For some , a house is just a pack of brick , wood and glass that put together is meant to protect us from the forces of nature .
This idea is more popular nowadays then in the old day when when nana and papa were living , for their generation , a house is not just a soulless collection of walls , windows and door ...a house is a shrine , is a altar , is the most sacred space that a family can have.
Do to this reason , people would construct homes with all kind of complex and unique shapes and designs in order to leave their mark on what would become a sacred space dedicated to family life.
All around the world , homes were designed in such a way that they will satisfy the needs of the family and of the community . We can see that architecture was following two distinct coordonates that were represented by the needs of the family and the requirements of the community.
A good example in this way would be the homes from the fortified german cities of Central Europe , they had to satisfy the needs for a sustaining a healthy family life - translated in to the house layout , room sizes , window size and positioning , etc - and the requirements of the community which translate in to the well integration of the house in the local and general city planning , from both a functional and a stylistic perspective.
The same thing can be said about the traditional house of Wallachia , its ability to mix in together this two criteria made it not only functional (for the time in which the style was popular) but also stylish and elevated.
The traditional wallachian house , also called neoromanian or brancoveneasca , is a interesting mixture of elements and functional concepts that come to consolidate the fact that the Romanians from Wallachia have strong historical roots that connect their culture to some of the cultures that were present in he region in past times , going back so far to Antiquity.
When we want to talk about the traditional house of Wallachia we must take some aspects in to consideration : a)the neoromanian is a style that was born in this region but there were other arhiectural vernecular styles prior to its birth - even if they are more primitive in borth configuration and style ; b) neoromanian (brancovenesc) is a style that became popular under the rule of Constantin Brancoveanu , it became the signature style of the region , becoming popular in both urban and rural settlements .
The traditional wallachian house impresses through its interesting way of configurationg its exterior volumes which usually translate visually in to mix of cubic and cuboid bodies perforated by arched window , porches and galleries. The arches are supported columns which vary in shape and decorations : from cilindrical to square , from simplistic to highly decorated. The focal point usually is represented by the comun's head which usually is decorated with motives inspired by vegetal elements. The general aspect is monumental which is usually given both by the hight and by the thickness of the walls , brick being the only material used.
A other game that architects played while designing wallachian houses is the contrast between volumes with many opening (widows,porches , galleries and doors) and ones who had very few or none at all (blind volumes).
This way the house could easly have highlighted its points of interest. Above all the wallachian house is a symbol of spirituality of byzantine roots , the style was first used for religious buildings (churches and monesteries) and was later adopted to lay buildings too. Even so , many of its general lines still follow some of the patterns of the Romanian Easten Orthodox arhitecture , this way , the wallachian house takes the shape of a true temple of devotion to God and the family.
We must mention that the style has two variantions , one of which is used in the urban areas and one that is used in the rural ones.The rural style is more symplistic and is more poor in decorations , but all of this is compensated by a clever combination of light and heavy volumes.
The floor plan can vary even in this case , the most simple would consist in a three room compartimentation in a rectangural plan . The urban style is characterized by a higher complexity , decorations and configuration of volumes .
The floorplan layout differs too and it was later on influenced even by western functionalism.The color schemes for the exterior mainly consist of neutral tones , white being mainly used for the exterior walls and other neutral colors for accents , woodwork and decorations.
Rural interiors would be mainly modest and netural in colors schemes , accent are represented by colorsful wall carpets made by the women of the house or by religious objects such as icons and candles.
As a conclussion to our short review of the traditional wallachian house we can state that the this style who has roots in the byzantine style managed to outline its own personality which played a important role in the culture of the region , contributing greatly to the way in which art is handles and translated in to architectural elements and motives.
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