Kauno medinės architektūros paveldo vertybės

Abstract

The article describes significance of wooden architecture and its part in the planning process of the city of Kaunas. It presents a detailed historical rewiew of the evolution of wooden construction, information about the former wooden buildings around the main body of the historical city that started vanishing in the middle of the 16th century when more stone houses started to be built in the heart of the city Wooden houses, gradually ejected from the heart of the city, kept on prevailing in the suburbs and country-side district settlements even in the 20th century. In the Middle Ages the settlements outside the city limits were usually populated with foreigners (Tatars in the Tatar region, Jews in Vilijampolė) who had no right to reside within the city limits. Later on the suburbs of Kaunas mostly consisted of housing estates of workers and the poor that according to a specific resident composition did not distinguish from the national standpoint, the disunity was grounded on disparities of the social status and economic possibilities. Former territories, inhabited by national communes as well as country-side district settlements developed later and, built up with wooden houses all over, started becoming a part of the broadened city, little by little levelling their originality, loosing specific features, resulting in town planning based on other principles. Unsteadiness of wooden houses caused a short period of their existance and rapid vanishing. The age of the oldest buildings in Kaunas that have remained to the present day dates back-only to the middle of the 19th century. On the basis of a particular pattern, characteristic types of buildings in different periods are considered as well as the development of architectural shapes, style influence on a particular period, specific characteristics of wooden architecture, means and principles of territory building all over in different periods are reflected by groups or areas of wooden houses located. in some certain places of the city of Kaunas. When talking about wooden building existance in a modern town, one should admit the problem of burdening their remaining, rapid vanishing that causes decrease of information potential, should be stressed as well as levelling of historical layer clearly noticeable in a modern town tissue as a specific feature of Lithuanian towns. Results granted for wooden architecture investigation and carried out by the employees of the Town Planning Sector of the Institute of Architecture and Construction according to a special programme of heritage preservation. Wooden buildings on the Kaunas territory that were constructed up to 1940 were fixed when performing, value of particular objects was stated, concrete, motivated proposals for their preservation and regulation were produced.