ARCHITECTURE
wooden architecture — research, maintenance and restoration

It is a typical so-called ‘complex house’, with a separate living cabin. The main building consists of living and household quarters. The type of the house is so-called ‘brus (block) with the widened shed’. The household quarters are two-storied. The cattle-sheds are situated on the lower floor, and the shed is on the upper floor. The frameworks of the cattle-sheds are independent and not connected with the main building. The walls of the shed rest on posts dug into the ground. The shed consists of single-storied ‘seni’ (a mud room) and living quarters, which stand right on the basement. There are three windows on the main façade. The entrance to the ‘seni’ is on the house’s side.

The living space is covered with a symmetrical gable nailless roof, while the household part is covered with a asymmetrical nailless roof of different slope grade. Living quarters is a four-wall framework uplifted above the ground. It consist of ‘izba’ (the living room itself), which is divided into 2 parts by an inner wall. Two-storied antechamber includes an extra living space on the upper floor. The cellar is divided by the inner wall into 2 separate cells. The entry to them is from the antechamber and on the flank front wall. The jambs of the doors and windows consist of three posts. Rectangle framework of the separate living room is covered with a hipped roof. The foundation posts are made of rubble concrete, the walls are constructed out of logs fixed according to the traditional method called ‘v oblo’, (i.e. with the logs’ ends protruding from the edges of the walls in the corners). The two-ply roof is composed of planks.

The main facade is symmetrical and has 4 windows. The attic is lit through an air-hole cut in the triangular pediment. The entrances to the house are made on the flank walls with the small floorings without awnings in front of them. The windows on the ‘izba’ (living quarters), ‘seni’ (antechamber) and cellar are on the southern facade wall, and northern facade wall has the windows only of ‘izba’ and ‘seni’. Through the gates in the southern and eastern walls one can get to the household area. There is a pass-through between the gates. The ramp to the shed is perpendicular to the flank facade.

The decorations of both buildings are rather various. The frames surrounding windows of the living room and the cellar of the house structure carry supplementary ornamental details, their endings are decorated. Windows of the ‘izba’ and ‘seni’ are decorated with simpler frames which consist of profiled planks with plain edges. There are some carvings and fretwork on the facial boards. The endings of the facial board are decorated with reach-through rosettes. The edges of the bars supporting the roof are stylized birds figures. The pegged ridge and the holders of the framework are decorated with carvings.

The surface of the walls inside the living quarters and ‘seni’ (antechamber) are neatly hewed up, the corners are rounded. The stairs inside the anteroom lead to the living quarters on the upper floor, the second stairway leads from the antechamber to the attic. The ceiling in all rooms is flat on the beams. A Russian stove in the living room faces the main wall. The cross wall is braced. In the antechamber there is a steep stairway to the attic. The walls are hewn, the ceiling is flat.