Wooden Mosques in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sacred buildings (mosques and churches) built of wood are among the best examples of traditional (vernacular) architecture in Bosnia and Herzegovina. With their architectural and spatial characteristics, construction and materialization, these buildings perfectly clearly connect the natural and social environment and man into a unique synergistic whole. Being small in size and built of material that was literally 'at hand', these buildings testify to a man who 'understands his place in nature' and expresses his respect for God. Wood is one of the natural materials with which man first began to build. From the Late Stone Age (4500-2000 BC) to the Early Iron Age (around 1000 BC), man built individual houses and entire settlements of wood, above water (houses on pylons in the water, 'sojenice'). Access bridges, pylons for founding buildings in waterbeds (rivers, lakes, seas) and buildings as a whole were built of wood. In some historical periods (the colonization of North America, for example), wood was a key building material for fast and relatively cheap construction, from individual buildings, family estates (ranches), bridges to entire cities. By designing laminated wood, wood becomes a 'modern' material with completely new performance (especially high constructive performance) that can be compared with the performance of reinforced concrete and steel. In addition, wood becomes the basic raw material for the production of effective thermal insulation and sophisticated materials (in combination with other materials) used in the materialization of the outer (and inner) final layer of building envelopes. With all that, wood remains a 'natural material' that never ends up as waste that would burden the natural environment.