The article proposes a reading of the elementary wooden structures built in Lapland, Scandinavia, using rigid and semi-rigid logs: nomad structures for tent-shelters (also using skins and earth) and the use of rabbetting techniques (blockbau in houses). The superposed wood-frame house documented throughout the whole sub-arctic belt, where the Lapps live, is of antique origin; it is also used by the Indo-European peoples of Biskupin and Halstatt. This technique, generically called by the Germanic term blockbau, indicates the heavy log structure of superposed logs, which are rabbetted at the corners. The documented examples show the close connection between climate, geo-material area and construction techniques.