean form of building.