In the heart of the central campus of the Universidad Industrial de Santander (UIS) there is a building that keeps in its walls more than a century of history: the large house La Perla, today known as the Casa de los Egresados UIS (UIS Alumni House).
Built with a traditional rectangular cloister typology, La Perla is the oldest building on the University’s premises. Before the UIS acquired the land in 1948, the mansion already fulfilled functions linked to rural traffic on the Bucaramanga-Matanza Road. Its strategic location, in a natural vantage point to the north of the plateau, made it a meeting point for mule drivers, traders and travelers arriving in the city.
“This building is a time capsule. It allows us to tell the story of Bucaramanga before the University and at the same time narrate the urban, architectural and cultural memory of the region”, explains architect Otto Federico Cala, member of the Cultural Heritage Commission of the Colombian Society of Architects, Santander region.
From rural inn to university symbol
During the Thousand Days’ War, La Perla was an obligatory stop for troops and a resting place for muleteers and traders. After being acquired in 1948 by the UIS, the house was adapted as a student cafeteria, university gymnasium and warehouse.
Years later, in 1975, the building was loaned to the Association of Graduates of the UIS (ASEDUIS), which turned it into the headquarters of its institutional life until 2014. Since then, the space was recovered by the University to house the Office of External Relations and the Alumni Programme.
Today, in addition to its heritage value, La Perla is a meeting point for graduates, with meeting rooms, administrative areas and the Roberto Sepúlveda Lozano auditorium, inaugurated in 1991 as a tribute to an outstanding alumnus and leader of the association.
A protected heritage
The Special Management and Protection Plan (PEMP) of the UIS recognizes La Perla as a protected building, with intervention level 2, which allows for adaptations that respect its original typology based on corridors and a central courtyard.
The La Perla house, in terms of heritage value, has a maximum value of antiquity within the UIS campus. Symbolically, it has some aspects that present opportunities for improvement; for example, in the valuation that was made in the PEMP, in the category of author, it was not assigned a score because it is not of this architecture-without-architects that our ancestors bequeathed to us. But I believe that the fact that it does not have an identified author does mean that we can talk about the hands that built it and the constructive cultures that made it possible and that today are the basis of the Santander construction identity: the stepped tapia, the materiality of the clay tile roofs, the wooden windows, the carpentry of the doors. The use of wood and stone in the corridors makes it a symbolically very interesting element. These elements, together with its symbolic memory, give it a unique value within the university campus,” explains Otto Federico Cala.
“La Perla is not just an old house, it is a living story. It brings together the rural tradition of Bucaramanga, the history of the UIS and the memories of generations of graduates,” says historian Professor Armando Martínez Garnica.
A look to the future
After several restorations over the decades, specialists agree that the current challenge is to reinforce its heritage value, rescuing its original character and guaranteeing its permanence as a cultural and architectural reference.
Converted into the UIS Alumni House, the Casona La Perla continues to be a symbol of identity, memory and belonging for the university community, reminding us that heritage is not only preserved in the walls, but also in the collective memory that inhabits them.
