Geestharden house

The Geestharden house, also known as the Cimbrian, Schleswig or Uthland-Frisian house, is one of three basic farmhouse forms found in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, built chiefly in southern Schleswig in Germany and northern Schleswig in Denmark, and also found in marshy coastal areas beyond the sandy geest terrain for which it is named. The type descends from Bronze Age Germanic longhouses that themselves derived from Neolithic prototypes, though precise dating of its development has been complicated by disputed and politicized studies of the architecture from the Nazi era. Its plan places living and working areas under one roof but keeps them spatially separate in a transverse layout, traditionally built with a two-post system supporting a thatched, half-hipped roof, with brick walls that in time replaced earlier turf and clay construction; interiors included a heated living room known as the dons, compact sleeping alcoves, and a central corridor dividing the residential from the agricultural areas. The Uthland-Frisian variant, built on flood-prone islands and halligen of North Frisia, kept its structural posts near the outer walls so that the upper story would survive storm flooding.