Endangered Architecture: Ottoman period housing compounds of timber structures at several remote villages at the Western Balkan mountain represent the lifestyle of farmers and cattle breeders at the end of the nineteenth century. Once being a part of the same cultural region of Western Outlands within the predominantly Bulgarian populated territory, the region was split in the middle after WWI in the 1920s between Serbia and Bulgaria, cutting community and cultural ties. Once a thriving, vivid rural community, due to the split, and its isolated mountain location, it became detached from major routes and modernisation, and so the region declined to become economically the poorest in the EU and with the shortest life expectancy. Timber buildings of high architectural quality in terms of plan typology, links between interior and exterior spaces via verandas, wood carving details of pillars, ceilings, doors and windows remain in several villages, hit by depopulation and aging. They are worth documenting as part of an elaborate timber building tradition - a unique regional variation of the Late Ottoman period's Western Balkan mountain type of house.    

Aims: The project aims to create a database of housing compounds of timber structures at four villages on both sides of the Serbia-Bulgaria border, documenting their siting, orientation, plans, materials, construction, design, building technology and timber structure details. For each typology, examples from four villages will be selected and recorded in detail. The field research includes two trips during which local residents will share oral histories about building process traditions and related housing spirits’ narratives.