The landscape is considered the main "generating" factor of rural architecture.

Usually the mountain villages growed with a close relation with the environment that determinated the human settlements and architectural aspects.

Materials used to construct were those available in the sourronding areas. When the forest was rare, stone was the main material used. When the forest was wide, the wood dominated.

The use of stone and wood, related to the inhabitants history, was harmoniously integrated giving variety to the architectonical local landscape.

The walls of the buildings were built with material coming from the stone clearance of the fields to cultivate or with those removed by the beds of the streams or extracted by the rocky breakthroughs nearby. The wood in every case was used for the carpentry of floors and roofs but it also found application in the framing structures of the barns, collide with woven branches of hazel or larch tables.

The coverages were first in straw and wood, then in clay or roof tiles.

The buildings were constructed in relation with the sun and wind exposition, the risk of avalanches or landslide falls and were distributed following the working human activities.

METEF ( Vocational and Technical Education Fair) which is the biggest one organisation in  education sector in Turkey is an exhibition for showing developments  in vocational and technical education. Teacher, student and apprentice students are organized to promote areas of professional products throughtout Turkey in each year.  It is aimed to exchange of information&experiences between formal / informal vocational and technical education schools / institutions supported by The Ministry of National Education  and enterprises&universities.

Futhermore, It provides a sustainable cooperation as well as increase an interest in the branches of activities by organizing vocational and technical education at secondary and tertiary students.

This fair was organized last week and was the very good oppurtunity to disseminate our project because of varient attendees. There were number of students as well as handcrafts, entrepreneurs, teachers/trainers and another professional groups.During to fair, We distrubuted about 200 second leaflet of project. On other hand, we indtroduced project to some authorized.   

Doctum's participation in the About Houses project contributes with the recording of a old typical house from the North of Granada, in Andalusia.

During the recording of this typical house, the so-called Cottage, we can have a look to the different building techniques and the combination of materials in the house. The importance of this house lies in its building tecniques transfered from the Muslim culture and inherited by this region, after more then 700 years under Muslim rule in the Iberian Peninsula.

In order to show this typical house, we also show how the materials from natural resources of the region, which although they are poor materials, houses made of these materials are still standing and many of them are more than 100 years old. This is due to research and experiments carried out for several years.

The following link shows how craftmen elaborated adobes and their used techniques. The adobe is a basic material for building walls in the region.

It was time to tidy up this website again and change some structures to make it possible to include new content. The most obvious are the pictures at our homepage, choosen from a huge collection of pictures from our flickr group.

The How to's section is ready now for publishing our tutorials in different languages, you probably have seen the list of topics we will cover. There will be, of course, tutorials related to old houses, which might be helpful for all those doing some restoration work or even think about it.
We'll also create tutorials about topics which are not strongly related to house restoration but which provides you with information about social campaigns, interview techniques and data collection, to name but a few.
We, at cocoate, are currently preparing the tutorial "How to collect, structure and publish data?". We do not want you to be a specialist in that topic, but we aim to provide you with a basic understanding about data formats and publishing methods. This might be very helpful when surfing and using the web.
Our tutorial will be the basis for the workshop we'll deliver during our next meeting in Bulgaria at June 28. If you are around, come and join that workshop!

We realized that we still have some difficulties to involve the target in the project, especially elder people.  So, we take the opportunity to share our thoughts about the project and how to participate in and during the public ceremony on the occasion of the European Year for Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations 2012, officially launched in Sofia, we presented and discussed the HOUSES project. People wanted to have an idea of what happens in other countries and also to socialize with and between generations and countries. They liked the idea but thought we have to promote it as voluntary activity for elder people.

Why the vernacular architecture is object of attention? Because somehow it mirrors the daily way of living of common people.  

In the spontaneous architecture the relationship with the territory and with the immediately available resources was very close, the considerations on the climatic and morphological characteristics of the place have asked for a constructive answer meditated and essential to get the maximum result with the least waste of energy (agreement in widen terms), without renouncing the harmony and the organic trait of the manufactures. 

Analyzing the vernacular architecture is rediscover the way of living, the ancient constructive techniques, the simple and functional solutions, but also to go into the knowledge of the territory and its potentialities;

Many ideas can be drawn for the choices of the future... 

The house that has been recorded in Kaunas, Lithuania, is an example of Lithuanian interwar period houses. A. Gedmantas and his family lived in the second floor and the first floor was rented to a shopkeeper. This house was not only intended for living but it also was a source of income because this shopkeeper paid his rent.
Social importance of the house is big due to people’ social status. The family of A. Gedmantas was a part of Kaunas elite. Members of Šiauliai cell and actors from soldier’s theatre were constant visitors.

During the German occupation (1941) three Jewish women lived here. A. Gedmantas wife was awarded with the medal of “The Righteous Among the Nations of the World”. This also contributes to the social importance of the house. History of people who lived here represents the reality of life of Lithuanian Jews and of people who hide them during the German occupation.
Here is a real story from real A. Gedmantas daugther (short film in Lithuanian)

http://s1084.photobucket.com/albums/j401/198604/?action=view&current=sumazintaversija.mp4

After decided which tutorial undertaken by partners, We connected to Mrs Emine Gözen Ultay who was coordinator of RESELTAM project. The project RESELTAM was aimed  development of web bases education for the craftsmen working in restoration sector to receive a vocational training according to European Quality Standardization. Team of Reseltam Project made a actual analysiz on employees/employers restoration sector as well as students. Results of this research are very usefull for us. On other hand, outcomes of Reseltam project will give us a good perpective in order to develop our course contents. The Housesproject  inputs for course contents can be the reseltam outputs.Maybe the most important is to cooperate between two big project on old houses a good example " dissemination and exploitation".

All partners did some interviews with people participating in our project and Cramars summarized the results in a report and on this basis we defined the topics for our tutorials.

Sounds simple, but it was a long process to find out the needs, requirements and skills of our participants as well as the competences of project partners institutions and match all these information to clarify the main areas and topics for which we should develop tutorials.

47 people answered our questions, most of them were males over 50 with a university level of education.

The interviews showed us the main reasons why people participate in that project, and it's not a surprise that this is primarely the interest to meet and exchange competences and experiences with other people of Europe and develop and improve their skills in the field of construction and old houses preservation.
Most of the participants want to acquire knowledge about techniques and methods to restore or build a house and information on the materials to be used in the construction of a house. During our meeting last week in Granada we decided about the topics and responsibilities of the tutorials we will create and publish at this website until mid May, in several languages.

Partner institutions and professionals contributes their knowledge in the areas of Architecture/Engineering, Construction and ICT/New Media.

Check our How to? section, there will be something for you too.