Country Farmhouse

In the mountainous and hilly areas where the land is often steeply sloping, there is a different disposition of the parts composing the house: they in fact don’t develop horizontally, like in the countryside, but vertically, with the rooms one over the other.

Nell'ambiente montano,l'equilibrio tra casa, lavoro ed ambiente determinava un rapporto reciproco tra l'uomo, gli spazi e le funzioni.	Gli emigranti al ritorno rifiutano le tipologie tradizionali, creano nuovi insediamenti che rendono la montagna più tributaria delle vicende della pianura.
Con l'emigrazione, l'abbandono dell'attività agricola e conseguente inutilizzo delle strutture, si rompe l'equilibrio funzionale della montagna.	Il nuovo uso della montagna comporta una trasformazione dell'ambiente e l'introduzione di elementi estranei e contrastanti con le preesistenze abbandonate e degradate.

The stable was usually downstairs and the living rooms for the family were upstairs.
Everywhere in the mountainous areas they used both light and heavy building materials; usually the main building was made of heavy stone and, in front of it, there was a wooden gallery/balcony.
Stone and wood are the most common building materials even though in the area of “Cadore” the house was mainly wooden.

Also in the mountain house the most important room is the kitchen, where the family meet around the fireplace.
But another important meeting place outside the house was the so called “filò”, a corner inside the stable where in autumn and winter evenings the farmers met to clean the corn or to spin the wool or the hemp.
The gallery in front of the house, called “portego” is a typical feature and it was a sort of passing through between the house and the open air.

The exterior stairs are always made of wood and through them you go up to a small balcony, called “piol” where the women hang out the washing.
Finally we can say that, in spite of their differences, both mountain and country farmhouses have many similar features: their structure is very simple, they always use local building materials; floor is made of stone on the ground floor and of wood on the first floor, the roof is often with two pitches and was thached in ancient times, wooden later and then covered with stones.
The last characteristic common to all types of rural houses of every time is the facade orienting southwards to enjoy the hottest part of the day.

Country Farmhouse