Page 23 - ATA

A15
LOCAL Wednesday 18 april 2018

‘Take your car off the beaten track to meet our monuments and their stories’

Continued from Page 14 came here to the outdoors the social sustainability.
as in those times there was That includes looking at the
only cunucu (countryside) non-tangible part of heri-
Outside inspiration here. They had big parties tage: the stories to be told,
The Monumentfund ac- and enjoyed leisure time the music to be played, the
quires or buys monuments with family and friends.” dinners that were cooked
and restores them back Richer Arubans at that in the places we try to re-
into their former glory. time looked outwards for store. That keeps it alive.
Than they rent it out. “That architecture inspiration as Most of our monuments are
sounds easy, but it is in- that was considered chic, meant to be lived in so we
credibly complex as most Witsenburg explains. Either would like to reintroduce
monuments have multiple to the US (art deco style the joy of living in a monu-
owners due to the fact that like the water tower in San ment. We work together
inheritances are split and Nicolas), Holland (Dutch with private companies
all need to decide upon colonial style) or Colom- to look into that.” In their
the selling.” They cooper- bia/Venezuela. “This house office they installed solar
ate with the government is inspired by a villa around panels, use LED lightning
office of monuments be- Cartagena, Colombia. The and recently implement-
cause they set the rules of ideas mostly came from ed an electrical charging
what you can and cannot the wives”, she says laugh- point for electric vehicles.
do to a protected monu- ing.
ment. “We also have the The Monumentfund Aruba
task to maintain the build- Sustainable driven is open every day from
ings which is an ongoing Sustainability is a big thing Monday to Friday from 8 to
process. The wind, the salt to the Monumentfund Aru- 5. You are more than wel-
in the air and the sun that ba. Witsenburg: “Obviously come to ask for informa-
not only burns human bod- to restore old buildings and tion, guiding and help. For
ies but also buildings are not destroy them to build more information check
huge challenges. Next to The office of the Monu- “This house goes back to new ones is already sustain- their Facebook page stich-
that we do education, cre- mentfund is actually lo- the 1920’s when it was able in itself. Than we have ting monumenten fonds
ate awareness and main- cated in a monument itself. built as a vacation house the technical sustainability aruba and the website
tain public relations about The building is beautiful by Aruban entrepreneur as in using the right materi- http://www.monumenten-
our monuments.” and has a tropical style. Croes. He and his family als and techniques but also fondsaruba.com.q