Which is better, a downtown skyscraper or a riverside chalet? A room in a five-story Khrushchev building or a wooden house outside the city?
Modern people tend to improve their living conditions. However, many nations are happy in their national huts. “Around the World” shows what the most amazing dwellings in different countries look like.
Houses with sod roofs
Denmark, Iceland, Norway
Rooftops overgrown with green grass are a picturesque feature of Scandinavian villages. However, picturesqueness is not the main thing here: the turf that seals the wooden frame (usually made of birch bark) is an excellent protection from the cold. In Iceland, until the middle of the 20th century, not only roofs were built from turf, but also walls of houses with a stone foundation.
Trulli
Italy
In the Apulian town of Alberobello, the unique, limestone-domed conical houses, skillfully built using the dry-stone method, are included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Historically, they were built by peasants or shepherds from stones found in the field. Such a dwelling could be quickly dismantled before the visit of royal inspectors in order to avoid paying taxes. Today, similar houses are already being built using mortar.
Lepa
Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia
Bajao “sea gypsies” spend almost their entire lives in the ocean, in houseboats. In one part of the house-boat they prepare food and store gear, and in the other part they sleep. Nomads go on land only to sell fish, buy rice, water and fishing tackle, and bury the dead.
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< p>The population of Samoan villages is not familiar with the concept of “private life”. Houses without walls guarantee complete mutual understanding. The roofs of palm leaves rest on pillars arranged in a circle and connected by ropes of coconut husks. There are family fales for living, large ones for gatherings and small ones for relaxing.
Karaans
Iran
The bizarre, streamlined rock houses in the village of Kandovan in northwestern Iran might be envied by Gaudí, but they were created by ordinary people, simply carved into volcanic rock. Each house is in a separate cone-shaped rock. The cones themselves were formed due to the frequent eruptions of the Sehend volcano in ancient times.
Dogon huts
Mali
The ideal Dogon village is built on the principle of the human body. Clay houses differ in purpose and location. The head is a toguna, a house for men's gatherings. In the chest and stomach – family houses with gabled roofs. In place of the genitals – sacrificial altars. Hands – houses where women go during menstruation.
Houses of Santana
Portugal
Yarangi
Russia
The portable dwelling of the Chukchi is more complicated than the usual plague: a frame of long poles, tripods and poles, fastened with belts, is covered with deer and walrus skins. The space inside is divided into two parts: a utility room (chottagin), where a fire is lit, the smoke from which comes out through a hole in the dome, and a sleeping area (canopy) – a warm tent.
Tongkonans
Indonesia
According to the myth of the Toraja people, the first tongkonan was built by a god in heaven. According to an alternative legend, the first Toraja who sailed to Sulawesi from the north suffered a storm, and the damaged boats were used as roofs for their houses. Allegedly, this is where such an amazing form of dwellings comes from. Tongkonans are traditionally folded without a single nail.
Photo: Legion-media, Photononstop, Alamy, Hemis (x4)
The material was published in the magazine ” Around the World” No. 5, May 2017, partially updated in June 2023
Svyatoslav Zelensky