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Lesson 5 in Traditional Serbian Rural Architecture: The MoravianHouse and its Interior

After looking to the entire homestead we gave a close look to the house and its

interior.The house hasn't been touched since Deda Velimir (my husband's grandfather)and Baba Jelica (my husband's grandmother) died, but it was kept always tidyand nothing was really damaged.

A nicely decorated entrance door leads directly to the kitchen. The layout

correspond to a classical plan that is often found in the typical Moravian house(Bondruka Style) .

Directly from the kitchen there is a bigger room on the left (living room) and asmaller on the right (sleeping room). In the back an access to a little corridorthat would lead to a bathroom and another small sleeping room...only that itwas not finished.

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I quickly measured up the rooms to think about the layout a t home.It would not make sense to change it radically, as I wanted to maintain thetypical, very functional and self-evident plan.

All the beautiful memories of the ancestor's life we found in the house couldnot really hide the problems that we would have to solve if we decide torenovate it.

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As an architect I saw a good potential (good structure, an intelligent functionallayout and an outstanding position of the house) but I was wondering how tohandle the downsides (obsolete power supply, almost no water, the back of thehouse not finished, old partly leaking roof and insufficient insulation on walls,windows, roof and door).Speaking with my father-in-law Aleksandar that runs a building company, wespoke about possibilities, solutions and estimated costs.

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With these informations in mind I jotted down a small drawing of what the newlayout could be: keeping the front as it is, amplifying the back and enlargingthe terasse.

The terasse is really nice and is covered and it makes completely sense tomake it bigger!

At home I started researching about more details on traditional rural houses ,on construction details (difficult to find...) and on house interiors that wouldserve as orientation and inspiration.

Whatever I found, I copied down in my moleskine sketch book and collectedneatly all the information that could serve me for the future renovation.

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My husband and I decided that we would take the big work and efforts toremodel this house: his father would support us with work and know-how, Iwould make the plans and details and my husband would organize all thebuilding material in the surrounding and make the paperworks with theauthorities to get water, electrical power and eventually to buy the nearbyproperty that belongs to a cousin but would make a good place for thevegetable and fruit garden for us.

I took a last picture of the house before we would start to transform it!