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 North Bohemia ( cs, Severní Čechy, german: Nordböhmen) 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 Severovýc ...

and into Saxon Switzerland, as well as East Thuringia.

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)."Delitz 1987, p. 12 Upper Lusatian houses are transversely divided

Middle German house The Middle German house (german: mitteldeutsches Haus, Ernhaus) 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 ...

s or ''Ernhäuser''. The hallway runs transversely across the house and separates the

ground floor A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). T ...

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 Rubble stone is rough, uneven building stone not laid in regular courses. It may fill the core of a wall which is faced with unit masonry such as brick or ashlar. Analogously, some medieval cathedral walls are outer shells of ashlar with an inn ...

) 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 Jettying (jetty, jutty, from Old French ''getee, jette'') is a building technique used in medieval timber-frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of increasing the availa ...

(''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.

Gallery

File:Umgebindehaus Ebersbach LC0001.jpg, Umgebindehaus in Ebersbach/Sa. File:Taubenheim2.jpg, ''Umgebindehaus'' in Taubenheim File:Umgebindehaus in Sohland an der Spree.jpg, ''Umgebindehaus'' in Sohland File:Schirgiswalde Umgebindehaus mit Fachwerk.jpg, Former mill in

Schirgiswalde Schirgiswalde (in Sorbian ''Šěrachów'', in Czech ''Šerachov'') is a town and a former municipality in the district of Bautzen in Saxony in Germany. Since 1 January 2011, it is part of the town Schirgiswalde-Kirschau. It is located on the riv ...

File:Umgebindehaus in Oybin 2.JPG, ''Umgebindehaus'' in Oybin

References

Bibliography

*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, *Karl Bernert: ''Umgebindehäuser.'' VEB Verlag für Bauwesen, Berlin 1988, *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

External links

www.umgebindeland.de

www.fachring-umgebindehaus.eu

www.stiftung-umgebindehaus.de
* https://www.quick-garden.co.uk/

* ttp://gaczkowska.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/masters-work_english.pdf Agnieszka Gaczkowska, Traditional Upper Lusatian Umgebinde House: Modern Reinterpretation. A detailed paper in English.* Jack Breen
The Umgebinde Variations: A case-based study of formal typologies and systematic compositional variety.
Form & Media Studies department, Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology. {{Authority control Houses in Germany Wooden houses Vernacular architecture Architecture in Germany House styles Farmhouses Houses in the Czech Republic Log houses Timber framing