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flax or hemp hards, small branches, bristle, manure and other fibrous organic material. The clay material would be prepared nearby: the sides of excavation were wattled with switches, the bottom was paved with boards. Oak or pine rollers with wooden teeth powered by horses were used to blunge the clay. Blunged and mixed with fillings, the clay mass was wattled up to 4-6 layers on a stone or concrete foundation, leaving holes for doors and windows. The corners of the house were sometimes reinforced with tree branches or brushwood for stability. Wooden boxes were placed in the holes for windows and doors, and reveals were sometimes laid with bricks. When the walls were ready, the roof joists were fixed. To finish the building of such houses, walls were rubbed down with special axes and plastered after a year. The plaster mix was prepared from clay, lime, sand and horse manure. To make a wall more water-proof, the wall surface was plastered with a mix of lime and ground encaustic bricks, and less commonly a mix of soil and lime-sand. Whichever technology is used, clay houses are warm, durable and long lasting, if the walls are protected from precipitation, built on a high foundation and covered with proper roofs. Dwelling houses were mostly built with the wattle and adobe technique, out-houses (barns, granaries, garners, stack yards, storehouses) – with the wattle or mixed (clay and wood, clay and stone or bricks) technique. Walls of out-houses were often built in clay with piers. During the period of the Soviet occupation, clay building was forgotten and most earlier built houses were destroyed during the liquidation of farmsteads, those buildings which survived appear in very bad condition. Building in clay revived after the independence, but not to the same degree as it had been during the interwar years. The first wave of clay building corresponds to the economic blockade of 1990-1994, when due to a lack of building resources, building from local-natural materials was popularized; in this way several single buildings were built. The second wave of such building (from 2006) is connected to a raised public awareness and ecological consciousness of those wishing to live in healthy environmentally friendly homes. Though clay building in Lithuania has deep traditions, it is also advanced and modern, economical and ecological. The technology of such building requires special knowledge, a large labor force, there are no standardized items, there is a lack of well-trained experts, and as a result, clay technology has not been so popular in latter-days.
Facade of modern house in Vilnius (2010). (photo: Algimantas Dailidavicˇius) Modern architectural clay-type dwelling house in Vilnius. (photo: Algimantas Dailidavicˇius) Ecological dwelling house built with cob, Trakai district. (photo: Ricˇardas Skorupskas)