ARCHITECTURE
wooden architecture — research, maintenance and restoration

This type of a house is called in Russian ‘brus’, i.e. a rectangle framework in plan, within which successively are located the habitable part in front, the anteroom in the middle and the section including household areas behind. In the case under consideration the household section is widened. The basis of the design of the structure is a parallelepiped-shaped rectangle; the habitable part is covered with a symmetrical gable roof, the section for household with asymmetrical slopes (one eave is lower than the other). The ridge on the household section is shifted northward relative to the roofing lath of the habitable part.

The main entrance is a two-step porch on a log base.

The habitable part is two-storied, divided by the main longitudinal wall into ‘izba’ (a habitable room) and ‘gornitsa’ (a sitting-room) on both of the floors; there is a complementary room in the halls also on both of the floors. The household section is two-storied, the lower floor is allotted for cattle-sheds and a farm-yard, the upper floor is for various needs (a workshop, hay-loft etc.). The ramp to the upper floor joins from the south at right angle to the wall.

The doorways to the halls of the habitable part are on the lower and upper floors. The western portion of the upper floor is supported by pillars, underneath are located three cattle-sheds; the doorway to each of the sheds is indoors from the farm-yard, small windows on the western wall admit light to the sheds. The nailless roof is constructed according to local techniques. The framework is made up of logs fixed according to the traditional method with the logs’ ends protruding from the edges of the walls in the corners (a notch joint called in Russian ‘v oblo’).

The face wall numbers twelve windows. There is an attic room’s window above the balcony on the pediment.

The main entrance to the house is on the southern wall which numbers 6 ‘izba’ windows, 2 windows of the anteroom on the upper floor, and a window of the one on the lower floor. There are 7 windows on the northern wall: 4 on the upper floor, 3 on the lower floor. Ornamentation is rather moderate. Decorative window trim (shutters, head and sill pieces) are plain profiled boards. The facial boards on the face wall feature volumetric geometry carvings, the edge has a fretwork. The ends of the facial boards and a ‘towel’ element carry fretwork of solar symbols, semi-circles and trapezoidal drops. The board balusters on the balcony are noted for reach-through carvings in the shape of a lyre with a drilled circle in the center.

‘Izbas’ and complementary rooms are heated by Russian stoves. The sitting-room on the lower floor is heated by a round stove, the one on the upper floor by a stove bench.