A Participatory Approach on Saving Vernacular Timber Heritage: A Case Study on Relocating a Wooden Church in Romania

Abstract

This paper presents a case study on participatory and collaborative traditional design-build architecture in Romania. The focus is set on dismantling, relocating, rebuilding and reusing a 19th century wooden church with the efforts of the adopting community. In Romania, wood is used as a traditional building material, largely for roof framing elements in urban areas and in most mountainous rural areas for the construction of houses and churches. Due to an ongoing demographic rural-urban migration and emigration many villages have, and are being depopulated, subsequently abandoned and many such structures left behind. Under these circumstances, the possibility of dismantling, relocating and reusing these types of structures has become economically viable in comparison to new-built structures. The design for disassembly, inherent to vernacular timber architecture and how the deconstruction and reuse of timber elements maintain their value through efficient reuse makes it a suitable work frame for a participatory based approach involving communities with basic construction skill levels. Thus strengthening communities, maintaining and developing local identity through heritage and crafts. This type of action shows an increasing potential for saving timber vernacular structures by activating local communities and responding to their needs, in a time where the concern for natural resource management and re-cycling or up-cycling is becoming ever more important. The aim of the project is to increase awareness regarding timber built heritage by formulating a successful example of a participatory design- build project. A desired goal is to shift the architectural discourse by coalescing it with wider views of democracy and alternative visions of a sustainable future.