Building with Stovewood in Eastern Europe (c. 1895–1965)

Abstract

Stovewood construction refers to methods of building walls with short logs or cut pieces of wood, arranged crosswise and laid in a bed of mortar instead of being nailed. In this paper, the history of stovewood construction in tsarist Russia and in its successor states and territories is discussed, based on existing literature and field surveys. From 1895 to 1914, in the Russian Empire, stovewood construction was developed and promoted by professionals and received government support. This process continued to be used in the Soviet Union and in Poland, both between and after the wars. Other variants of stovewood construction also developed and became popular without any official support—in effect, they became a form of vernacular architecture. Both these two groups of stovewood constructions are still represented by hundreds of specimens in north-east Poland.