Essay
FRO M VER NACU L AR T O RO MA N T I C The P r im it i v e H u t i n N o r d i c co u nt r i es
are common in the Norwegian architectural landscape. A lot of people own their own cottage to spend their free time with family or friends in a retreated place, far away of the frenzy of the cities. NORDIC CABINS
I spend a week-end in one of those traditional huts, a small wooden building raised on a little lake’s peninsula. A campfire burns, the sound of the guitar played by a friend resonates in the woods and my group enjoys the simplicity of the trivial life around the primitive looking cabin. I realize how close I feel to Nature, and I wonder if the experience is more about the cabin or the Nature. It’s maybe both, but my head is filled up with a new interest for the cabin culture. From an architectural viewpoint, the cabin trip is a real social experience that I find truly enjoyable. Returning to the source, the cabin culture in Nordic countries makes me wonder about what is exactly this source. The experience
is so much related to the primitive typology but yet well ornamented and strongly stylized dwelling that it makes me wonder how such a primitive build, surely issued from a vernacular culture, could propose such a romantic relationship between Nature, the cabin and its users. In this essay, I will explore this question, by firstly looking at what is exactly deemed to be a primitive building, how the cabin typology could be related to the first human dwellings and secondly what does this involve for the building and its environment. Thirdly, I will explore what does shift the primitive survival necessary shelter to a meaningful building that develops its own aesthetic and culture. Lastly, I will explore the relationship between the primitive means for this previously established architecture and how do spent culture and life shift the primitive huts to the traditional style we know today, how did the romantism come out of this survival dwelling typology.
F R O M V E R N A C U L A R T O R O M A N T I C | N O R WAY 1 5
