Upper Lusatian house
Encyclopedia
The Upper Lusatian house or Umgebindehaus is a special type of house that combines log house, timber-framing and building stone methods of construction. It is especially common in the region running from Silesia
through Upper Lusatia
and North Bohemia
and into Saxon Switzerland
, as well as East Thuringia
.
Upper Lusatian houses are transversely divided Middle German house
s or Ernhäuser. The hallway runs transversely across the house and separates the ground floor into living and working areas. The living area or Blockstube is usually located at the eastern or southern gable end in order to protect it from damp. The working area, of solid construction (usually rubble stone) is located opposite the Blockstube. This is where the animal stalls or stables, store rooms and barn are housed. A building in which the solid section is replaced by another Blockstube is known as a Doppelstubenhaus ("double living area house").
Above the Blockstube (Handweberstube) the upper storey or roof rests on wooden posts that are stabilised by triangulation with jetty brackets (Knagge) or braces (Kopfverbund). It is thus independent of the carrying elements below it and may be freely worked on. The upper storey is usually of timber framed construction. By contrast, especially in North Bohemia, the upper storey is made of log cabin construction.
Silesia
Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...
through Upper Lusatia
Upper Lusatia
Upper Lusatia is a region a biggest part of which belongs to Saxony, a small eastern part belongs to Poland, the northern part to Brandenburg. In Saxony, Upper Lusatia comprises roughly the districts of Bautzen and Görlitz , in Brandenburg the southern part of district Oberspreewald-Lausitz...
and North Bohemia
North Bohemia
North Bohemia , is a region in the north of the Czech Republic.- Location :North Bohemia roughly covers the present-day NUTS regional unit of CZ04 Severozápad and the western part of CZ05 Severovýchod....
and into Saxon Switzerland
Saxon Switzerland
Saxon Switzerland is a hilly climbing area and national park around the Elbe valley south-east of Dresden in Saxony, Germany. Together with the Bohemian Switzerland in the Czech Republic it forms the Elbe Sandstone Mountains....
, as well as East Thuringia
Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
.
Characteristics
The Upper Lusatian house is defined by the constructional separation of its living area from the roof, or its living area from the upper story and roof. The main characteristic of the normal type is "a wooden support system, which runs around the living area of the house made of logs or boards, which has the job of freeing the frame of the living area from the weight of the roof (in single-storey houses) or the roof and upper storey (in two-storey houses)."Upper Lusatian houses are transversely divided 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...
s or Ernhäuser. The hallway runs transversely across the house and separates the ground floor into living and working areas. The living area or Blockstube is usually located at the eastern or southern gable end in order to protect it from damp. The working area, of solid construction (usually rubble stone) is located opposite the Blockstube. This is where the animal stalls or stables, store rooms and barn are housed. A building in which the solid section is replaced by another Blockstube is known as a Doppelstubenhaus ("double living area house").
Above the Blockstube (Handweberstube) the upper storey or roof rests on wooden posts that are stabilised by triangulation with jetty brackets (Knagge) or braces (Kopfverbund). It is thus independent of the carrying elements below it and may be freely worked on. The upper storey is usually of timber framed construction. By contrast, especially in North Bohemia, the upper storey is made of log cabin construction.
Sources
- Manfred Hammer: Bauernhäuser, Bauernhöfe, Dörfer. Historisch wertvolle Gebäude und Dorfanlagen im Kreis Löbau-Zittau. Verein Ländliche Bauwerte in Sachsen e.V., Dresden 2009
- Jürgen Cieslak (Hrsg.): Umgebinde : eine einzigartige Bauweise im Dreiländereck Deutschland - Polen - Tschechien. Sächsischer Verein für Volksbauweise e.V., Langewiesche, Königstein i. Ts. 2007, ISBN 978-3-7845-5210-1
- Karl Bernert: Umgebindehäuser. VEB Verlag für Bauwesen, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-345-00001-6
- Frank Delitz: Umgebinde im Überblick : Zu Fragen der Geschichte, Verbreitung und landschaftlichen Ausprägung einer Volksbauweise. Graph. Werk. Zittau, Zittau 1987
- Karl Bernert, Jürgen Cieslak: Wir wohnen in einem Umgebindehaus : Arbeitsmaterial zur Erhaltung u. sachgemäßen Pflege d. Umgebindebauweise in d. Oberlausitz. Ges. für Denkmalpflege im Kulturbund d. DDR, Dresden 1982