Log construction (log homes or log cabins)
In those countries where the land was largely covered with coniferous forests it was logical to use this plentiful source of material for building houses in the simplest manner.
By stacking tree trunks one on top of another and overlapping the logs at the corners, the ‘log cabin’ was born. Interlocking corners were soon developed by notching the logs at the ends, resulting in strong ‘box-like’ structures which were also easier to make weather-tight by inserting moss or other soft material into the joints. As the original coniferous forest extended over the coldest parts of the world there was a prime need to keep these houses warm, and the insulating properties of the solid wood were a great advantage over a frame construction merely covered with skins, felt, boards or shingles. Over the centuries increasingly complex joints were developed to ensure more weather tight joints between the logs but these profiles were still largely based on the round log.
In the Wood Museum in Trondheim, Norway, fourteen different traditional profiles are shown, but a basic form of log construction was used all over North Europe and Asia. These methods of log building were transferred to North America with the early settlers, where it became a popular form of construction for the pioneers settling in the far north and the more mountainous parts of America and Canada where winter conditions were often extreme.
Log construction was also used for some much larger buildings, and there are examples of buildings up to 4 stories tall both in Scandinavia and Canada built in the 19th century, probably chosen to evoke either the romantic image of rural life or the early pioneering settlements of North America.
Modern log construction all over Europe and North America is becoming increasingly popular for residential buildings such as summerhouses or cabins and for leisure facilities in outdoor centres. It is also being used for larger buildings such as visitor centres and community buildings, although generally limited to single storey construction.
In the UK many of these log buildings have been imported from Scandinavia, or Canada, as prefabricated ‘kits’. However with the increasing availability of home-grown sources of timber such kits could in the future be manufactured in the UK for the domestic market, and possibly even exported to other countries.
The Forestry Commission recently commissoned a new log-cabin type garage, storage and workshop building at Dornoch Forest District. The log cabin was manufactured and erected by a Scottish contractor. 30 cm diameter logs of locally grown 45 year old Sitka spruce were hand crafted to provide the interlocking wall elements. The logs were originally cross-cut into 12 and 6 m lengths. The building itself is 8 m long by 4 m wide.
Figure 4. Building works. New Forestry Commission garage, storage and workshop building at Dornoch Forest District, 2003. Contractor: Alan Mackintosh, Log-ical Building. Contractor: Alan Mackintosh. Photograph courtesy Forestry Commission
