My name is Richard and I commute between Norway and the UK in my sailboat Cecilia, spending winters in the cold north and summers on the green and pleasant land. I work with, and teach, traditional Norwegian log building and trestle frame 'grindbygg' construction.
Log building is exceptionally strong and stable, has amazing thermal storage capacity and is designed for long hard winters. It also looks incredibly beautiful.
The 'grindbygg' is the most basic of timber framing systems. Developed several thousand years ago (if you believe some experts), it is the evolutionary missing link between today's intricate timber framing systems and back when we just emerged from caves and created shelter but putting two forked sticks in the ground and a cross-piece between them. It is exceptionally fast to build, even in round wood, and has been used as barns and boat houses up and down the Norwegian coast since humans arrived there.