Romanian wooden houses – when nature and tradition come together

The house is the centerpiece of the Romanian traditional universe, the place where the family comes together and develops and where Romanians would gravitate around in their day to day activities. Now, tired of the big cities hustle and bearing the parents’ home nostalgia in mind, people are increasingly turning to popular peasant houses, simple, healthy and of unrivalled beauty, in complete harmony with the surrounding nature. Below we will provide details about the Romanian wooden houses.

First, wood was and still is the core element of Romanian traditional style houses, with additional natural resources such as stone, earth and sand. Found in abundance, wood is a material that has multiple processing possibilities. Ever since ancient times, it has been used almost in its raw state, but awareness of its capabilities developed along the evolution of man and history. Currently, wood is the primary material used in most of the construction environment. Aesthetic looking, having bearing properties, its warmth and naturalness have always been appreciated and exploited.

Ethnologists tell how lifting a house in the past was not just a matter of engineering, but a real ritual strictly respected by our ancestors. Wood was procured directly from the forest and the trees to be cut were chosen with great care. They choose the length and thickness needed and used all of it.

Another criterion was that the wood was cut in those months of the year ending in „er” or „ry” – October, November, January, February, preferably under a full moon. In addition, reciting prayers before cutting a tree, or rather incantations was also part of the ritual. Only after this ritual was truly observed, they cut the tree in two, keeping the thicker edge for the floor, the top for the rafters and the rest for the fire.

In all this general landscape of Romanian wooden houses, round wood constructions (the opening picture) keeps most of the traditional architecture typology because the elements used are less processed. They preserve the original vegetable appearance and offers high stability joints because wooden pieces are uniform and not fragmented lengthwise. Round wood naturally integrates in either mountainous or hilly landscape, and is suitable for various construction types, such as vacation homes, mountain refuges or hostels, but can also easily integrate in the lowlands in recreation residences in the outer urban areas.

The project in the pictures below is a relevant example for this type of construction. It covers all the functions of a holiday home with an area of about 100 square meters. The designers say that the relationship with the environment is not indifferent and is expressed by landscape opening terraces. The silhouette of the house is outlined by the lofts on the first floor, an architectural solution characteristic to the mountain area, roof slopes have an average inclination of 45 degrees and creates an intimate space opening to the landscape. Round wood constructions are thus the ideal solution for a holiday residence.

Sources: Casatamultvisata.ro, Mesterimaramureseni.ro