Tomáš Mikolaj
In addition to material availability and accessibility, clay houses have a certain advantage: if they are built in a professional fashion and of good quality, their maintenance is rather simple. The Myjava region has been known for clay buildings for centuries. Since the mid 17th century, this building material has been widely used across the Záhorie and Danube plains. Neither the launch of fired bricks, nor the socialist construction industry, nor the somewhat rushed post-revolution construction availing of ready-made building materials pushed it aside. This is an important achievement in its own right as, in other regions across Slovakia, houses built from locally sourced materials have been disappearing at an alarming rate. Moreover, across Myjava hamlets there are today young people who started using clay in construction again. In a small settlement at the Vrbovce hamlets, Petr Skořepa and his family have been living for over five years. Sharing his knowledge with other interested parties, he is devoted to using natural materials for building houses. This article is concerned with contemporary building technologies suitable for clay houses, and with experience and vision of people from Myjava hamlets.