The Upper Lusatian house or ''Umgebindehaus'' is a special type of house that combines

log house A log house, or log building, is a structure built with horizontal logs interlocked at the corners by notching. Logs may be round, squared or hewn to other shapes, either handcrafted or milled. The term " log cabin" generally refers to a sm ...

timber-framing Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

and building stone methods of construction. It is especially common in the region running from

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. S ...

through

Upper Lusatia Upper Lusatia (german: Oberlausitz ; hsb, Hornja Łužica ; dsb, Górna Łužyca; szl, Gōrnŏ Łużyca; pl, Łużyce Górne or ''Milsko''; cz, Horní Lužice) is a historical region in Germany and Poland. Along with Lower Lusatia to t ...

and North Bohemia and into

Saxon Switzerland Saxon Switzerland (german: Sächsische Schweiz) 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 Sand ...

, 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 A hallway or corridor is an interior space in a building that is used to connect other rooms. Hallways are generally long and narrow. Hallways must be sufficiently wide to ensure buildings can be evacuated during a fire, and to allow people i ...

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 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 (''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 Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

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 Upper Sorbian language, Sorbian ''Šěrachów'', in Czech language, Czech ''Šerachov'') is a town and a former municipality in the Bautzen (district), district of Bautzen in Saxony in Germany. Since 1 January 2011, it is part of ...

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