Month: June 2013

This post is NOT about this window frame from Tula (though there is no doubt it looks rather elegant). This post is about FOUR carved friezes the house has! Do you know any other place where you can see anything like this?

I read in some forum, that window frames of area due east of Moscow have typical three-arched roofing. I found a photo from my archives, just to confirm that yes, I had seen a couple in Yegoryevsk, in the east of Moscow Oblast. At least, I do not know any other place having them

I had found this unusual house in my stock. Its window frames are of very typical Omsk style. But its walls are covered with either ceramic or plastic tiles, which is utterly unexpected. So far, I have never seen anything like this.

Monday morning should begin with something good! And this is why today I offer you not just something, but a real national monument:))

The address of this house is 19, str. Shchedrina, Ryazan. I bet you will never guess what kind of house it is. In spite of its high rank, Internet had given me just a couple of words about it, namely, the house built in late XIX century is registered as a utility structure. That’s it.

May be those living in Ryazan will give more details?

The other day, in a discussion with an architect, we talked about a theory that the pattern of window frames repeats that of the house. I cannot recall now where I had learnt that but then it did not convince me. And that was because not every window frame agrees with it.
But those which do, surprisingly, have some elements used even in house building. Look at these window frames from Yegoryevsk: not only they have a double-pitch roof, but it is supported by very typical dentils!
So, the theory sounds rather convincing. If I will ever happen to find to more proofs, I will certainly share them with you. Or, may be, you know something about it?

I remember my greatest surprise in Izhevsk were gates next to the houses. First, because so many of them still alive there, and second, they have preserved well and often, like houses, are decorated with carving. And I think in Izhevsk it dawned on me that watching and studying of window frames should not always be connected to the decoration of the house; this one, for example, might have window frames of any style –of Ivanovo, of Saratov, you name it.
And so far I could not find any good reason to doubt that the decoration of window frames had almost never been related to the decoration of the house.

Bet you do not know where is the place called Spas-Klepiki? I think there are very few people who realize it is in Ryazan Oblast, except of those living there.
Yet, its wooden buildings certainly deserve to be seen by enthusiastic fans!
Oh yes, it is not Tomsk
(and please remember to give your voice to support it in Russia 10 contest), but in its stock it has some wooden houses that can make heads turning!

Watching these window frames of Rostov Veliky I realized something about these carved planks decorating the space between the windows: either they do not have any special name or I do not know it! That is, all sorts of cornices and carved friezes have their special names, and this very element has none. It is understandable, as the element is rather unique. But then, it may be usual in some regions and they name it somehow.

Have you ever seen anything like this? Does it have any special name, except of general “house carving”?

It has been a long time since I want to show you this photo of window frames with shutters taken in Tomsk, but there was no good sunny day for it.
And today it came! I wish you great mood! An remember to give your voice
for Tomsk wooden architecture at Russia 10 contest ;)

The day before FB has brought a point of view that wooden houses will vanish very soon, as no one builds them any longer, and old ones are, in fact, just heaps of ruins. And, generally speaking, window frames are as useless as, say, samovars…
Putting emotions aside, I am giving a good proof of the opposite. This freshly refurbished wooden house of amazing beauty is a place of an interior showroom. Living and thriving!
Just take a closer look at this photo taken in Novosibirsk and you will see window frames that were restored and cornices that were refurbished; even cut-out iron at the upper edge of the rainwater pipe looks like new!
Though, of course, there is no practical necessity in all that wooden decoration…