The history of the human dwelling. Characteristic features of traditional Russian dwellings in various regions of the country The most interesting dwellings of the peoples of the world

Wigwam, North America

Shutterstock

The ball from the cartoon "Winter in Prostokvashino" actually incorrectly imagined the wigwam - the national home of the forest Indians of North America. This is a hut on a frame, and it is covered with a mat, bark or branches and most often has a domed shape. Most often it is small, but the largest could accommodate 25-30 people. Nowadays, wigwams are mainly used as ceremonial premises.

And what Sharik drew is a tipi, it is really a conical shape, nomadic Indians of the Great Plains live in such structures.

Igloo / Eskimos


Igloo, Eskimos

Shutterstock

Another recognizable image is the ice houses of the Eskimos, which are called igloos. Eskimos live in the territory from Greenland to Alaska and the eastern edge of Chukotka. An igloo is built from snow or ice blocks compacted by the wind, the height of the structure is 3-4 m.

You can, of course, just "cut out" the house in a suitable snowdrift, and this is also done.

The entrance can be arranged in the floor, a corridor breaks through to the entrance - this is done if the snow is deep. If the snow is shallow, the entrance is arranged in the wall, and an additional corridor from the outside of the blocks is attached to it.

When the entrance is located below floor level, the exchange between the flows of carbon dioxide and oxygen takes place more easily, while warm air does not leave the room. Light enters either directly through walls or through windows made of seal intestines and ice. Inside, the room is usually covered with skins.

Tent / Sahara


Tent, Sahara

Shutterstock

And this type of housing, it would seem, is generally incomprehensible how it does not fall apart. However, if you look closely, you can see a lot of strengthening sticks inside. The African Bedouin tent, also sometimes called a felidge, is essentially a camel or goat hair blanket spread over poles. The wealth of a Bedouin is determined by the number of these poles; the maximum number of such supports is 18.

With the help of a canopy, it is divided into two parts, one is assigned to women, the second is occupied by men.

Inside the tent is covered with mats. Despite the seeming simplicity of the design, it takes two to three hours to assemble it. During the day, the tent is completely open: the covers are lifted up, at night the makeshift house is closed, it does not have a single gap - this is the only way to protect oneself from the cold and winds that come into the desert with the onset of darkness.

Minka / Japan


Minka, Japan

Shutterstock

Another transforming housing is the traditional Japanese minka. Such a house was the habitation of peasants, artisans and merchants; now such huts are usually found in rural areas.

In different areas, the minka has its own characteristics, but there are general rules, in particular, the use of a rectangular frame structure made of load-bearing pillars and crossbars. Cheap and affordable materials are used in the construction of these houses, they are often made of wood, bamboo, grass, straw and clay.

Instead of walls - movable cardboard panels, they allow you to "play" with layouts.

The floor is earthen, with wooden flooring, on which people sleep and eat.

Palazo / Spain

Wikimedia Commons

This is a more solid structure. Spanish houses palyaso are made of stone, their height is 4-5 m, diameter is from 10 to 20 m. The house itself is round or oval, the roof is conical, made of a wooden frame, sheathed with straw.

There may be no windows at all, or one thing, purely symbolic, may be made.

This type of housing is especially popular in the Sierra de los Ancares region. Paljasos were used as permanent places of residence until the 1970s.

Saklya / Caucasus


Note:
There is MORE content on the internet than on the print.
Have you tried watching newspapers on your smartphone screen? Recommended - very convenient!

"Dwellings of the peoples of the world"

(66 selected by us "residential real estate" from "abylaysha" to "yaranga")

Wall newspapers of the charitable educational project "Briefly and clearly about the most interesting" (site site) are intended for schoolchildren, parents and teachers of St. Petersburg. They are delivered free of charge to most educational institutions, as well as to a number of hospitals, orphanages and other institutions in the city. The editions of the project do not contain any advertising (only the logos of the founders), are politically and religiously neutral, written in easy language, well illustrated. They are conceived as informational "braking" of students, awakening cognitive activity and the desire to read. Authors and publishers, without pretending to the academic completeness of the presentation of the material, publish interesting facts, illustrations, interviews with famous figures of science and culture and hope thereby to increase the interest of schoolchildren in the educational process.

Dear friends! Our regular readers have noticed that this is not the first time that we present an issue related in one way or another to the topic of real estate. Recently, we discussed the very first residential buildings of the Stone Age, and also took a closer look at the "real estate" of the Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons (issue). We talked about the dwellings of peoples who have long lived on lands from Lake Onega to the shores of the Gulf of Finland (and these are Vepsians, Vods, Izhora, Ingrian Finns, Tikhvin Karelians and Russians), we talked about in the series "Indigenous Peoples of the Leningrad Region" (, and issues). We have covered the most incredible and peculiar modern buildings in this issue. We also wrote more than once about the holidays related to the topic: Realtor's Day in Russia (February 8); Builder's Day in Russia (second Sunday in August); World Architecture Day and World Housing Day (first Monday in October). This wall newspaper is a short "wall encyclopedia" of traditional dwellings of peoples from all over the world. The 66 “residential real estate objects” we have selected are arranged alphabetically: from “abylayshi” to “yaranga”.

Abylaisha

Abylaisha is a marching yurt among the Kazakhs. Its frame consists of many poles, which are attached from above to a wooden ring - a chimney. The whole structure is covered with felt. In the past, such dwellings were used in the military campaigns of the Kazakh Khan Abylai, hence the name.

Ail

Ail ("wooden yurt") is the traditional dwelling of the Telengits, the people of the Southern Altai. A hexagonal log structure with an earthen floor and a high roof covered with birch or larch bark. There is a hearth in the middle of the earthen floor.

Arish

Arish is the summer home of the Arab population of the Persian Gulf coast, woven from the stalks of palm leaves. A kind of fabric pipe is installed on the roof, which provides ventilation in the house in extremely hot climates.

Balagan

Balagan is the winter dwelling of the Yakuts. Inclined walls made of thin poles coated with clay were strengthened on a log frame. The low, sloping roof was covered with bark and earth. Chunks of ice were inserted into small windows. The entrance is oriented to the east and is covered by a canopy. On the west side, a cattle shed was attached to the booth.

Barasti

Barasti - in the Arabian Peninsula, the common name for huts woven from the leaves of the date palm. At night, the leaves absorb excess moisture, and during the day they gradually dry out, humidifying the hot air.

Drum

Barabóra is a capacious semi-dugout of the Aleuts, the indigenous population of the Aleutian Islands. The frame was made of whale bones and driftwood washed ashore. The roof was insulated with grass, turf and skins. A hole was left in the roof for entrance and lighting, from where they descended inward along a log with steps carved into it. Barabora were built on the hills near the coast, so that it was convenient to observe sea animals and the approach of enemies.

Bordey

Bordei is a traditional semi-dugout in Romania and Moldova, covered with a thick layer of straw or reed. Such a dwelling saved from significant temperature changes during the day, as well as from strong winds. There was a hearth on the clay floor, but the bordeaux was heated in black: smoke came out through a small door. This is one of the oldest types of housing in this part of Europe.

Bahareke

Bahareque is a hut of the Indians of Guatemala. The walls are made of poles and branches coated with clay. The roof is made of dry grass or thatch, the floor is made of compacted soil. Bahareke are resistant to strong earthquakes that occur in Central America.

Burama

Burama is a temporary home for the Bashkirs. The walls were made of logs and branches and had no windows. The gable roof was covered with bark. The earthen floor was covered with grass, branches and leaves. Plank bunks and a hearth with a wide chimney were built inside.

Valkaran

Valkaran (“house of the jaws of a whale” in Chukchi) is a dwelling of the peoples of the Bering Sea coast (Eskimos, Aleuts and Chukchi). A semi-dugout with a frame made of large whale bones, covered with earth and sod. It had two entrances: the summer one - through a hole in the roof, the winter one - through a long semi-underground corridor.

Vardo

Vardo is a gypsy wagon, a real one-room mobile home. It has a door and windows, an oven for cooking and heating, a bed, boxes for things. At the back, under the tailgate, is a storage box for kitchen utensils. Below, between the wheels - luggage, removable steps and even a chicken coop! The whole carriage is light enough that it could be carried by one horse. Vardo got off with skillful carving and painted with bright colors. The heyday of wardo came at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century.

Vezha

Vezha is an old winter dwelling of the Sami, the indigenous Finno-Ugric people of Northern Europe. Vezha was made of logs in the shape of a pyramid with a smoke hole at the top. The skeleton of the vezha was covered with reindeer skins, and bark, brushwood and sod were laid on top and pressed down with birch poles for strength. A stone hearth was arranged in the center of the dwelling. The floor was covered with reindeer skins. Nearby they put "nili" - a shed on poles. By the beginning of the 20th century, many Sami living in Russia had already built huts for themselves and called them the Russian word “house”.

Wigwam

Wigwam is the general name for the dwelling of the Forest Indians of North America. Most often it is a dome-shaped hut with a hole for smoke outlet. The frame of the wigwam was made of curved thin trunks and covered with bark, reed mats, skins or pieces of cloth. Outside, the covering was additionally pressed with poles. Wigwams can be either round in plan or elongated and have several smoke holes (such structures are called "long houses"). Wigwams are often mistakenly called the cone-shaped dwellings of the Indians of the Great Plains - "tipi" (remember, for example, "folk art" Sharik from the cartoon "Winter in Prostokvashino").

Wikiap

Wikiap is the home of the Apaches and some other Indian tribes of the Southwest of the USA and California. A small, rough hut covered with branches, bushes, straw, or mats, often with extra pieces of cloth and blankets draped over it. A kind of wigwam.

Turf house

The turf house is a traditional building in Iceland since the days of the Vikings inhabiting it. Its design was determined by the harsh climate and a shortage of wood. In the place of the future house, large flat stones were laid out. A wooden frame was placed on them, which was lined with turf in several layers. They lived in one half of such a house, and kept livestock in the other.

Diaolou

Diaolou is a fortified multi-storey building in Guangdong province in southern China. The first diaolou were built during the Ming Dynasty, when gangs of robbers were operating in South China. In later and relatively safe times, such fortress houses were built simply following tradition.

Dugout

The dugout is one of the oldest and most widespread types of insulated housing. In a number of countries, peasants lived mainly in dugouts until the late Middle Ages. A hole dug in the ground was covered with poles or logs, which were covered with earth. There was a hearth inside, and bunk beds along the walls.

Igloo

The Igloo is a domed Eskimo hut built from blocks of dense snow. The floor and sometimes the walls were covered with skins. To enter, they dug a tunnel in the snow. If the snow is shallow, the entrance was arranged in the wall, to which an additional corridor of snow blocks was completed. Light enters the room directly through the snowy walls, although windows were also made, closed with seal guts or ice floes. Often several igloos were connected by long snowy corridors.

Izba

Izba is a log house in the forest zone of Russia. Until the 10th century, the hut looked like a semi-dugout, completed with several rows of logs. There was no door, the entrance was covered with logs and a canopy. In the depths of the hut there was a hearth made of stones. The hut was heated in black. People slept on mats on the earthen floor in the same room as the cattle. Over the centuries, the hut has acquired a stove, a hole on the roof for smoke out, and then a chimney. Holes appeared in the walls - windows, which were closed with plates of mica or a bull's bubble. Over time, they began to partition the hut into two parts: an upper room and a vestibule. This is how the "five-wall" hut appeared.

North Russian hut

The hut in the Russian North was built on two floors. The upper floor is residential, the lower ("basement") is utility. Servants, children, courtyard workers lived in the basement, there were also premises for livestock and storage of supplies. The basement was built with blank walls, without windows and doors. An external staircase led directly to the second floor. This saved us from being swept up by snow: in the North there are snowdrifts several meters long! A covered courtyard was attached to such a hut. Long cold winters forced to combine residential and farm buildings into a single whole.

Ikukwane

Ikukwane is a large domed reed house of the Zulu (South Africa). It was built from long thin rods, tall grass, and reeds. All this was intertwined and strengthened with ropes. The entrance to the hut was closed with a special shield. Travelers believe that Ikukwane fits perfectly into the surrounding landscape.

Cabana

Cabanya is a small hut of the indigenous population of Ecuador (a state in the northwest of South America). Its frame is woven from a vine, partially coated with clay and covered with straw. This name was also given to gazebos for recreation and technical needs, installed in resorts near beaches and swimming pools.

Kava

Kava is a gable hut of the Orochei, the indigenous people of the Khabarovsk Territory (Russian Far East). The roof and side walls were covered with spruce bark, the hole for smoke in bad weather was covered with a special tire. The entrance to the dwelling always faced the river. The place for the hearth was covered with pebbles and fenced with wooden blocks, which were coated with clay from the inside. Wooden bunks were built along the walls.

It seems

Kazhim is a large community house of the Eskimos, designed for several dozen people and a long service life. At the place chosen for the house, a rectangular hole was dug, at the corners of which tall thick logs were installed (the Eskimos do not have local wood, so trees thrown by the surf on the shore were used). Further, walls and a roof were erected in the form of a pyramid - from logs or whale bones. A frame covered with a transparent bubble was inserted into the hole left in the middle. The entire structure was covered with earth. The roof was propped up by pillars, as were the bench-beds installed along the walls in several tiers. The floor was covered with boards and mats. A narrow underground corridor was dug for the entrance.

Kázhun

Kajun is a stone building traditional for Istria (a peninsula in the Adriatic Sea, in the northern part of Croatia). The cajun is cylindrical in shape with a conical roof. No windows. The construction was carried out by the dry masonry method (without the use of a binding solution). Initially it served as a dwelling, but later began to play the role of an outbuilding.

Karamo

Karamo is a dugout of Selkups, hunters and fishermen in the north of Western Siberia. At the steep bank of the river, they dug a hole, put four pillars in the corners and made log walls. The roof, also made of logs, was covered with earth. From the side of the water, the entrance was dug and camouflaged with coastal vegetation. To prevent the dugout from being flooded, the floor was made gradually rising from the entrance. It was possible to get into the dwelling only by boat, and the boat was also dragged inside. Because of these peculiar houses, the Selkups were called "earthen people".

Klochan

Klochan is a domed stone hut common in the southwest of Ireland. Very thick, up to one and a half meters, walls were laid out "dry", without a binder solution. Only narrow slits, windows, an entrance and a chimney were left. Such uncomplicated huts were built for themselves by monks leading an ascetic lifestyle, so you don't have to expect much comfort inside.

Kolyba

Kolyba is a summer residence for shepherds and lumberjacks, widespread in the mountainous regions of the Carpathians. This is a log cabin without windows with a gable roof covered with shingles (flat chips). Along the walls there are wooden benches and shelves for things, the floor is earthen. There is a hearth in the middle, smoke comes out through a hole in the roof.

Konak

Konak is a two- or three-storey stone house found in Turkey, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Romania. The structure, which resembles the letter "L" in plan, is covered with a massive tiled roof, which creates a deep shadow. Each bedroom has a covered overhanging balcony and a steam room. A large number of different premises satisfies all the needs of the owners, so there is no need for buildings in the yard.

Kuwaxa

Kuvaksa is a portable Sami dwelling during the spring-summer wanderings. It has a cone-shaped frame of several poles connected by tops, on which a cover made of reindeer skins, birch bark or canvas was pulled. A hearth was set up in the center. Kuwaxa is a variety of plague and also resembles the North American Indian tipi, but is somewhat squat.

Kula

Kula is a fortified tower made of stone, two or three stories high with powerful walls and small loopholed windows. Kuls can be found in the mountainous regions of Albania. The tradition of building such fortified houses is very ancient and also exists in the Caucasus, Sardinia, Corsica and Ireland.

Smoked

Kuren (from the word “smoke”, which means “to smoke”) is the home of the Cossacks, the “free troops” of the Russian kingdom in the lower reaches of the Dnieper, Don, Yaik, Volga. The first Cossack settlements arose in floodplains (river reed thickets). The houses stood on stilts, the walls were made of wattle fences filled with earth and plastered with clay, the roof was reed with a hole for smoke to escape. The features of these first Cossack dwellings can also be traced in modern kurens.

Lepa-lepa

Lepa-lepa is the boat house of the Bajao, the people of Southeast Asia. Bajao, "sea gypsies" as they are called, spend their entire lives in boats in the "Coral Triangle" of the Pacific Ocean - between Borneo, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands. In one part of the boat, they prepare food and store tackle, and in the other they sleep. They get out on land only to sell fish, buy rice, water and fishing equipment, and bury the dead.

Mazanka

Mazanka is a practical rural house of the steppe and forest-steppe Ukraine. The hut got its name according to the old construction technology: a frame made of branches, insulated with a reed layer, was abundantly coated with clay mixed with straw. The walls were regularly whitewashed inside and out, which gave the house an elegant look. The four-pitched thatched roof had large overhangs so that the walls would not get wet in the rain.

Minka

Minka is the traditional home of Japanese peasants, artisans and merchants. The mink was built from readily available materials: bamboo, clay, grass and straw. Sliding partitions or screens were used instead of interior walls. This allowed the inhabitants of the house to change the arrangement of the rooms at their discretion. The roofs were made very high so that the snow and rain would immediately roll down and the straw would not have time to get wet.

Odag

Odag is a wedding hut of the Shors, a people living in the southeastern part of Western Siberia. Nine thin young birches with foliage were tied from above and covered with birch bark. The groom lit a fire inside the hut with a flint. The young remained in the odaga for three days, after which they moved to a permanent home.

Pallaso

Pallaso is a type of dwelling in Galicia (northwest of the Iberian Peninsula). A stone wall was laid out in a circle with a diameter of 10-20 meters, leaving openings for the front door and small windows. A cone-shaped roof made of straw was placed on top of a wooden frame. Sometimes two rooms were arranged in large paliaso: one for living, the other for livestock. Palhasos were used as housing in Galicia until the 1970s.

Palheiro

Palheiro is a traditional farmer's house in the village of Santana in the east of Madeira. It is a small stone structure with a sloping thatched roof down to the ground. The houses are painted white, red and blue. The first colonizers of the island began to build Pagliero.

Cave

The cave is probably the most ancient natural refuge of man. In soft rocks (limestones, loesses, tuffs), people have long cut down artificial caves, where they equipped comfortable dwellings, sometimes entire cave cities. So, in the cave city of Eski-Kermen in the Crimea (pictured), rooms carved into the rock have hearths, chimneys, "beds", niches for dishes and other things, water containers, windows and doorways with traces of hinges.

Cook

Povarnya is a summer dwelling of Kamchadals, the people of Kamchatka Krai, Magadan Oblast and Chukotka. In order to protect themselves from changes in water level, a dwelling (like a plague) was built on high piles. Used logs washed up by the sea on the shore. The hearth was placed on a pile of pebbles. Smoke escaped through a hole in the middle of the sharp roof. Under the roof, multi-tiered rails were made for drying fish. Cooks can still be seen on the shores of the Sea of ​​Okhotsk.

Pueblo

Pueblo - ancient settlements of the Pueblo Indians, a group of Indian peoples of the Southwest of the modern United States. A closed structure, built of sandstone or raw brick, in the form of a fortress. The living quarters were arranged in steps of several floors - so that the roof of the lower floor was a courtyard for the upper one. The upper floors were climbed by ladders through holes in the roofs. In some pueblos, for example, in Taos Pueblo (a thousand-year-old settlement), the Indians still live.

Pueblito

Pueblito is a small fortified house in the northwest of the American state of New Mexico. 300 years ago, they were built, supposedly, by the Navajo and Pueblo tribes, which defended themselves from the Spaniards, as well as from the Utah and Comanche tribes. The walls are lined with boulders and cobblestones and held together with clay. The interiors are also covered with earthen plaster. The ceilings are made of pine or juniper beams, over which rods are laid. The pueblitos were positioned in high places within sight of each other to enable long-distance communications.

Riga

Riga ("residential riga") is a log house of Estonian peasants with a high thatched or thatched roof. In the central room, which was heated in black, hay lived and dried. In the adjacent room (it was called the "threshing floor"), grain was threshed and blown, implements and hay were stored, and livestock were kept in winter. There were also unheated rooms ("chambers"), which were used as storage rooms, and in warm weather as living quarters.

Rondawel

Rondavel is the round house of the Bantu peoples (south Africa). The walls were built of stone. The cementitious composition consisted of sand, earth and manure. The roof was made of twigs, to which bunches of reeds were tied with grassy ropes.

Sáklya

Saklya is the home of the inhabitants of the mountainous areas of the Caucasus and Crimea. Usually this is a house made of stone, clay, or raw brick with a flat roof and narrow windows like loopholes. If the sakli were located one below the other on the slope of the mountain, the roof of the lower house could easily serve as a courtyard for the upper one. The frame beams were made protruding to equip cozy awnings. However, any small hut with a thatched roof can also be called a sakley here.

Senec

Senek is a "log yurt" of the Shors, the people of the southeastern part of Western Siberia. The gable roof was covered with birch bark, which was fastened on top with half-timbers. The hearth was in the form of a clay pit opposite the front door. A wooden hook with a kettle was suspended over the hearth on a transverse pole. The smoke went into a hole in the roof.

Teepee

The teepee is a portable dwelling of the nomadic Indians of the Great Plains of America. The teepee has the shape of a cone up to eight meters high. The frame is assembled from poles (pine - on the northern and central plains and from juniper - on the southern). The cover is sewn from bison skins or canvas. A smoke hole is left on top. Two smoke valves regulate the smoke draft of the hearth using special poles. In case of strong winds, the teepee are tied to a special peg with a belt. Tipi should not be confused with wigwam.

Tokul

Tokul is a round thatched hut of the inhabitants of Sudan (East Africa). The supporting parts of the walls and the conical roof are made from long mimosa trunks. Then they are put on hoops made of flexible branches and covered with straw.

Tylou

Tylou is a fortress house in Fujian and Guangdong provinces (China). The foundation was laid out of stones in a circle or square (which made it difficult for the enemies to dig during a siege) and the lower part of the wall about two meters thick was built. Above, the wall was completed from a mixture of clay, sand and lime, which hardened in the sun. On the upper floors, narrow openings were left for loopholes. Inside the fortress there were living quarters, a well, and large containers for food. One tulou could accommodate 500 people representing one clan.

Trullo

Trullo is an original conical roof house in the Italian region of Apulia. The walls of the trullo are very thick, so it is cool in hot weather and not so cold in winter. The trullo is two-tiered, and you climbed to the second floor by a ladder. Often the trullo had several cone-shaped roofs, each of which had a separate room.

Tueji

Tueji is the summer home of the Udege, Oroch and Nanai - the indigenous peoples of the Far East. A gable roof was installed over the dug hole, covered with birch bark or cedar bark. The sides were covered with earth. Inside, the tueji is divided into three parts: female, male and central, in which the hearth was located. Above the hearth, a platform of thin poles was installed for drying and smoking fish and meat, and a kettle was also hung for cooking.

Urasá

Urasá is a summer dwelling of the Yakuts, a cone-shaped hut made of poles, covered with birch bark. Long, poles, placed in a circle, were fastened from above with a wooden hoop. From the inside, the frame was stained reddish-brown with a decoction of alder bark. The door was made in the form of a birch bark curtain decorated with folk patterns. For strength, the birch bark was boiled in water, then the top layer was scraped off with a knife and sewn into strips with a thin hair cord. Bunks were built along the walls inside. In the middle, on the earthen floor, was a hearth.

Fale

Fale is a hut for the inhabitants of the island state of Samoa (South Pacific). A gable roof made of coconut leaves is installed on wooden posts arranged in a circle or oval. A distinctive feature of the halyard is the absence of walls. The openings between the posts, if necessary, are covered with mats. Wooden structural elements are tied with ropes woven from coconut husk threads.

Fánza

Fánza is a type of rural dwelling in Northeastern China and the Russian Far East among indigenous peoples. Rectangular structure on a pillar frame supporting a gable thatched roof. The walls were made of straw mixed with clay. Fanza had an ingenious heating system. A chimney ran from the clay hearth along the entire wall at floor level. The smoke, before entering the long chimney built outside the fanza, heated wide bunks. Hot coals from the hearth were poured onto a special elevation and used to heat water and dry clothes.

Felidge

Felidge is a tent of Bedouins, Arab nomads. The frame of long poles intertwined with each other is covered with a fabric woven from camel, goat or sheep wool. This fabric is so dense that it keeps rain out. During the day, the awning is raised to ventilate the dwelling, and at night or in a strong wind, it is lowered. The felidge is divided into male and female halves by a patterned curtain. Each half has its own hearth. The floor is covered with mats.

Hanok

Hanuk is a traditional Korean house with mud walls and thatched or tiled roofs. Its feature is the heating system: pipes are laid under the floor through which hot air from the hearth is carried throughout the house. The ideal place for a hanok is considered to be: behind the house there is a hill, and in front of the house there is a stream.

Hata

Khata is the traditional home of Ukrainians, Belarusians, southern Russians and part of the Poles. The roof, in contrast to the Russian hut, was made with four slopes: thatched or reed. The walls were erected from half-timbers, smeared with a mixture of clay, horse dung and straw, and were whitewashed - both outside and inside. There were certainly shutters on the windows. There was a block around the house (a wide, clay-filled bench) that protected the lower part of the wall from getting wet. The hut was divided into two parts: residential and utility, separated by a passage.

Hogan

Hogan is the ancient home of the Navajo Indians, one of the largest Native American peoples in North America. A frame of poles, set at an angle of 45 ° to the ground, was intertwined with branches and thickly coated with clay. Often a "hallway" was attached to this simple structure. The entrance was covered with a blanket. After the first railroad passed through the Navajo territory, the design of the hogan changed: the Indians found it very convenient to build their houses from sleepers.

Plague

Chum is the general name for a conical hut made of poles covered with birch bark, felt or reindeer skins. This form of dwelling is widespread throughout Siberia - from the Ural ridge to the shores of the Pacific Ocean, among the Finno-Ugric, Turkic and Mongol peoples.

Chabono

Chabono is the collective home of the Yanomamo Indians, lost in the Amazon rainforest on the border of Venezuela and Brazil. A large family (from 50 to 400 people) chooses a suitable clearing in the depths of the jungle and fences it with pillars, to which a long roof of leaves is attached. Inside such a peculiar hedge, there is an open space for chores and rituals.

Shalash

Shalash is the general name for the simplest shelter from the weather from any available materials: sticks, branches, grass, etc. It was probably the first man-made refuge of an ancient man. In any case, some animals, in particular, great apes, create something similar.

Shale

Shale ("shepherd's hut") is a small farmhouse in the "Swiss style" in the Alps. One of the hallmarks of a chalet is strongly protruding eaves. The walls are wooden, their lower part can be plastered or lined with stone.

Tent

A tent is the general name for a temporary lightweight structure made of fabric, leather or skins stretched on stakes and ropes. Since ancient times, tents have been used by eastern nomadic peoples. The tent (under various names) is often mentioned in the Bible.

Yurt

Yurt is the common name for a portable frame dwelling with a felt covering among the Turkic and Mongolian nomads. A classic yurt can be easily assembled and disassembled by one family within a few hours. It is transported on a camel or horse, its felt covering protects well from temperature changes, does not let rain or wind pass through. Dwellings of this type are so ancient that they can be recognized even on rock paintings. Yurts in a number of localities are successfully used today.

Yaodong

Yaodong is a cave house of the Loess Plateau of the northern provinces of China. Loess is a soft, easy-to-work breed. Local residents discovered this long ago and from time immemorial dug their homes right in the hillside. It is comfortable inside such a house in any weather.

Yaranga

Yaranga is a portable dwelling place of some peoples of the north-east of Siberia: Chukchi, Koryaks, Evens, Yukagirs. First, tripods made of poles are set in a circle and fixed with stones. The inclined poles of the side wall are tied to the tripods. The frame of the dome is attached on top. The whole structure is covered with reindeer or walrus skins. Two or three poles are placed in the middle in order to support the ceiling. Yaranga is divided by canopies into several rooms. Sometimes inside the yaranga they put a small “house” covered with skins.

We are grateful to the Education Department of the Administration of the Kirovsky District of St. Petersburg and everyone who unselfishly helps in distributing our wall newspapers. Our sincere thanks to the great photographers who have kindly allowed their photographs to be used in this issue. These are Mikhail Krasikov, Evgeny Golomolzin and Sergey Sharov. Many thanks to Lyudmila Semyonovna Grek - for prompt advice. Please send your feedback and suggestions to: [email protected]

Dear friends, thank you for being with us!

The housing stock of modern Russian villages has been developing for a long time. In some villages and hamlets, there are still dwellings built at the end and even in the middle of the 19th century; many buildings erected at the beginning of the 20th century have survived. On the whole, in most Russian villages, houses built before the Great October Revolution constitute a relatively small percentage. In order to understand the current changes in the development of traditional forms of housing, as well as the process of the formation of new features of housing construction, it is necessary to give an idea of ​​the main features of the Russian rural dwelling that were traced in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Characteristic features of traditional Russian dwelling in various regions of the country

The diverse nature of Russia, different social, economic and historical conditions contributed to the creation of different types of Russian dwellings, fixed on a particular territory by a certain local ethnic tradition. Along with the common features characteristic of all Russian houses, in different areas of Russian settlement there were features that manifested themselves in the position of the house in relation to the street, in the building material, in the covering, in the height and internal layout of the building, in the forms of building the courtyard. Many local features of the dwelling were formed in the feudal era and reflect the cultural characteristics of certain ethnographic groups.

In the middle of the XIX century. on the vast territory of Russian settlement, large areas were distinguished, distinguished by the peculiarities of rural residential buildings. There were also smaller areas with less significant distinctiveness of dwellings, as well as zones of distribution of mixed forms of dwellings.

In the northern villages of Russia - in Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Olonets, as well as in the northern districts of the Tver and Yaroslavl provinces - large log buildings were erected, which included residential and utility rooms in a single whole, set with a narrow end facade perpendicular to the street. A characteristic feature of the northern dwelling was the high height of the entire building. Due to the harsh northern climate, the floor of the living quarters was raised to a considerable height above the ground. The cuts (beams) of the floor were cut into the sixth-tenth crown, depending on the thickness of the logs. The space under the floor was called the basement, or the basement; it reached a significant (1.5-3 m) height and was used for various household needs: keeping poultry and young livestock, storing vegetables, food, and various utensils. Often the basement was made residential. Adjacent to the living quarters was a courtyard, covered with the same roof and forming a single whole with housing ("house - courtyard"). In the covered courtyard, all utility rooms were united into one whole under a common roof and were closely adjacent to the dwelling. The spread of the covered courtyard in the northern and central non-chernozem provinces of Russia was due to the harsh climate and long snowy winters, which forced them to combine residential and household buildings into one whole.

Covered courtyards in the north, as well as living quarters, were built high and arranged in two floors. The lower floor housed cattle sheds, and the upper floor (poveta) kept cattle fodder, household equipment, vehicles, and various household items; there were also built small unheated log cabins - cages (gorenki), in which the family's household property was kept, and in the summer married couples lived. Outside, an inclined log deck was attached to the poveta - an entrance (import). The covered courtyard was closely adjacent to the back wall of the house, and the entire building stretched perpendicular to the street, in one line, making up a "single-row connection", or "single-row type of building". In the northern buildings there was also a type of "two-row" building, in which the house and the covered courtyard were placed in parallel, close to each other. In Zaonezhie, the so-called pouch house was widespread, in which the courtyard, attached to the side, was wider than the hut and was covered with one of the elongated slopes of its roof. There was also a "verb-like" building, when a courtyard was attached to the back and side walls of the house, placed perpendicular to the street, as if covering the house from two sides.

On the vast territory, which included all the northern, western, eastern and central Russian provinces of the European part of Russia, as well as in the Russian villages of Siberia, the dwelling was covered with a gable roof. The material of the roof covering depended on local possibilities. In the northern forest provinces, huts were covered with boards, shingles, and at the beginning of the 20th century also with chips.

The most ancient and characteristic structure of a gable roof, which survived especially for a long time in the north, was the male (the roof was cut, cut, on bulls, on males). In the construction of such a roof, an important practical purpose was performed by chickens - naturally curved rhizomes of spruce, supporting streams, or water pipes, that is, gutters against which the ends of the roof gaps rested. An important constructive role was played by brackets (fellings, abutments, passes), arranged from the outlets of the upper logs of the longitudinal walls and supporting the corners of the roof, as well as hlupen (gielom) - a massive log that oppresses the roof gaps with its weight. All these details gave a peculiar beauty and picturesqueness to the peasant building, due to which, in a number of places, their construction was caused not only by practical, but also by decorative considerations. At the end of the XIX-beginning of the XX century. the construction of the male roof is replaced by a rafter.

Several windows were cut through on the façade of tall, chopped huts in northern villages; the building was enlivened by a porch at the entrance to the house, a balcony on a chopped pediment and a gallery, often encircling the whole house at window level. The rounded ends of chickens, streams, fellings, oglupnya with the help of a knife and an ax were given plastic sculptural forms of animals, birds and various geometric figures; the image of a horse's head was especially characteristic.

The architectural appearance of the northern hut is extraordinarily beautiful and picturesque. Flat plank surfaces of window frames, piers (boards with which the protruding ends of the roof was sewn up), gaps (boards running along the eaves), towels (boards covering the roof joint), porches, balcony] gratings were decorated with flat geometric carvings (with a low relief) or a slot. Intricate alternation of all kinds of cuts with straight and circular lines, rhythmically following each other, made the carved boards of northern huts look like lace, then like the ends of a towel, made in the Russian folk style. The plank surfaces of the northern buildings were often painted with paints.

Dwellings were built much lower and smaller in size in the Upper and Middle Volga regions, in the Moscow province, in the southern part of Novgorod, in the northern districts of the Ryazan and Penza provinces, partly in the Smolensk and Kaluga provinces. These areas are characterized by a log house on a medium or low basement. In the northern and central parts of this zone, floor cuttings were cut mainly into the fourth, sixth, and even seventh crown; in the south of the Moscow province. and in the Middle Volga region, a low basement prevailed in the dwelling: cuts for the floor were cut into the second or fourth crown. In some houses of the Middle Volga region in the second half of the 19th century. it was possible to find an earthen floor, which, in all likelihood, was a consequence of the influence of the housing construction of the peoples of the Volga region, for which in the past an underground dwelling was characteristic. In the villages of the Nizhny Novgorod province. rich peasants built semi-houses - wooden houses on high brick basements, which were used as a storeroom, shop or workshop.

In central Russian villages, houses were placed mainly perpendicular to the street, two, three, and sometimes more windows were cut through on the front facade. As the material for covering the gable roof, we used boards, shingles, and straw. A covered courtyard was attached directly to the house, as in the North, but it was lower than the house, consisted of one floor and did not make up a single whole with the house. In the northern regions of the Upper Volga region, especially in the Trans-Volga region, higher courtyards were also built, located on the same level with the house.

In Central Russian trees, yards were attached to the back of the house as a one-row building; in rich farms, verb-like buildings were often found; especially characteristic of the Upper and Middle Volga region was the two-row type of building. At the end of the XIX century. the two-row type of connection was gradually replaced by a more rational single-row type. This was due to the inconvenience and cumbersomeness of the two-row courtyards; due to the accumulation of moisture at the junction of the house with the outbuildings, these yards were damp. In more southern regions, in the Volga-Kama interfluve, in the Middle Volga region, in the Penza province. the so-called "quiescent courtyard" was widespread. The quiescent building consists of two parallel rows of buildings - a house with outbuildings attached behind it, and in front of it a row of outbuildings, which in the back of the courtyard bent at a right angle and merged with the buildings of the first row. Such a courtyard has a significant open space; this type of development belongs to the “open” or “semi-closed” type of courtyard 1.

Semi-closed courtyards constitute, as it were, a transition zone from a covered courtyard to an open one (a significant part of the Moscow, Vladimir, Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Kaluga provinces, the Middle Volga region). An open courtyard predominated to the south of this zone.

The architectural appearance of Central Russian huts is also characterized by the richness and variety of decorations. As in the north, the rounded ends of streams, chickens, and oglupnya were processed with sculptural carving, but it did not have that bizarre artistic diversity as in the northern huts, and was less common. The decoration of the roof of the peasant hut in Yaroslavl, Kostroma and partly Nizhny Novgorod provinces was peculiar. two sculpted skates facing in opposite directions. The facades of Central Russian huts were decorated with flat triangular-grooved carvings with a pattern of rosettes or separate parts of a circle, which were usually accompanied by patterns of parallel elongated grooves. If in the north, the main attention was paid to decorating the roof, then in the middle lane, windows were primarily decorated. In areas adjacent to the Volga (Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Samara, Simbirsk provinces), in the second half of the 19th century. widespread more complex carving with a high relief and a convex succulent pattern of the drawing (ship carving, blind, or chisel carving). In the ornament of relief carving, plant patterns prevailed, as well as images of animals and fantastic creatures. Carved patterns were concentrated on the pediment of the hut; they also decorated the shutters of windows, the ends of protruding corner beams, and gates. At the end of the XIX - beginning of the XX century. labor-intensive embossed and flat threads were replaced by easier sawing threads, which spread along with the new tool - the jigsaw, which allows you to easily and quickly cut a variety of through patterns. The motives of the saw-cut ornament were very diverse.

In the northeast of Russia, in the Perm and Vyatka provinces, the dwelling had many features similar to the North Russian and Central Russian buildings, which is explained by the settlement of these areas by immigrants from the Novgorod land and the close ties of the northeast with the Volga region and the central provinces in the XIV-XVII centuries ., and similar conditions for the development of these areas. At the same time, some specific features can be traced in the northeastern dwelling. The chopped dwelling of the Vyatka-Perm Territory stood mainly perpendicular to the street and was covered with a two-slope board, less often a four-slope roof (in houses that were more developed according to their plan). In the northwestern districts of the region, higher and larger houses were built on a high basement, and the floor was cut into the seventh crown; in the southern districts of the region, the height of the underground was lowered and floor cuts were more often cut into the fourth or fifth crowns. For the dwelling of the Vyatka and Perm provinces, the most characteristic was a kind of rest-like building of the courtyard. These courtyards were closed when the free space of the courtyard was covered with a pitched roof, half-closed and open. In some areas of the Perm province. arranged a serene courtyard, called "for three horses", in which the house, the open space of the courtyard and the next row of courtyard buildings were covered with three gable parallel roofs. The outer facades of the northeastern dwelling were comparatively poorly decorated.

In the western provinces of Russia - in Smolensk, Vitebsk, in the southern districts of Pskov, in the southwestern districts of Novgorod province - log huts were placed on a low (Smolensk, Vitebsk province) or middle (Pskov province) basement and covered with two-slope straw, less often plank roofs. A distinctive feature of the appearance of the West Russian hut was the presence of only one window on the front facade of the house, located perpendicular to the street, and the poor decoration of the front facade of the hut. Carved decorations were more common in the northwestern regions (Pskov, northern districts of Novgorod province), where the huts were taller and larger in size. In the western regions (Pskov and Vitebsk provinces), a peculiar type of three-row building of the estate was widespread, which at the same time can be attributed to a covered and open type of courtyard. In a three-row building, a covered courtyard adjoined the blind side wall of the house (similar to the type of two-row connection), on the other side of the house, at some distance from it (6-8 m), a number of outbuildings were being built parallel to the house. The open space between the house and the outbuildings was fenced off with a log fence. In the dwelling of the western provinces, features similar to the dwelling of Belarusians and peoples of the eastern regions of the Baltic are traced (planizbes, the presence of a suspended boiler near the stove, the construction of a log house from beams, terminology, etc.), which was a consequence of the ancient historical and ethnocultural ties of the population of these regions with their western neighbors ... For almost four centuries (XIV-XVII centuries) Smolensk lands were under the rule of Lithuania, and then the Commonwealth.

A peculiar type of Russian dwelling has developed in the southern black earth provinces - Kaluga, Oryol, Kursk, Voronezh, Tambov, Tula, in the southern districts of Ryazan and Penza provinces. Here were built small chopped, often coated with clay on the outside, and later adobe, archery and brick low huts without a basement with a wooden, and more often adobe or earthen floor. The houses were erected with their long side along the street and were covered with a four-pitched thatched roof of a rafter structure. Low South Russian huts were less picturesque and poorer in architectural decoration. One or two windows were cut through on the front facade of the hut. To protect from the summer heat and strong steppe winds, shutters were almost always installed at the windows. Brick houses were often decorated with complex bright patterns of bricks painted in different colors, as well as relief patterns laid out of chiseled bricks.

In the southern provinces of Russia, an open type of courtyard was widespread. The courtyard buildings were located behind the house and constituted a closed, open space in the center. In Ryazan, Penza, Tula, a significant part of Orel, Kursk, Voronezh, as well as in the Smolensk province. a closed “round” courtyard was widespread, which differed from the quiescent one mainly in the longitudinal position of the house to the street. In the southern part of the steppe zone - in the southern districts of Kursk, Voronezh, partly Saratov provinces, as well as in the region of the Don Cossack, in the Kuban and Terek regions, in Stavropol provinces, among the Russians of Central Asia - an open open courtyard was widespread. The open space in this courtyard occupied a significant area, on which, without a certain order, not always adjoining each other, separately from the house, various outbuildings were located. The entire area of ​​the courtyard was usually fenced off. The characteristic features of the dwelling - low underground huts, free development of residential and outbuildings, an abundance of straw as a building material and a much lesser importance of wood - arose in the conditions of the forest-steppe and steppe belt with dry soils and a relatively warm climate.

A sharp contrast to the low South Russian dwelling was presented by the residential buildings of the well-to-do lower Don Cossacks. here were widespread two-story multi-room houses on a high basement. At the end of the XIX-beginning of the XX century. there were built houses of two types - a "round house" (close to a square in plan), a multi-room one under a hipped roof, and a "wing" - a rectangular house under a gable roof. Houses were cut from four-sided beams, sheathed with planks on the outside and covered with iron or plank roofs. Cossack houses were characterized by a large number of large-sized windows with paneled shutters and a variety of architectural details. Open galleries, porches, balconies and terraces, decorated with openwork saw-cut carvings, gave the buildings a specific southern flavor. In the same villages, most of the nonresident population and the poorest layers of the Cossacks lived in small oblong adobe and archery houses under four-sloped thatched or Reed roofs.

Among the Kuban and Terek Cossacks and the peasants of Stavropol in the middle of the 19th century. dominated by buildings resembling low Ukrainian huts - adobe and turluchnye, whitewashed on the outside, oblong in plan, without a basement, with an adobe floor, under a four-sloped thatched or reed roof. A similar type of dwelling, brought to the Kuban in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. immigrants from Ukraine, influenced all the people's construction of the Kuban, Terek and Stavropol Territories. At the end of the XIX - beginning of the XX century. in the eastern and, to a lesser extent, in the western regions of the Kuban, wealthy Cossack farms also began to build “round”, multi-room houses, which were slightly lower and smaller than the houses of the lower Cossacks. The spread of a more perfect type of dwelling took place both under the influence of the developing capitalism and under the direct influence of Don traditions, since the eastern regions of the Kuban were inhabited to a large extent by the Don Cossacks. The dwelling of the Terek Cossacks developed under the definite influence of the neighboring mountain peoples, for example, in the Cossack estates, "mountain sakli" -mazankas were erected; in the living quarters there were carpets, felt and other items of mountain household utensils.

House of the peoples of the north on "Bit of Life!"

Northern peoples, "Bit of Life!" - Miraslava Krylova.

What associations come to your mind when you hear the word "home"? Of course, everyone has their own. For some, “home” is a social concept, inextricably linked with family and parents. But in most cases when we hear the word "house" we imagine a certain structure tied to certain images, taken from childhood or from further life experience. And for each person he is his own. For some, this is a room in a shared apartment, for others an apartment in a large house, or a separate stone or wooden structure. We will not delve further into the psychology of the concept, this is a topic for another article and another heading.

In this particular case, we will talk about the national houses of the peoples of the north of Russia. I must say that they are not only radically different from the traditional concept of "home", but also carry many national, characteristic of these peoples, elements of local color, features of nature, culture, and most importantly, the forced necessity and lack of many traditional means in the construction of houses.

Chum - the dwelling of reindeer herders

Chum is a universal dwelling place for the nomadic peoples of the North who are engaged in reindeer herding - the Nenets, Khanty, Komi and Entsy. It is curious, but contrary to the frequently encountered opinion and the words of the well-known song "Chukchi awaits dawn in the chum", the Chukchi have never lived and do not live in chums - in fact, their dwellings are called yarangas. Perhaps the confusion has arisen due to the consonance of the words "chum" and "Chukchi". And it is possible that these two somewhat similar buildings are simply confused and called not by their proper names.

As for the plague, in fact it is a portable tent, which has a conical shape and is perfectly adapted to the conditions of the tundra. Snow easily rolls off the steep surface of the chum, therefore, when moving to a new place, the chum can be disassembled without making unnecessary efforts to clear the building of snow. In addition, the cone shape makes the chum resistant to strong winds and snowstorms.

In summer, the chum is covered with bark, birch bark or burlap, and the entrance is covered with coarse cloth (for example, the same burlap). In winter, the skins of moose, deer, red deer, sewn into one cloth are used to equip the chum, and the entrance is covered with a separate skin. In the center of the chum there is a stove that serves as a source of heat and is adapted for cooking. The heat from the stove rises up and does not allow sediments to get inside the plague - they simply evaporate under the influence of the high temperature. And in order to prevent the wind from penetrating into the chum, snow is raked to its base from the outside.

As a rule, the reindeer breeders' chum consists of several covers and 20-40 poles, which are placed on special sledges when moving. The size of the plague directly depends on the length of the poles and their number: the more poles there are and the longer they are, the more spacious the dwelling will be.

Since ancient times, the installation of a plague was considered a matter for the whole family, in which even children took part. After the chum is fully installed, the women cover the inside with mats and soft reindeer skins. At the very base of the poles, it is customary to put malitsa (outerwear of the peoples of the North made of reindeer skins with fur inside) and other soft things. Reindeer breeders also carry pillows, featherbeds and warm sheepskin sleeping bags with them. At night, the hostess spreads the bed, and during the day she hides the bedding away from prying eyes.

Yaranga - the national home of the peoples of Chukotka

As we have already said, the yaranga bears some resemblance to the chum and is a portable dwelling of nomadic Koryaks, Chukchi, Yukaghirs and Evenks. Yaranga has a circular plan and a vertical timber frame that is constructed of poles and surmounted by a conical dome. Outside, the poles are covered with walrus, deer or whale skins.

Yaranga consists of 2 halves: canopy and chottagin. The canopy looks like a warm tent made of skins, heated and illuminated with a fat lamp (for example, a strip of fur dipped in fat and soaked in it). The canopy is a sleeping area. Chottagin is a separate room, the appearance of which is somewhat reminiscent of a vestibule. This is the coldest part of the dwelling. Chottagin usually contains boxes of clothes, dressed hides, barrels of fermented foods and other things.

Nowadays, the yaranga is a centuries-old symbol of the peoples of Chukotka, which is used during many winter and summer holidays. Moreover, yarangas are installed not only in the squares, but also in the club foyers. In such yarangas, women prepare traditional dishes of the peoples of the North - tea, venison and treat them to guests. Moreover, in the form of a yaranga, hotbeds, greenhouses and some other structures are being built in Chukotka today. For example, in the center of Anadyr you can see a yaranga - a vegetable tent made of transparent plastic. Yaranga is also present in many Chukchi paintings, engravings, badges, emblems and even coats of arms.

Igloo - Eskimo dwelling made of snow and ice

The Chukchi neighbors, the Eskimos, lived much poorer and their yarangas appeared much later. Initially, the poor Eskimos hibernated in real "ice huts", which were called igloos and were dwellings built of snow or ice blocks. Such domed buildings still exist today: they usually have a height of about 2 m and a diameter of about 3-4 m.If the snow is shallow, then the entrance to the igloo is arranged in a wall, to which an additional corridor of ice (snow) blocks is attached. In deep snow, the entrance to the dwelling is located directly in the floor, and a corridor is laid outside to it. It is very important that the entrance to the house is located below the floor level, as this allows the flow of oxygen and the outflow of heavier carbon dioxide, and also allows you to keep the room warm.

Light enters the igloo directly through the ice walls, although in some cases ice windows are made in the snow houses. The interior, as a rule, is covered with skins, and sometimes the walls are also covered with them - in whole or in part. For heating and additional lighting, the igloo is used for grease dishes. An interesting fact is that when the air is heated, the inner surfaces of the igloo walls melt, but do not melt due to the fact that the snow quickly removes excess heat outside the house, and due to this, a comfortable temperature for a person is maintained in the room. Moreover, the snow walls are capable of absorbing excess moisture, so the igloo is always dry.

It is also curious that, despite all the simplicity of construction, in fact it is not so easy to build an igloo with your own hands. An example of this is the first polar explorers-travelers, who for a long time could not comprehend the secret of the construction of the igloo, while the locals erected such a structure in just 1-2 hours. And all because the igloo is built from slabs of a special shape, and different parts of the house are built from different slabs. The igloo has the shape of a snail shell and gradually tapers towards the arch, and the slabs are laid according to a special technique that the northerners have been honing for years. For greater stability, the needle is watered from the outside with water.

One can say about the national types of housing of the peoples of the world with the words of a song - they were sculpted from what was: the peoples of the north - from snow, Slavs - from logs, Indians - from corn stalks. National dwellings certainly became a reflection of the lifestyle and way of life of their inhabitants. Some national dwellings have long ceased to be built, some are being built only for demonstration to tourists, but wooden houses are still very popular.

1. Igloo

The people are American Eskimos
Material: ice, snow, skins and intestines of seals

If you build the needle correctly, then there will always be fresh air, warm and dry. American Eskimos build them from spiral-shaped blocks of ice and packed snow. The sizes of the blocks differ so that the dwelling tapers upwards - the domed igloo is more spacious and resists the wind better. The entrance to the igloo is located below floor level, due to which heavier carbon dioxide is displaced from the dwelling, freeing up space for oxygen, while maintaining warm air. Therefore, a rather comfortable atmosphere is maintained inside the igloo. The walls of the dwelling absorb excess moisture, so it is always dry in it. Bowls with whale or seal fat were used as lighting in the igloo. From their heat, the walls only slightly melt, but they do not melt, since they are actively cooled outside by frosty air. The ice walls are transparent and let in light from the outside, but usually to keep the igloo warm, they are covered with skins, and where necessary, the Eskimos make windows from seal intestines and pure ice.
Residents dug tunnels in the snow between neighboring igloos. This is how a snowy village used to look. Now, the ability to correctly build an ice house is more important for the military or extreme tourists, because a shelter built in an hour can save the life of a lost traveler.

2. Dugout

The people are Slavs
Material: wood, straw, earth

More than a thousand years ago, the ancestors of modern Slavs lived not in huts, but in their predecessors - dugouts. It was arranged like this: a hole was dug in the ground half or the full height of the walls, then 3-4 log crowns were placed on its bottom, and a hearth was made of stones and clay inside. From above, a roll was made of logs, covered with turf or straw. Instead of a door - a manhole no more than a meter high, covered with a pair of halves of logs tied together and a canopy. In the dugout, the floor was earthen - the soil was watered abundantly with water, and when it dried up, they swept it up.
Having exhausted the resources of the earth, the ancient Slavs moved to a new place. There they dug a new dugout, and dismantled the old one into logs, which they floated down the river to the new camp. Over time, the life of the Slavs became more sedentary, and the houses became capital ones, which no longer went deep into the ground. To release the smoke, they began to breathe, first in the walls, and then in the roof.


Hardly anyone dreams of being on a plane flying with failed engines, caught in a storm or a strong side wind. But all this and much more ...

3. Dobo

The people are Indonesians
Material: wood, foliage

In the distant past, the Korowai tribe and other tribes of Polynesia and Indonesia hunted for heads, including each other. Therefore, they built their houses at an altitude of 30-50m in the middle of the forest, fleeing predators, neighbors-cannibals and white demons who had come from nowhere with fire-breathing sticks. Scientists first visited the loaf tribe in the 1970s, and until then the latter had no idea of ​​the big world. Even now, only a few of these people have mastered the literacy.
The Korowai make their dwellings high above the ground, and thin tree trunks serve as piles. Above them is erected a square platform made of thin poles and leaves, and then walls made of the same material. The roof is covered with leaves. To stay in the house with a cow, you have to climb a tree trunk. Many whites cannot do this, but locals cope with this task easily, even for pregnant women or women with babies this does not cause difficulties. Upstairs, the Korowai even learned how to make a fire.

4. Wigwam and tipi

People - North American Indians
Material: tree trunks, elm and birch bark, reeds, reeds, grass, corn leaves, cloth, skins

The Indians of North America had different dwellings - the more famous wigwams and the lesser-known teepees, which have a lot in common. But if the wigwam was intended for 25-30 people, then the teepee was for one family.
The teepee looks more like a small cone-shaped tent; it was used mainly by tribes who roamed the Great Plains. In the upper part of the cone there was a hole for smoke outlet, and the Indians made the frame of the tipi from juniper or pine poles, which were covered with rawhide on top, and after the appearance of the Europeans, they were often replaced with canvas. Sometimes the skins were decorated with traditional tribal patterns, hanging amulets, hunting or war trophies.
Indians from the forests of northern North America lived in the wigwams. On its frame were flexible thin trunks, which were covered with the bark of an elm or birch, mats woven from grass, reeds, reeds or corn leaves, as well as pieces of cloth and skins. Modern wigwams serve only for ritual purposes.


No matter where in the world a wedding is held, it is bound to be associated with feelings of happiness and excitement. In the vast majority of cases ...

5. Trulls, palasos and nuraghes

People - Spaniards, Italians
Material: wood, stone, straw

Even in the Bronze Age, the Etruscans built nuraghes - tall stone towers of a conical shape with a round cross-section. It is not established whether they served as housing, maybe only the local nobility lived there or temples were located. It is known for certain that they were built without a binder solution, by the dry masonry method. Much later, in the Middle Ages, Italians learned to build stone houses with conical roofs - trulls. They were also built without mortar, so that they could be quickly demolished when a property tax collector approached.
Ancient dwellings in neighboring Spain looked about the same. They were built in Galicia, located in the north-east of the country. The Galicians called them palaso or pallosa. The frame of the building was made of wood, the walls were made of stone, and the roof was thatched. The latter often descended to the very ground, which made the house with the only noticeable opening - the entrance, similar to the fabulous dwelling of the gnomes. Palyaso had a diameter of 10-20 meters, and inside there was usually one room, less often a corral for livestock was separated.

6. Yurt

People - Mongol and Turkic nomads
Material: poles and felt

The oldest image of a yurt is about one and a half thousand years old, but it is believed that their mass construction began in the 13th century. A yurt can be called a large, comfortable folding tent, where a fireplace is set in the center, and smoke comes out through a hole in the roof, which also serves as lighting. In bad weather or just at night, this hole was covered with a piece of felt, simply by pulling on the lasso. The wooden frame of the yurt was made of lattices folded in the manner of an accordion, the axes of which were long poles, converging in a dome. On top of the frame, the frame was completely covered with a felt felt blanket, thanks to which it was always warm in the yurt and there were no drafts, and in the heat the side felt blanket was removed. The floor in the yurt was covered with carpets.
The room was divided into a large male half on the east side and a smaller female half, which were separated by a curtain. The male part of the wall was decorated with talismans, weapons and horse harness. In the women's section one could see utensils, provisions, bed linen and clothes of women and children. A cupboard and a mortar, in which kumis was whipped, were placed at the entrance, all this symbolized the family's prosperity. Many Mongols live in yurts even now, and in neighboring Kazakhstan they are installed for national holidays or especially for tourists.


In civilized countries, laws apply equally to all citizens, regardless of their status. And the effect of these laws is spreading ...

7. Saklya

The people are Georgians
Material: wood, stone, clay

Since ancient times, Georgians have become accustomed to building their sakli monumental - of stone. They often had several floors and numerous loopholes, since they served both for housing and as a refuge during an attack.
Sakli was also built in Crimea, but there they looked different - small houses made of clay, wood, air-dried adobe bricks (loam mixed with straw or other fillers), with a flat roof. The sakli were usually built on the slopes of the mountains in terraces tightly adjacent to each other, so the roof of the lower sakli served as a floor or courtyard for the sakli located on a higher level. The oldest Crimean sakli consisted of a single room with an earthen floor, no windows and a hearth in the middle, the smoke from which came out through a hole in the ceiling.

8. Turf house

The people are Icelanders
Material: wood, stones, turf

The construction of Icelandic turf houses was reminiscent of a dugout. They were built for centuries on this island with a harsh climate, where there was little wood to protect well from the cold. Icelanders lived in such houses from the 9th to the middle of the last century. They were built like this: on a flat area of ​​large flat stones, a floor was laid out, on which a wooden frame was erected, capable of withstanding the weight of the turf. Window and door openings were provided in the frame, and outside it was covered with turf in several layers.
The house was divided into several rooms, the largest of which had a hearth. The cattle house was located slightly lower, due to which its heat also participated in heating the house. From the 14th century, instead of large turf houses, they began to build somewhat smaller, but connected to each other. They were half buried in the ground. Unfortunately, there was excess moisture in them.


By the very nature of their activities, smugglers must have a rich imagination and ingenuity, which are clearly not aimed at good deeds. With co ...

9. Ikukwane

People - South African Zulu tribes
Material: cane

The Zulu called a large domed reed house Ikukwane. It was built of thin long rods, reeds and tall grass, which were intertwined and tied with ropes. The entrance to the house was blocked by a special shield. Travelers noticed that this national dwelling was in extraordinary harmony with the surrounding landscape. There were no windows in Ikukwan, only the fire of the hearth gave light.
The house was built by men and women, but the former were only responsible for the supply of building materials. Having brought in materials and outlined the boundaries of the future house, the man considered his work done, and then only women worked. The floor there was a mixture of sand from a termite mound with manure, which, after boiling, lost its characteristic odor, and the termite component added strength.

10. Felidge

The people are Bedouins
Material: wood, skins of sheep, goats and camels

The tent of the Arab nomads of the Bedouins is called the felidge. Its frame of intertwined thin poles was covered with a fabric obtained from goat or camel hair. It was so dense that it did not allow the moisture of the rain to pass through. During the day, the cover was lifted for ventilation, and in a strong wind or at night it returned to its place. In the Sahara, the nights are very cold, so after sunset the Bedouins sealed up all the windows and the entrance.
The felige has a male and female halves, separated by a patterned curtain. There are foci in both halves. Mats lay on the floor. The dwelling is mobile - easily disassembled and assembled, which is necessary for a nomadic tribe.

Hands to feet... Subscribe to our channel in