VERNADOC

AUTHOR: Laura Zaharia

CONTRIBUTORS: Markku Mattila

LOCATION: Romania, jud. Maramureș, Călinești Căeni and Petrova

Folk architecture is in danger of disappearing all over the world, in every culture and in every economic circumstance. It is hard to believe that vernacular heritage will ever be protected by government initiatives or funding. That is why it is important that people understand the value of their own tradition and become so proud of it that taking steps to protect traditional architecture becomes a natural attitude.

How can architects be useful in this vernacular world of architecture without an architect?

One possible answer would be to use the basic skills that led them to choose the profession in the first place: a keen eye and a facility with graphic expression. The building traditions can be skillfully presented in detailed reliefs, drawing attention to the aesthetic, practical and highly intelligent aspects of vernacular architecture. DOCUMENTATION of VERnacular architecture has a basic principle: the simplest means of surveying: in any village shop you can buy a sheet of paper, a pencil, a pencil, a linear, an eraser, an eraser and a ruler. The measurements are transcribed onto paper on the spot and then 'drawn in ink' at home, with suggestive rendering of the building materials and the suggestion of three-dimensionality by rendering the shadows of the people themselves and the shadows they wear.

First camp

VERNADOC documentary camps have spread rapidly around the globe, starting in 2005 when the first camp took place in the Finnish village of Tunkelo. The initiator of the VERNADOC concept is the Finnish architect Markku Mattila, who has succeeded in creating a discreet but powerful network of specialists who are passionate about this way of participating in the preservation of vernacular architecture. In Romania, the first VERNADOC camp took place in Maramureș, at the wooden Church "Nașterea Maicii Domnului" in Călinești Căeni, where the working team of architects and student architects from Romania and Finland drew all the component parts of a meticulous survey, which they displayed in the exhibition at the end of the camp and which were later published in the VERNADOC MM 2012 magazine, together with interesting articles about vernacular objectives and practices from around the world.

The values of traditional architecture

After 2 years, another VERNADOC camp was held in Petrova in 2014, this time focused on the detailed study of traditional architecture, with 5 detailed reliefs of houses and households. The drawings, beautiful and very expressive, could stand successfully in any art gallery, because they are presented in the same refined graphic technique, typical of the architects of yesteryear: that of rapidgraphs (rapidographs) of tiny dimensions of one tenth of a millimeter. These drawings were also presented in the exhibition at the end of the camp and then published in the magazine VERNADOC MM MM 2014. The drawings were also part of various exhibitions, among which we mention the "Romanian-Ukrainian Good Neighborhood Day" organized at the Village Museum in Sighetu Marmației in 2016, the activities of the "School of Ancestral Roots" in Călinești in 2017 or at the "One Jazz Festival" in Baia Mare in 2018.

It is expected that the results of the field measurements work will inspire both building owners and people in the community and make them realize the values of traditional architecture, so that they will cooperate in preserving those buildings.