Thatching a roof is an age-old tradition. It is hard, demanding work. Today it exists primarily as a restoration activity. Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge, rushes and heather, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof.
There are more thatched roofs in the Ireland and United Kingdom than in any other European country. Quality thatching straw can last for more than 45–50 years when applied by a skilled Thatcher.
The project consists of a single family suburban house placed within a corner plot in a traditional Country Club in the Pilar area, Buenos Aires, Argentina. With a surface area of 1100 sqm, the site forms part of a new extension of the Club, resulting in an almost inexistent urban context, deprived of both neighboring houses and grown vegetation.
The only significant influence surrounding the plot is the adjacent par three golf course. The plot is completely flat and there is no physical limit between the golf course and its northeastern border, resulting in a magnificent view which also coincides with the best sun orientation.
Russian folk art reached the height of popularity with the builders and woodworkers of rural Russia in the 18th-19th centuries. From simple peasant cottages to log-built estates for wealthy merchants, timber houses were decorated with elaborate painted wood carvings. Russia is sometimes referred to as a nation of woodcutters, and this tradition is evident in the wooden houses in the Golden Ring, the historical towns and cities that lie to the northeast of Moscow.
In the rural houses of the Golden Ring, elaborately carved wooden decorations also appeared on the edges of roofs and balconies, but were most beautiful as window surrounds. The carvings were uniquely Russian, an amalgam of Russian folklore motifs, Baroque embellishment and the graceful linear quality of Art Nouveau. They combine flowers, leaves and geometric shapes with stylized depictions of birds and animals, as well as mythological creatures, such as the Sirin—a creature of Russian legend that has the face and chest of a woman and the wings and feathered tail of a bird, most often an owl.
