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A lean-to is a type of simple structure originally added to an existing building with the rafters "leaning" against another wall. Free-standing lean-to structures are generally used as shelters. One traditional type of lean-to is known by its Finnish name laavu.
A lean-to is originally defined as a building in which the rafters lean against another building or wall, a penthouse. [1] These structures frequently have skillion roofs and as such are sometimes referred to as "skillions".
A lean-to shelter is a free-standing structure with only three walls and a single-pitched roof. The open side is commonly oriented away from the prevailing winds and rains. Often it is a rough structure made of logs or unfinished wood and used as a camping shelter.
A lean-to addition is a shed with a sloping roof and three walls that abuts the wall of another structure. This form of lean-to is generally provisional; it is an appendix to an existing building constructed to fulfill a new need. Sometimes, they cover external staircases, as is the case with the lean-to building built in the 15th century against one of the walls of the large chapter room of the cathedral of Meaux. Sometimes, they are built to protect entrances or to establish covered markets around certain large civic buildings. [2]
A Finnish laavu (plural laavut), Swedish gapskjul or slogbod, or Norwegian gapahuk is a traditional ethnic lean-to shelter, a small structure intended for temporary residence during hiking or fishing trips in the wilderness.
Laavut are commonly found in Finnish Lapland near popular fishing rivers and in national parks. In principle, a laavu is a simplified version of a wilderness hut. Like wilderness huts, they are not heated, and may not be reserved beforehand. Unlike wilderness huts, laavut lack doors or windows. A typical laavu is a wooden hut, about 10 m2 in area and 2 m high, consisting of a roof, floor, and three walls. The fourth wall is left permanently open.
A laavu provides a safe place to sleep during fishing or hiking trips. Visitors are expected to bring their own sleeping bags, as the area has no other sleeping facilities. Most laavut also have a space for a campfire in front of them, but the laavu is built so that a reasonable fire can provide warmth for the night. They are also commonly used as a rest stop along trails during daytime, and for camping cookout (which in Finland usually consists of grilling sausage on the campfire).
A laavu can also be an improvised structure of the same type, built out of available materials such as branches with leaves or pine/fir needles intact, or moss or animal pelts for the covering, and sturdier, stripped branches or young tree trunks as the supporting structure. These serve as temporary shelters deep in the wilderness, usually for a single overnight stay. This is the traditional meaning of the word. Traditionally, a log fire (rakovalkea in Finnish, nying in Swedish and Norwegian) was used, made so that it did not need surveillance during the night.
In the United States, this same type of structure is commonly referred to as an "Adirondack". Many youth camps use such structures to provide an inexpensive shelter for campers that is sturdier, and more durable, than a textile tent.
Laavu-like tents are also sold, meant for four or five people. Some of the modern nylon ones have a front flap that is pulled down for the night if there is no fire.
A barn is an agricultural building usually on farms and used for various purposes. In North America, a barn refers to structures that house livestock, including cattle and horses, as well as equipment and fodder, and often grain. As a result, the term barn is often qualified e.g. tobacco barn, dairy barn, cow house, sheep barn, potato barn. In the British Isles, the term barn is restricted mainly to storage structures for unthreshed cereals and fodder, the terms byre or shippon being applied to cow shelters, whereas horses are kept in buildings known as stables. In mainland Europe, however, barns were often part of integrated structures known as byre-dwellings. In addition, barns may be used for equipment storage, as a covered workplace, and for activities such as threshing.
Camping is a form of outdoor recreation involving overnight stays with a basic temporary shelter such as a tent. Camping can also include a recreational vehicle, a permanent tent, a shelter such as a bivy or tarp, or no shelter at all. Typically, participants leave developed areas to spend time outdoors, in pursuit of activities providing them enjoyment or an educational experience. Spending the night away from home distinguishes camping from day-tripping, picnicking, and other outdoor activities.
A tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over, attached to a frame of poles or a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using guy ropes tied to stakes or tent pegs. First used as portable homes by nomads, tents are now more often used for recreational camping and as temporary shelters.
Outdoor cooking is the preparation of food in the outdoors. A significant body of techniques and specialized equipment exists for it, traditionally associated with nomadic cultures such as the Berbers of North Africa, the Arab Bedouins, the Plains Indians, pioneers in North America, and indigenous tribes in South America. These methods have been refined in modern times for use during recreational outdoors pursuits, by campers and backpackers.
Backpacking is the outdoor recreation of carrying gear on one's back, while hiking for more than a day. It is often an extended journey, and may involve camping outdoors. In North America tenting is common, where simple shelters and mountain huts, widely found in Europe, are rare. In New Zealand, hiking is called tramping and tents are used alongside a nationwide network of huts. Hill walking is an equivalent in Britain, though backpackers make use of a variety of accommodation, in addition to camping. Backpackers use simple huts in South Africa. Trekking and bushwalking are other words used to describe such multi-day trips.
Vernacular architecture is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. This category encompasses a wide range and variety of building types, with differing methods of construction, from around the world, both historical and extant, representing the majority of buildings and settlements created in pre-industrial societies. Vernacular architecture constitutes 95% of the world's built environment, as estimated in 1995 by Amos Rapoport, as measured against the small percentage of new buildings every year designed by architects and built by engineers.
A cottage, during England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide some form of service to the manorial lord. However, in time cottage just became the general term for a small house. In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cosy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location and not necessarily in England. The cottage orné, often quite large and grand residences built by the nobility, dates back to a movement of "rustic" stylised cottages of the late 18th and early 19th century during the Romantic movement.
A mountain hut is a building located high in the mountains, generally accessible only by foot, intended to provide food and shelter to mountaineers, climbers and hikers. Mountain huts are usually operated by an Alpine Club or some organization dedicated to hiking or mountain recreation. They are known by many names, including alpine hut, mountain shelter, mountain refuge, mountain lodge, and mountain hostel. It may also be called a refuge hut, although these occur in lowland areas too.
A bothy is a basic shelter, usually left unlocked and available for anyone to use free of charge. It was also a term for basic accommodation, usually for gardeners or other workers on an estate. Bothies are found in remote mountainous areas of Scotland, Northern England, Ulster and Wales. They are particularly common in the Scottish Highlands, but related buildings can be found around the world. A bothy was also a semi-legal drinking den in the Isle of Lewis. These, such as Bothan Eòrapaidh, were used until recent years as gathering points for local men and were often situated in an old hut or caravan.
A bivouac shelter or bivvy is any of a variety of improvised camp site, or shelter that is usually of a temporary nature, used especially by soldiers, or people engaged in backpacking, bikepacking, scouting, or mountain climbing. It may often refer to sleeping in the open with a bivouac sack, but it may also refer to a shelter constructed of natural materials like a structure of branches to form a frame, which is then covered with leaves, ferns, and similar material for waterproofing and duff for insulation. Modern bivouacs often involve the use of one- or two-man tents but may also be without tents or full cover. In modern mountaineering the nature of the bivouac shelter will depend on the level of preparedness, in particular whether existing camping and outdoor gear may be incorporated into the shelter.
A hut is a small dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. Huts are a type of vernacular architecture because they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, ice, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, hides, fabric, or mud using techniques passed down through the generations.
A quinzhee or quinzee is a Canadian snow shelter made from a large pile of loose snow that is shaped, then hollowed. This is in contrast to an igloo, which is built up from blocks of hard snow, and a snow cave, constructed by digging into the snow. The word is of Athabaskan origin and entered the English language by 1984. A quinzhee can be made for winter camping and survival purposes, or for fun.
A wilderness hut, bothy, backcountry hut, or backcountry shelter is a free, primitive mountain hut for temporary accommodation, usually located in wilderness areas, national parks and along backpacking and hiking routes. They are found in many parts of the world, such as Finland, Sweden, Norway, northern Russia, the Alps, the Pyrenees, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. Huts are basic and unmanned, without running water.
Karhunkierros is a hiking trail that stretches from Salla to Kuusamo in north-eastern Finland.
Ultralight backpacking is a subset of lightweight backpacking, a style of backpacking which emphasizes carrying the lightest and least amount of gear. While no technical standards exist, some hikers consider "ultralight" to mean an initial base weight of less than 4.5 kg. Base weight is the weight of a fully loaded backpack at the start of a trip, excluding worn weight and consumables such as food, water, and fuel. Base weight can be lowered by reducing the weight of individual items of gear, or by choosing not to carry that gear. Ultralight backpacking is most popular among thru-hikers.
Pole framing or post-frame construction is a simplified building technique that is an alternative to the labor-intensive traditional timber framing technique. It uses large poles or posts buried in the ground or on a foundation to provide the vertical structural support, along with girts to provide horizontal support. The method was developed and matured during the 1930s as agricultural practices changed, including the shift toward engine-powered farm equipment and the demand for cheaper, larger barns and storage areas.
An Adirondack lean-to or Adirondack shelter is a three-sided log structure popularized in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York which provides shelter for campers. Since their development in the Adirondacks, this type of shelter has seen use in a number of parks throughout the United States, such as Isle Royale National Park in Michigan and Indian Cave State Park in Nebraska, as well as in parts of Canada. It is similar to the Nordic laavu.
The field of Indigenous architecture refers to the study and practice of architecture of, for and by Indigenous people. It is a field of study and practice in the United States, Australia, Aotearoa/New Zealand, Canada, Arctic area of Sápmi and many other countries where Indigenous people have a built tradition or aspire translate or to have their cultures translated in the built environment. This has been extended to landscape architecture, urban design, planning, public art, placemaking and other ways of contributing to the design of built environments.
A poncho tent is a type of improvised emergency shelter, constructed using a rain poncho. Using materials on hand that were intended for use as rain gear, it becomes possible to re-purpose them as a shelter.
The architecture of Zimbabwe is composed of three architectural types: the Hill Complex, the Valley Complex, and the Great Enclosure. Both traditional and colonial architectures have influenced the history and culture of the country. However, post-1954 buildings are mainly inspired by pre-colonial, traditional architecture, especially Great Zimbabwe–inspired structures such as the Kingdom Hotel, Harare international airport, and the National Heroes' Acre.
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