Man and Environment

" Wheeled Fire Tong"Lower Austria, 19th century

Fire, Hearth and Oven

Apart from the making of tools, the use offire was the most important step in the developmentof culture. Fire enabled humans to warm, cook, andprotect themselves; it formed the prerequisite for theexercise of various handicraft techniques. Fire wasconsidered sacred in many cultures and the hearth acultic place.

To use fire in a closed room, appropriatestructures were needed. By raising the cooking placeup to table height( stove) as well as by enclosing thefire( fireplace), people in the Middle Ages alreadyexperienced a significant improvement in theircooking as well as in their heat supply.

The development of different hearths,however, also influenced the room arrangement inhouses. By creating a smoke- free room(" Stube" orparlour), the hearth or fireplace moved into theremaining room(" Vorhaus" or entrance hall). From thisroom, the kitchen evolved by yet another partitioning.In other cases, a separate cooking area(" Rauchküche"or smoke kitchen) could be added to the living areaand was put under a joint roof. In the design ofthe house, creating a means to draw away smoke wasalways of special importance.