Fachwerk Architecture
Thursday, May 29th, 2008When we purchased our property more than 20 years ago, we had no idea of the architectural gem we were acquiring. Call it unobserved naivety on our part, but we lived here several months before noticing bricks and timber-framing beneath the white siding covering one of our barns.
Because May is Historic Preservation Month, it’s important to pay tribute to this barn and its noteworthy architectural style known as fachwerk.
Fachwerk, or framework, is the German name for timber-frame architecture found throughout Europe, particularly in areas where timber was in short supply. Builders used hewed-lumber for the skeletal framework and then filled in the remainder of the wall with burned or dried brick.
According to William Tischler, in his article Fachwerk Construction in the German Settlements of Wisconsinยน, fachwerk was popular among German Lutherans who emigrated during the 1800′s from Germany’s northern areas of Brandenburg and Pomerania and then settled in Dodge, Jefferson, Washington and Osaukee Counties of Wisconsin. They built houses, threshing barns, stables, woodsheds, granaries and even churches in the fachwerk style of construction.