Wooden four-family houses of the interwar period in Hajnówka and Czarna Białostocka

Wooden architecture, including residential architecture, is an important element of the landscape of Podlasie. Interesting examples of it can be found in Hajnówka and Czarna Białostocka. Both towns owe their dynamic development in the interwar period to the wood industry. For the rapidly growing number of residents, new houses needed to be built. The subject of the study were two housing estates in Hajnówka and one in Czarna Białostocka. The main goal of the author of the article was to expand knowledge in the field of wooden buildings of the interwar period in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. The basic task was to describe the architectural attributes of four-family houses, as well as the urban planning of housing estates. The study uses research methods applied in the field of architectural history – collecting information available in the literature on the subject and archival sources, as well as field research. The obtained research material was subjected to analysis and inference. The article discusses architectural, functional and structural attributes of quads. All residential buildings, apart from minor differences, have the same attributes. In urban planning, very similar layouts were also used in each of the housing estates. They are the result of the conditions of the epoch. The current condition of the housing estates was also analyzed in terms of preserving their historical character. On the basis of the recent field work, it can be concluded that most of the buildings have been transformed, often to an extent that it is impossible to identify their historical form. The housing estates as a whole have lost their important value, which was the architectural homogeneity of the buildings.