Farmhouse
Encyclopedia
Farmhouse is a general term for the main house of a farm
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...

. It is a type of building
Building
In architecture, construction, engineering, real estate development and technology the word building may refer to one of the following:...

 or house
House
A house is a building or structure that has the ability to be occupied for dwelling by human beings or other creatures. The term house includes many kinds of different dwellings ranging from rudimentary huts of nomadic tribes to free standing individual structures...

 which serves a residential purpose in a rural
Rural
Rural areas or the country or countryside are areas that are not urbanized, though when large areas are described, country towns and smaller cities will be included. They have a low population density, and typically much of the land is devoted to agriculture...

 or agricultural setting. Most often, the surrounding environment will be a farm
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...

. Many farm houses are shaped like a T. The perpendicular section is referred to as the ell
Ell (architecture)
In architecture, an ell is a wing of a building that lies perpendicular to the length of the main portion.In connected farm architecture, the ell is often extended to attach the main house to another building, usually a barn. It takes its name from the shape of the letter L.-External links:*...

.

These several buildings tend to be more pragmatic
Pragmatism
Pragmatism is a philosophical tradition centered on the linking of practice and theory. It describes a process where theory is extracted from practice, and applied back to practice to form what is called intelligent practice...

 than aesthetic, but often well-stocked or well-furnished in terms of food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...

, insulation
Thermal insulation
Thermal insulation is the reduction of the effects of the various processes of heat transfer between objects in thermal contact or in range of radiative influence. Heat transfer is the transfer of thermal energy between objects of differing temperature...

 or in other aspects dealing with daily necessities. The supply of agricultural products from its environment tends to be a factor for this, as well as stressing the need for productivity
Productivity
Productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Productivity is a ratio of what is produced to what is required to produce it. Usually this ratio is in the form of an average, expressing the total output divided by the total input...

 and pragmatism in the survival of the farm. The farmhouse allows the farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...

s, workers and often their families to reside in proximity to their workplace—namely the farm in question. This allows the farmers and workers to arrive at the workplace earlier, increasing the productivity of the farm.

Germany

Historically there were three main types of German farmhouse, many of which still survive today. The Low German house or Niedersachsenhaus (Lower Saxony house) is found mainly on the North German Plain
North German plain
The North German Plain or Northern Lowland is one of the major geographical regions of Germany. It is the German part of the North European Plain...

, but also in large parts of Holland. It is a large, unit structure with a large, sweeping roof supported by two to four rows of internal posts. The great gateway at the gable end opens into a large hall or Deele, with cattle stalls and barns to either side and living accommodation at the end. The Middle German house
Middle German house
The Middle German house is a style of traditional German farmhouse which is predominantly found in Central Germany.It is known by a variety of other names, many of which indicate its regional distribution:* Ernhaus...

 may also be a single unit, but access is from the side and the roof is supported by the outside walls. Later this type of mitteldeutsches Haus was expanded to two or more buildings around a rectangular farmyard, often with a second storey. The South German house is found in southern Germany and has two main variants: the Swabian or Black Forest farmstead and the Bavarian farmstead.

Norway

Norwegian farmhouses used timber or logs and built using Scandinavian vernacular
Vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...

 architecture. The first examples are traced back to the 13th century

Canada

Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 farmhouses were influenced by European settlers. In Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, the style varied from Gothic to Swiss. In Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, the farmhouses of the late 19th century was of Victorian influence. Earlier ones used clapboard and later variations had brick. Many had porches out front. A dirt road would lead to the nearest concession road. As for out west, dwellings varied from single story wooden homesteads to straw huts. Wooden houses were built later as railroads allowed wood to be shipped from the Rockies (Alberta
Alberta
Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

, BC
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

) by 1915 they could be purchased as kits from Eaton's catalog. Canadian homes often differ from their American counterparts in that the porch is enclosed.

United States

Sometimes farmhouse may refer to a building design style, or a building's former purpose. This may occur when the farming area has been developed for other purposes, but the building itself still stands. Architectural
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...

 styles vary, but very often they are of Cape Cod
Cape Cod (house)
A Cape Cod cottage is a style of house originating in New England in the 17th century. It is traditionally characterized by a low, broad frame building, generally a story and a half high, with a steep, pitched roof with end gables, a large central chimney and very little ornamentation...

design. In general styles vary from region to region, but more often the style is simplistic so to serve the needs (and the budget) of the owners.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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