Vernacular Buildings and Urban Social Practice: Wood and People in Early Modern Swedish Society

Wooden buildings housed the majority of Swedish urban populations during the early modern era, but many of these buildings have disappeared as the result of fire, demolition, and modernisation. This book reveals the fundamental role played by the wooden house in the formation of urban Sweden and Swedish history.

Wooden buildings housed the majority of Swedish urban populations during the early modern era, but many of these buildings have disappeared as the result of fire, demolition, and modernisation. They were built during periods of urban transformation; disdained for their rural look and for the fire hazard they represented they were nevertheless valued for being warm, affordable and movable. This study reveals the fundamental role played by the wooden house in the formation of urban Sweden and Swedish history. Wooden buildings were particularly suited to mass production and relocation, which helped to realise the ideal town plan in the transformation of Swedish urban space. Early modern wooden houses feature more as archaeological remains and less as preserved buildings every year, thus examination and comparison of these two distinct datasets combined with historical records is important in this study. The author establishes how log construction, timber framing and post and plank buildings were used for a wide range of functions in both central and peripheral locations, and within all strata of society. New strategies were developed to create affordable warm housing while the housing stock featured both change and continuity of layout; the storeyed house contributed to evolution of the multiple unit structure. Surprisingly, this study establishes that timber-framing was more prevalent geographically and functionally than previous research indicated.

Introduction Chapter 1 The scale of the city: the social dimension of space in theory and method Chapter 2 Wooden buildings and the demolition frenzy - the bankruptcy of the Swedish building culture Chapter 3 Understanding wooden buildings - a background to Scandinavian research Chapter 4 Considering the omnipresence of wood - an expose of wood materiality Chapter 5 Urban vernacular wood constructions - three modes of building Five Swedish early modern towns - a background of local urban history and archaeological investigations On the comforts of log timber buildings - keeping warm and movable The prevalence of timber-framing Elusive traces of urban post and plank construction Chapter 6 Urban townscapes Storeyed houses and crowded streets in urban townscapes Life on the margins - buildings and living environments in the urban centre and periphery Chapter 7 Contextualizing urban vernacular architecture - distinguishing the actual and the ideal Chapter 8 Wood, people and society: the case studies combined Chapter 9 General conclusions and summary Appendix 1. The collection of finds in wood from Nya Lodose 2013 Appendix 2. Material wood remains in the moat, Nya Lodose 2015 Appendix 3a. A+B List of archaeological remains of log timber buildings Appendix 3b. Archaeological evidence of log timber technique Appendix 4a. A+B List of preserved buildings in log timber, Vita Bergen Appendix 4b. Preserved buildings in Vita Bergen, Stockholm Appendix 5. Timber-framing in Archaeological reports Appendix 6. Timber-framing in historical records Appendix 7. Timber-framing in photos Appendix 9. Post and plank in Archaeological reports Appendix 8. Post and plank in Fire Insurance Records Appendix 10. Preserved post and plank buildings Appendix 11. Fire insurance records, Majorna 1795, residential buildings Appendix 12. Fire insurance records, Gothenburg 1800-1804, residential buildings Archives, sources and bibliography, Introduction ;

Chapter 1 The scale of the city: the social dimension of space in theory and method ;

Chapter 2 Wooden buildings and the demolition frenzy – the bankruptcy of the Swedish building culture ;

Chapter 3 Understanding wooden buildings – a background to Scandinavian research ;

Chapter 4 Considering the omnipresence of wood – an exposé of wood materiality ;

Chapter 5 Urban vernacular wood constructions – three modes of building ;

Five Swedish early modern towns – a background of local urban history and archaeological investigationsOn the comforts of log timber buildings – keeping warm and movableThe prevalence of timber-framingElusive traces of urban post and plank constructionStoreyed houses and crowded streets in urban townscapesLife on the margins – buildings and living environments in the urban centre and periphery