Smoke house
Rauchhaus (Niederdt./niederl .: "Rookhuis"), also Rauchstubenhaus , is an old form of farmhouse that is particularly widespread in the Dutch, North and East Germany and combines living area and stable under one roof ( hall house ). Characteristics of this house type can also be found in the Alpine region, for example in Styria and Carinthia.
The architectural characteristic of this type of house is the lack of a chimney . As a result, the inside of the building was constantly filled with smoke from the open hearth fire ( Flett ), which gave them the name “smoke house”. The smoke was extracted through the large, open hall gate (Lower German: "Groot Dör"), small wind eyes in the gable ( "owl holes" ) and leaks in the often thatched roofs . Pan covers, a clay cover on the roof surface or a spark trap over the fireplace protected against the risk of fire from flying sparks.
The smoke had special tasks: The smoke drawn off from the open fire preserved the framework and made it resistant to pests by smoking it . The warm smoke dried the grain stored in the attic and protected it from pests. Sausages and ham were also smoked aromatically in this way and thus made durable ( "smoked ham" ).
The persistently poor air quality in the “Rauchhaus” was not conducive to the health of its residents. In the barely insulated houses it was only 4 to 6 degrees warmer than outside and so the freezing point could quickly be reached inside the house in winter. The coldness of these smoke houses with their damp floors was the cause of widespread rheumatic diseases. Since the radiant heat could only warm the residents in the immediate vicinity of the hearth fire, the area with the fireplace was the main living area of the residents.
literature
- Hans Koepf: Picture dictionary of architecture . Alfred Kröner Verlag, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-520-19402-3 , p. 311.
- Josef Papesch , Hans Riehl , Walter von Semetkowski (eds.): Homely building in the Eastern Alps . Graz 1941.