Cruising good ol' HumCo Craigslist today found these awesome Yurok plank house "museum quality" models for sale. Beautiful. I love the circular doorway and large overhangs (great for the rain here). The center part of the roof can even be removed like skylights or for smoke ventilation. Did a quick search and found more pictures of actual plank houses in Klamath, CA. Not coincidentally, Klamath also happens to be one of my top five favorite places in the world.
Photo Source: Mike Meuser, www.bluecreekahpah.org
The Yurok plank house is a fine example of vernacular architecture, so perfectly adapted to the weather here in the Pacific Northwest, and SO unlike my crappily built shoebox mobile home with not even one inch of roof overhang. According to yurokplankhouse.com :
"Redwood or Cedar Plank Houses were built by many North Coast tribes up to and through most of the 19th century. Typically the houses were approximately 20 feet by 20 feet not including the roof overhang. The planks were either split from naturally fallen trees or removed from large trees, allowing the tree to heal and remain alive. The center section of the roof had movable planks to allow for adaptation to varying climatic conditions."
Talk about sustainable architecture!
Klamath, CA: where the Klamath River meets the Pacific Ocean, and one of the most beautiful places I've ever visited...definitely not to be missed!
