Video from this course on YouTube - third week...
Video from this course on YouTube - fourth week...
The course will run for five consecutive weeks as follows:
24 May – 28 May 2027 (Mon–Fri)
31 May – 5 June 2027 (Mon–Sat)
7 June – 11 June 2027 (Mon–Fri)
14 June – 19 June 2027 (Mon–Sat)
21 June – 25 June 2027 (Mon–Fri)
The main focus of the course is the construction of a traditional Czech log house with dovetail corner joints, with a ground plan of approximately 30 m². The thickness of the beams (and thus of the walls themselves) will be 18 cm. In addition, we will try out the hewing of a small children’s house or a sauna using the Scandinavian log-building technique (saddle joints with protruding log ends at the corners), using hand tools only. Besides this, each participant can make their own models of corner joints—a dovetail joint (used in traditional Czech log house) and a saddle joint (used in Nordic log cabins with protruding log ends)—from the same beams that will be used for the main construction. You will be able to take these models home with you.
Further parts of the program include hand planing and adzing of all the beams for the main project, the construction of a simple roof frame for the wooden building being built, hewing your own beam from a round log using a broad axe and a mortising axe, and theoretical instruction.
There will also be a supplementary program (afternoons and evenings), which will be arranged depending on what can be organized at the time (a visit to a completed log house and log cabin, a chainsaw operation workshop, a demonstration of making wooden shingles, clay plastering, straw-bale house construction, making wooden drilled wells, a lecture by a forestry production specialist, a talk and blacksmithing demonstration with a blacksmith, and possibly other activities).
Price
39,000 CZK, consisting of:
17,000 CZK deposit to reserve a place in the course
22,000 CZK balance payable upon arrival at the course
Lunches can be pre-ordered before the course for 200 CZK/day.
The price includes the loan of all necessary tools, rental of the workshop space, instructors, coffee and tea for the entire duration of the course, and accommodation in a tent in the garden.
The discounted price of the finished structure built during the course is 485,000 CZK. Ground plan approx. 4.7 × 6.2 m. The deposit for materials is 285,000 CZK. The remaining balance is 200,000 CZK plus the course fee (in case of participation in the course). Course participants always have priority to purchase it. We use seasoned “moon-harvested” winter wood from a forest at least 110 years old, and I am personally present during its harvesting.
Further information
The course will take place outdoors under a wooden shelter measuring 8 × 8 m. The cabin (facilities) and the tent sites are approximately 50 m away from the construction site.
Photographs and other media
In addition to the photos and short videos shown below, we have also managed to gather the following materials:
- Photos from the course in the year 2012
- Photos from the course in the year 2013
- Photos from the course in the year 2015
- Photos from the course in the year 2016
- Photos from the course in the year 2017
- Photos from the course in the year 2018
- Photos from the course in the year 2020
- Photos from the course in the year 2021
- Photos from the course in the year 2023
- Photos from the course in the year 2024
- A Czech Radio 2 feature on the 2016 Month-long Roubenka-building Course
