Buildings in a State of Flux: The Wooden Churches of the Carpathians

Abstract

The prevailing paradigm of resilience in architecture relies on the assumption that a building is a static artifact. But historical models of resilience enable buildings to be in a constant state of flux, able to adapt their physical form in response to societal and environmental changes. The thousands of wooden churches in the Carpathian Mountains of Eastern Europe have physically transmuted over time thanks to the malleability of their constituent materials. Wood has endured as a material of profound social importance and wooden construction has proven to be adaptable for continuing use and longevity. With wood making a comeback through mass-timber technologies, could the wooden churches of Eastern Europe help us improve how we design and build for resilience today?