ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

The Desnăţuilui Valley houses. Traditional materials and building techniques 201materials and of a proper soil for the agriculture, and not depending on a plan ofthe respective village with the households disposed along the main street oraround a central complex. Considering this, in the mountainside, having forestryand stone resources, the houses were built from beams with a shingle roof; in theplain area, having clay and plenty of reed, arose the pit houses and the reedcoveredhouses, in which the wood is an accessory, and in the hilly area, wherethe forests spread across wide surfaces, disposing of clay and stone materials,the houses were made from long beams, with the foundation of peeled off treetrunks 7 . Once with the restriction of the forestry surfaces, the beams werereplaced with twigs, and the clay was used for filling up the space between them.“In this way arose the twig houses, with reed or wooden tile roof, near the lakesor the mountain” 8 .The rural house from this area, through the elements of the plan, thebuilding techniques and the used terminology, integrates itself within the generalensemble of the traditional Romanian house, becoming a segment of ethnic andnational cultural continuity. The base terms used for the most of its componentsbelong to the original fund of the Romanian language: house = casa (lat. casa),door = uşă (lat. ustium), poles = pari (lat. Palus), board = scânduri (lat.scandula), entrance hall = tindă (lat. tenda), pantry = celar (lat. cellarium), wall= perete (lat. paries-etis), roof = acoperiş (lat. acco(o)perire), rafter = căprior(lat. capriolus), table = masă (lat. mensa), chair = scaun (lat. scamnum) etc. 9 .The adaptation to the surrounding environment, the great variety oftypes and forms, the high artistic value, clear and logic constructive techniques,the rational and functional distribution of the plans, the matching of theproportions, the dosing of the decoration and the harmonization of the colors are,according to Grigore Ionescu, general characteristics of the populararchitecture’s creations 10 . The Romanian peasant, who was also the architect andthe constructor of his own house 11 , used, as a part of his building art, differentmaterials, exclusively local, and that’s why there is a strong connection betweenthe building and the place where it was build.7 I. Simionescu, Tipuri de case din Vechiul Regat, Iaşi, The Scientific Magazine “V.Adamachi”, 1922, p. 14.8 Ibidem.9 I. I. Rusu, Elemente autohtone în terminologia aşezărilor şi gospodăriilor, in „AMETCin the 1962-1964 years”, Cluj, 1966, p. 74-92; Ion Coteanu, Luiza Seche, Mircea Seche, Dicţionarulexplicativ al limbii române, The Second Edition, Bucureşti, The Univers Enciclopedic PublishingHouse, 1996, for the respective terms (p. 8, 142, 151, 159, 177, 602, 747, 955, 957, 1093).10 Grigore Ionescu, Arhitectura populară în România, Bucureşti, The MeridianePublishing House, 1981, p. 44, 89; Idem, Arhitectura românească: Tipologii, creaţii, creatori,Bucureşti, The Technique Publishing House, 1986, p. 25.11 On the world-wide scale, approximate 95% from the rural constructions are made bythe popular artisans and only 5% by the architects.