Doctoral School of Architecture 

Department of Public Building Design/ Faculty of Architecture

Supervisor: Klobusovszki Péter DLA

Contemporary timber architecture in Szeklerland

Introducing the research area

The community centers planned for the Szekler villages from 2010 onwards, unlike the majority of constructions, show a creative designer’s approach based on the traditional wooden architectural heritage in the area. The need for material and intellectual connection to local tradition and the natural landscape has come to the fore in contemporary architecture to maintain the culture of the region, both in materiality, structure, installation, mass, and surface formation and on a conceptual level. The common features of these houses emerge from local geographical and architectural values such as the mountainous terrain, the architecture of the locally produced timber, the traditional village gate, or the land use habits of the living communities. In my research, I currently examine the traditional and innovative architectural ways of connecting to the cultural landscape of Szeklerland through the community houses in the Ciuc and Gheorgheni regions. The map below shows the villages where I found valuable contemporary examples for my research.       

Brief introduction of the research place

Celebrating the 75th anniversary of its existence last year, the BME Department of Public Building Design, building on its own traditions and possibilities in the fields of research and education, now organizes the cultivation of architecture for communities around the concepts of memory, sustainability, and innovation, covering almost all aspects of designing community spaces.

History and context of the research

The architectural development of the Szeklerland region was determined by the geographical area of the Eastern Carpathians, characterized by mountainous topography and climate with related agricultural and animal husbandry activities, as well as extensive forests and, consequently, hundreds of years of timber architecture. The built environment of the Transylvanian settlements has been transformed by the social, industrial, and technological changes of the 20th century. In the previously homogeneous, traditional image of the settlement, new materials and technologies appeared, and the individual and community way of life changed, consequently, the different ways of using space have also changed. A significant number of contemporary Transylvanian architects would like to adapt to this diverse built environment, but also strengthen the regional character of the area. The term “critical regionalism” in Szeklerland has appeared in the last 15 years and has gradually become a major topic of professional forums in Romania.^1,2 The trend is organized around a few architects, whose design and publishing activities form the intellectual environment in which contemporary regional architecture can be interpreted in Szeklerland.³ In a special way in Transylvania, the regional approach stems not only from the landscape but also from the different cultures of the different people living in the area. The regional elements thus also become the expressive means of different folk identities and are divided accordingly. In the Szekler villages, there is still a rich architectural heritage and a strong sense of identity, to which the contemporary line can join with all its designer tools from concept to spatial organization.

1

The research goals, open questions

The aim of the research is to identify the tools of contemporary architecture that match the character of the local cultural landscape and to analyze the 21^st-century Szekler mix of local and international design methods together with the material, technological, intellectual, and cultural content that defines them. The Szekler version of the regional architecture is understood in the context of the landscape and the built environmental culture, at different scales from landscape to detail, alternating the mental and practical contexts.

How long can the tradition of timber architecture in Szeklerland be renewed? How long can it retain its structural, functional, community, or aesthetic, in other words, cultural relevance? How flexible is this architecture, how can it accommodate new needs and technologies? Is its application scale dependent? To what extent do modern ways of using space endure to build space with traditional structures? What innovation opportunities are there in the wooden structures currently, on-site? Can traditional editing be combined with high-tech solutions in the future, such as a hierarchical spatial system with disassembled and reassembled modular editing, or would it lose its cultural content?

2

Methods

Based on the printed and digital publications about the chosen subject, I analyze the collective characteristics of the buildings and explain them in connection with site visits, photo documentation, and interviews. The analytical aspects outlined in the research so far, which also anticipate these common features, can be divided into the following topics:

●      Location and technology: a network of local building materials, craft, and technological resources, an analysis of the local processes behind and influencing architectural decisions in the context of international influences as determinants of a regional approach. 

●      Local inspirations and cultural transfer: specifically, the proportions and layers of the impact of local material and built culture, as well as examples recognized in the global professional values.

●      Organic cooperation with the natural environment: deciphering and analyzing architectural features related to the local cultural landscape, and the geographical, climatic, and topographical features of the region.

●      Reinterpreting the elements of the traditional village plot: the spatial, material, structural, and mental connections to the building and land use logic of the Szekler farmhouse and the numerous large barns left in the area.^4,5

●      Contemporary wooden structures on the border of handicrafts and prefabrication: an analysis of the combination, proportion, and creative design of the combination of traditional handicraft woodworking techniques and available modern technologies.

●      Spatial formation and ornamentation related to community traditions: the emergence of folk traditions, ways of using land related to folk customs, local religion, and craft knowledge in the contemporary design toolbox at the level of concept and details.      

3 

In parallel with the practical analysis, the theoretical background of regionalism is researched, and examples are approached also from this perspective. I consider Vincent B. Canizaro's book, Architectural Regionalism – Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity and Tradition⁶, a chronological collection of 20^th-century architectural versions of regionalism as a starting point. Of the various theories discussed in Kenneth Frampton's book, the most well-known, published in both Hungarian and Romanian, is the theory of critical regionalism. In my research, I also consider later studies of the theory, and the further development of the concept by others, in particular Steven A. Moore’s 2004 theory of renewable regionalism⁷, which describes the phenomenon as a relationship between location and technology.

Results

At present, regional architecture in Szeklerland is all about adapting to the local natural and built environment and proportionality, with a strong connection to the centuries-old tradition of wooden architecture. For a long time, the way of fitting in the area was determined by the work of Károly Kós and his conception of folk architecture, so the approach related to the already established folk architectural tradition is still important today. Moore's eco-technological approach based on location and local knowledge can be recognized in the houses analyzed: using local masters is in many cases a conscious decision, an effort to keep traditional crafts alive and to maintain the local economy. Monument renovations require masters capable of renovating a given building with the original technologies. That is why it is important to keep the craft alive, and this is how shingle cladding is used even in interior design. It is all about a complex network of local geographical, social, and economic factors and, from a designer's point of view, an attitude that results in the continuous renewal of folk traditions at various scales: through organic contact with nature to organizing, shaping, and decorating space.

4

From the theoretical and practical analyzes, it can be seen that it is a local cultural and technological network that has gradually woven into the villages of Szeklerland. The local infrastructure, and the presence of carpenters using traditional crafts, so the technology and tools are given, recognizing this, the architects became involved in the natural process of the local culture of construction, with a contemporary conceptual mindset.

As a side thread, the contemporary interpretation of the spaces created by the natural environment and their architectural transcription also unfolded the findings of which can be formulated in a separate study later. Moore's theory of renewable regionalism and popular regional, near-natural architectural formulations can also be described by quantum mechanical space theory concepts such as under or over-defined, granular space. This approach can describe the subjective and objective components of architectural space by scaling: the subjective sense of space is the underdetermined image of the site, and the objective location is its overdetermined way with accurate geographic data. In Moore’s theory, location moves on this scale. It is also interesting because Moore describes technology as a spatial network, which is a series of events in space.⁷ This is similar to the basic quantum mechanical assumption that describes spacetime not as a set of objects but as a series of events. An example of atomized, granular space-like representation can also be found in the arts, such a method is the pointillistic representation of the natural environment. To the best of my knowledge, laser scanning, point cloud-based surveying and virtual display of space is currently the closest mode of representation that could make this approach applicable in contemporary art. The possibility of using the theory in this direction can thus open up further interesting perspectives and can be researched in the fine arts and architecture at both theoretical and practical levels. The question is, can the scientific discourse on the functioning of space inspire the artistic creation of the built environment? Can contemporary theories of space science be linked to the art of space?

Expected impact and further research

In the organization of the doctoral school study tour planned for July 2022, the results of the research so far will be used at the level of destinations, on-site focus, and interview questions, and later the lessons of the journey can be recycled back into the research. In many cases, the studied trend creates completely contemporary buildings based on the knowledge of local craftsmen. In the future, it would be worthwhile to conduct interviews with the masters who still know construction technologies and document their knowledge. Interpreting the natural environment and contemporary architectural transcripts, combining modern technologies and traditional designs with conceptual architecture would make it possible to create in principle and practice, an architecture not exclusively made of wood, that integrates organically, sustainably, and ecologically with the landscape, the raw material of which it was built.

Own publications

RAB Sarolta: Kortárs építészet Romániában a pandémia alatt - Körkép a vidéki beavatkozásokról. In: UTÓIRAT: A RÉGI-ÚJ MAGYAR ÉPÍTŐMŰVÉSZET MELLÉKLETE XXII.: 121, 2022, 75–76.

 

List of references

1.      Haza a mélyben - Kortárs Öko-regionalista építészet Erdélyben series, FUGA, https://www.mma-mmki.hu/esemenyek/haza-a-melyben-i-ii/

2.      GHENCIULESCU, Ștefan: Tradiție. Regiune. Acum, Tradition. Region. Now. In GHENCIULESCU, Ștefan: Revista Zeppelin, nr. 144, Bucharest: Ed. Zeppelin, 2017

3.      FRÂNCU, Cătălina(ed.) – GHENCIULESCU, Ștefan(ed.): La Țară – In the Country. In GHENCIULESCU, Ștefan: Revista Zeppelin, nr. 162, Bucharest: Ed. Zeppelin, 2021

4.      ESZTÁNY Győző: Csűrjeink újrahasznosítása, Budapest: MMA Publishing, 2015

5.      FURU Árpád: Táji tagolódás Erdély népi építészetében, Cluj-Napoca: Exit Publishing, 2021

6.      B. CANIZARO, Vincent(ed.): Architectural regionalism – Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity and Tradition, New York: Princeton Architectural Press., 2007

7.      A. MOORE, Steven: Technology, Place, and Nonmodern Regionalism. In B. CANIZARO, Vincent (ed.): Architectural regionalism – Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity and Tradition, New York: Princeton Architectural Press., 2007, 787–806.

Pictures

1.      Selected houses from Csík and Gyergyószék, own drawing

2.      Csíkmadaras, marketplace, architect: Köllő Miklós, own photo

3-4. Gyergyószárhegy, bus garage, and wood storage, architect: Köllő Miklós, own photo