Architecture in Lathadu

The architecture of Lathadu has a history spanning centuries, and while up until the modern era the architecture was strongly influenced by currents from Lathadu’s two respective neighboring nations Ordrey and Salia, from the early 19th century onwards influences came directly from further afield: first when itinerant foreign architects took up positions in the country, and then when the Lathadun architectural profession became more firmly established.

Furthermore, Lathadun architecture in turn has contributed significantly to several styles internationally, such as Futurism, Alutran Classicism, and others. In particular, the works of the country’s most noted early modern architect Moleyn Vondy have had significant influence in the region and worldwide. Even more renowned than Vondy has been modernist architect Biorn Boyd, who is regarded as one of the major figures in the world history of modern architecture. In an article from 1932 titled, “Drawing from ages past,” Boyd discussed national and international influences in Lathadu, and how he saw them:

“Seeing how folk in the past were able to be internationalist and unprejudiced while remaining true to themselves and their kin, we today can accept certain impulses from Ordrey, from Salia, and from our other neighbors around the world with open eyes. Our ancestors are still our masters, we merely take the best parts from the world as they did.”

Lathadu’s most significant architectural achievements are related to modern architecture, mostly because the nation’s current public building stock has less than 40% that dates back before 1960, which relates significantly to massive national revitalization programs undertaken by the state and the process of urbanization in certain areas that gathered pace after.

1751 is the date of Lathadu’s independence from Salian rule. However, from its start in 1257, Salian rule afforded a significant degree of autonomy for the majority of these five centuries. Lathadu declared its independence with the founding of the Lathadun Federation in 1751, at the time of War of the Ordrish Succession. These historical factors have had a significant bearing on the history of architecture in Lathadu, along with the founding of towns and the building of hill forts (in the numerous conflicts fought against outside raiders and local rebels), as well as the availability of building materials and craftsmanship, and, later on, government policy on issues such as housing and public buildings. As a heavily forested region, timber has been the natural building material, while stone was rare outside the north, and manufacture of brick was rare before the mid 19th century. The use of concrete took on a particular prominence with the rise of the modern welfare state in the 1960s, in particular in state-produced housing with the dominance of prefabricated concrete elements.

Early architecture to 1751
The vernacular architecture of Lathadu is generally characterized by the predominant use of wooden construction. The oldest known dwelling structures are the brein, a hut covered in fabric, peat, moss, or timber. Much like those first structures used by humanity millenia ago when they first settled the region, the building type remained in use throughout Lathadu until the 18th century, and is still in use among many groups in Lathadu’s more remote areas. The tradition of wood construction - beyond the brein hut - has been common throughout Eastern Alutra since prehistoric times. Once central factor in its success was the process of corner joining - or “corner timbering” - technique, whereby logs are laid horizontally in succession and notched at the ends to form tightly secured joints. The origins of this technique are uncertain, though some theorize it was spread by the growing Sedic Confederation in the first and second centuries BCE. Crucial in the development of corner timbering were the necessary tools, particularly an axe rather than a saw. The resulting building type, a rectangular plan, originally comprising a single interior space and with a low-pitched saddle-back roof, is like that of many other early simple designs in other cultures. Its first use in Lathadu may have been as a storehouse, and later a domestic home. The first examples of corner timbering would have used round logs, but a more developed form soon emerged, shaping logs with an axe to a square shape for a surer fit and better insulation. Hewing with an axe was preferable to sawing because the axe-cut surfaces were better in abating water penetration.

According to some historians, though the principles of wooden constructions likely arrived in Lathadu from elsewhere, one particular innovation in wooden construction seems to be uniquely Lathadun, the so-called block-pillar temple. Though ostensibly looking like a normal wooden temple, the novelty involved the construction of hollow pillars from logs built into the exterior walls, making the walls themselves structurally unnecessary. The pillars are tied internally across the nave by large joists. Usually there were two, but occasionally three pillars on each longitudinal wall. The largest preserved block-pillar temple is at the Tomman site just outside Logh Craine (1676), with other examples at Ooylshugrey (1625) and Lheimmeyushtey (1699). In later developments, most particularly in more urban contexts, the log frame was then further covered in a layer of wooden planks. It is hypothesized that it was only from the 15th century onwards that wooden houses were painted with the familiar red-ochre, or full, containing up to 95% iron oxide and often mixed with tar. The balloon framing technique for timber construction popularized throughout Alutra only came to Lathadu in the 20th century. Lathadun master buildings traveled to neighboring Ordrey to see how industrialization of the timber-framing technique had developed, returning to write positively of it in trade journals. Some experiments were made in using the wooden frame, but this proved unpopular. One reason was the thin construction’s poor climatic performance (although this improved in the 1950s with the addition of insulation); also significant was the relatively low price of both timber in labor in Lathadu. However, as the state’s modernization programs continued, the industrialized timber construction system became more widespread. Another comparatively recent import to Lathadu is the use of wooden shingles for roofs, dating back to the early 18th century. Previous, the traditional system utilized thatch, or a bark roof comprising a wooden slat base overlaid with several layers of bark from a young tree and finished with a layer of long timber poles weighed down in places by the occasional boulder. Traditionally, the whole structure was unpainted. The coating of shingles with tar is a tradition going back millenia, a tried and true method of keeping the region’s constant rains from entering the structure.

The traditional timber house in Lathadu was generally of two types: Northern, influenced by Ordrish traditions, and Riverland, influenced by domestic and some Salian traditions. In many Northern-style wooden homes, like that of the Clouscreeu House outside Calleebane, the family’s dwelling rooms are on the upper floors while the animal barns and store rooms are on the ground floor, with hay lofts above them. Perhaps the best example of the Riverlands wooden house style is the Kuse farmstead, originally from the village of Cullee. The farmstead consisted of a group of individual log buildings placed around a central farmyard. Traditionally, the fire building to be constructed in such a farmstead was the storehouse, followed by the main room or hall of the main house, where the family would cook, eat, and sleep. In the summertime they would cook outdoors, and many would even sleep in the barns to avoid the heat.

The development of wood construction to a more refined level occurred, however, in the construction of temples. The earliest examples were not designed by architects but rather by master builders, figures also responsible for their construction. One of the oldest known wooden temples was that of Sarnmala, in Brooillagh, with only archaeological remains left today. Dating back to the 11th century, it had a simple rectangular ground plan of 11.5 x 15 meters, and is believed to be among the first, if not the first Ayekist temple in Lathadu. No wooden temples from the Middle Ages remain, due to their susceptibility to fire. Indeed, only 17 wooden temples from the 17th century still exist - although it was also common to demolish wooden temples to make way for larger stone ones. The designs of these wooden temples were clearly influenced by religious architecture from elsewhere in Eastern Alutra, notably Ordrey and Salia. The development of the wooden temple in Lathadu is marked by greater complexity in the plan and the increased size and refinement of details. The Rootagh temple of Ymmyrçhagh (1669), Lathadu’s best-preserved and least changed wooden temple, is a simple, unpainted rectangular saddle-back-roofed-block, measuring 13x8.5 meters with the walls rising to 3.85 meters, and resembling a giant peasant dwelling. By contrast, the Greinnaghey temple (planned and built by master builder Kieran Mylvorrey, 1765) plus the additional belfry (Fiac Kinley, 1831), though also unpainted on the exterior, has a refined crossed plan with even-sized arms, 18 x 18 meters, with a 13 m tall interior wooden vault. The atmosphere of the interior of Greinnaghey temple is regarded as unique; the large windows, unusual for log construction, give it a soft light.

During much of the Middle Ages, there were only four towns in Lathadu (Ushteyghoo, Calleebane, Lheimmeyushtey, and Cailjagh) with wooden building growing organically around a stone temple/castle. Historians point out that Lathadun wooden towns were on average destroyed either intentionally or accidentally by fire every 30-40 years. They were never rebuilt exactly as they had existed, and the fresh slate offered the chance to create new urban structures in accordance with any reigning ideals, such as new grid plans, straightening and widening streets, coles for buildings in stone, and the introduction of fire breaks in the form of green areas between properties. As a consequence of these fires, the greatest part of the wooden towns which have been preserved date from the 19th century. For example, the city of Ooylshugrey was founded in 1605 by Matron More of Clan Quirk beside a castle and, typical for its time, grew organically around it. In 1651, Dufgal Curphey drew up a new plan comprising a regular street grid, outlined on top of the existing situation, but retaining the position of the existing temple. Over the following years, more controlled fires allowed for new reforms and more exacting regulations in new town plans regarding wider streets and fire breaks.

Development of stone and brick construction
Use of stone and brick in construction in Lathadu was initially limited to the few castles and temples in the country. The construction of castles was part of a project by the Salian ruling class to construct both defensive and administrative centers throughout Lathadu, taking inspiration from the region’s more archaic hill forts. Six castles of national importance were built during this period, from the second half of the 13th century onwards. Most notable of these was the one at Calleebane, the center of Salian rule in Lathadu. The earlier parts of the castle constructions are characterized by heavy granite boulder constructions, but with ever more refined details in later periods. According to contemporary accounts, the castle was built by “16 good foreign master masons,” some brought from Salia itself. The castle is built on the hill overlooking the Aarnieu River, with a design based on the idea of three large towers in a line facing north-west and an encircling wall. The castle's present good state of repair is due to a thorough restoration carried out in the 1960s and 70s, as much of it was destroyed when the city was besieged by rebel forces in the 18th century. Martarey Castle, said to originate in the 1260s, was originally built in wood, then rebuilt in stone, but then transformed radically in the 14th century in red brick, with extra lines of defence also in brick added beyond the central bastion overlooking Ushteyghoo. In the 19th century, it was converted into a prison in accordance with a design by architect Liag Crennell. The stone building tradition in Lathadu is also preserved in 73 stone temples and 9 stone wayshrines added to otherwise originally wooden structures. Probably the oldest stone temple is the Temple of St. Payl in Ushteyghoo, completed in 1260-1280. These early stone temples are characterized by their massive walls, and predominantly with a single interior space. Small details, such as windows, would sometimes be decorated with red brick detailing, in particular the gables. An exception among the temples was Lheimmeyushtey Grand Temple; it was originally built in wood in the late 13th century, but was considerably expanded in the 14th and 15th centuries, mainly in stone and brick. The cathedral was badly damaged during the Great Fire of Lheimmeyushtey in 1837, and was rebuilt to a great extent afterwards in brick.

Compared to the rest of Alutra, the manor houses of Lathadu are fairly modest in size and architectural refinement. Strictly speaking, a manor house was originally a barracks and storehouse for the clan controlling the region, a practical thing rather than a beautiful one. Later manors stemmed from military officers’ houses and from privately owned ironworks. The oldest surviving stone manors date from the 16th century. The construction of manor houses in Lathadu historically raises the name of an early foreign born architect; Salian-born Odairr Cotter was by training a mason who worked in Scrá before moving to Ushteyghoo in 1756 and was appointed city architect that same year - which included the responsibility of training assistants. Designing in many newer, modern styles, albeit in a more modest idiom, Cotter designed manor houses across the richer eastern riverlands, and is largely responsible for the popularization of brick in Lathadu. Particularly popular was acquiring bricks from multiple different brickworks and building one’s manor with these - the more variety in one’s bricks, the more status one held. By the mid-late 19th century, this obsession with brick would percolate to the middle and lower classes, inspiring completely new styles all their own, namely the River house (also called Hall house) style. Moot halls, once made of stone and wood, began to be primarily made of brick at this time as well.

Federation period to 1871
The cornerstone of Lathadun as a state was laid in 1751, when its united clans had finally succeeded in throwing off the yoke of foreign oppression and declared Matron Barriaght as the first Lanshad, or leader, or the Federation of Lathadu. Barriaght sore to maintain the faith and laws of her people, and elected to rule from Ushteyghoo rather than her home region, a clear indication of her will to make the new federation a functioning entity. Ushteyghoo would remain Lathadu’s capital until 1871, and would be the center of the architectural scene as it developed into a modern nation. At the time, Ushteyghoo was a modest wooden trading town of a few thousand inhabitants, albeit with a large castle and military garrison nearby. Barriaght appointed builder and engineer Thorulf Colvin, a former courtier of both Salia and Ordrey, as head of the reconstruction committee, with the task of drawing up a plan for a new stone-built capital. The heart of the scheme was the Moot Square, surrounded by Neoclassical buildings for state, temples, and university. In the words of art historian Carola Leewin, Colvin created “the symbolic heart of the new Federation, where all its institutions had a place dictated by their function in the hierarchy.” In fact, even before gaining its independence proper, Lathadu had begun experimenting with newer styles introduced from abroad, especially in the design of temples. Many architects who were brought over at this time remained afterwards, ensuring the new, modern styles would not be lost.

Some of Colvin’s later works are also characterized by the turn in eastern Alutra to Alutran Revival architecture, with an emphasis on red brick facades typical for eastern Alutra. In addition to temples, the neo-Alutran style was also dominant for the buildings of the growing industrial manufacturers, and many mills can still be visited that were built during this period. The emergence of various revivalist styles throughout Alutra - in search for a new “national style” - was also felt in Lathadu, but would not flourish until the end of the 19th century with the founding of the Republic and the new focus it brought. This period also marked the establishment of the first architecture courses in Lathadu, and in 1779 these began at the Technical and Applied Arts Institute of Ushteyghoo, though at first with foreign or foreign-educated teachers. Other Lathaduns went abroad for various periods of time to study. In fact, Sigurd Kerruish (1753-1818) is noted as the first Lathadun to have studied architecture at the Academy of the Arts in Noters in 1783-84. He became a notable designer of temples throughout Lathadu, blazing a trail for other Lathadun architects to follow. His buildings are typical of the eclecticism of the time, designing in both Alutran Revival and Neoclassical styles, with heavy ornamentation as well as heavy use of color in interiors but also occasionally in facades, as for instance with his House of the Estates in Ushteyghoo that would go in to heavily inform the style used to house Lathadu’s National Diet in Calleebane.

In 1769, the artist Breata Cowell depicted the increasing national awakening of Lathadu in a poster showing Lathadu as a proud maid, with a model of the Temple of St. Payl in Ushteyghoo on her hat. This image ignite the cultural-political atmosphere of the time. The style is produced is characterized by flowing lines and incorporation of nationalistic-mythological symbols - especially those taken from the national epic, Skeeal ny Giare Çhayraghyn (Tale of the Four Sisters) - mostly taken from nature and historical architecture, but also contemporary sources elsewhere in Alutra and beyond. The most prominent of these structures were built in stone. By the mid 19th century, the Lathadun Federation began to show serious cracks due to increasing authoritarianism from its Lanshad Teige. The reaction to this among the bourgeois class was evident, both politically and artistically. The Lathadun Architects Club was founded in 1862; originally a loose forum for collaboration and discussion, its voluntary basis meant that it operated informally in cafes, pubs, and restaurants. In this way, it resembled many of the writers’ or artists’ clubs of the time, and generally fostered a collegial spirit of solidarity, quickly adopting a political bent against the regime like most others of the time. It quickly helped establish the architect as an artist responsible for aesthetic decisions, as well as one with presence in the social arena.

Republic era
With the founding of the Lathadun Republic in 1871, there was a brief turn away from the old nationalist styles, which became associated to an extent with the excess of the old regime. In turn there was a brief return to classicism, so called Alutran Classicism, influenced to an extent by architect study trips to nations across the region. The most notable large scale building from this period was the Lathadun National Diet building in Calleebane by Sheela Kinvig. Other key buildings built in this style were the Lathadun Language Adult Education Center, the National Art Museum and Drawing School, the National Art Gallery, and the National Library, all found in Calleebane. Other, smaller structures such as worker’s clubs or local libraries took a great deal of inspiration from these first structures. However, beyond this first crop of public buildings designed in the Alutran Classicist style, old influences from the National Awakening style began to reappear. This hybrid style was used in many of the second generation of public buildings, as well as in timber and brick constructed workers’ housing in newer urban areas. The historic gracetown format, followed to some extent for generations, became codified at this time; the around 165 houses of one project outside Calleebane, modelled on farmhouses, were built from traditional square log construction clad in vertical boarding and brick, but the construction technique was rationalized with an on-site factory with a partly building element technique.

The principle of standardized housing took off in popularity at this time; in 1902, the National Board for Public Welfare commissioned architect Fritha Duggan to design different options of farmhouses, which were then published as a brochure encouraging workers to move to built up areas. In 1907, she was commissioned to design an equivalent urban type house, to which she presented 12 options. Biorn Boyd, too, became involved, from 1906, in standard small houses, designing for the National Timber and Wood Product Company, with three types of structure. Though based on traditional farmhouses, there are also clear stylistic elements from Alutran Classicism but also modernism. Apart from housing design, Alutran Classicism in Lathadu is regarded as being a fairly brief trend, surpassed by more “internationalist” style - especially in banks, libraries, and other public buildings. In reality, however it was a synthesis of elements from these styles that emerged as dominant. Nevertheless, by the late 1920s there was already a significant move towards Futurism, inspired most significantly by trends in Ordrey, but also from examples in Salia. The shift from Alutran Classicism to Futurism is said by some to have been sudden or revolutionary, most notably by publications centered on architecture at the time. The shift in designs is epitomized by the Ooylshugrey Library, which went through a transformation from an originally classical competition entry proposal to the completed modernist building following delays in the project while retaining many of ideals of the original proposal. Traces of Alutran Classicism would naturally continue synthesized with Futurism and more idiosyncratic individual style, including a new wave of smaller temples and shrines dating as late as 1941. The 1950s marked the beginning not only of greater population migration to Lathadu’s major cities, but also state financed projects for social housing. Many of these were built using traditional building techniques, plastered brick, but with a modern form following the topography of the area while creating small pocket-like yards for residents. Beyond the matter of form was the production of mass housing based on systems of standardization and prefabricated element construction. A challenge to the traditional urbanization process came, however, with the design of “forest cities”, high rise apartments set in forested areas on the outskirts of major cities. However, these were limited in number to the outskirts of Calleebane and Ushteyghoo. There was, however, a flip side to the urbanization and the expressed concern for the value of nature; traditional towns, even the old medieval ones, in many areas were under the threat of being demolished, to be replaced by straightened streets and urban developments of prefabricated multistory blocks. This led to an increase in public desire to preserve older structures and styles, and the founding of many local architectural associations.