Monday, August 1, 2022

Where's the front door?

 


It’s almost 700 years old and has spent each of those years balanced on a narrow corbelled wall. The Eschif in Périgueux, France was a lookout for a toll bridge. It’s an oak timber frame building with wattle & daub infill built in 1347.

11 comments:

  1. I was represented by Wattle & Daub for a mopery w/associated creeping charge I accrued years ago.

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  2. I'm guessing there is a floor hatch accessed by a ladder on the other side ? Paving seems to be on the opposite side of building. Some pretty fancy architecture for the purpose of being a watch tower.

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  3. Bilateral cantilever, of course.
    The front door is, obviously, on the front of the structure.

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  4. Lotsa folks in KY probably wishing they had this construction down there too. Sad that most probably do not have flood insurance and/or the weasel companies will find a way to not disburse.

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    1. Flood insurance is usually pretty explicit. If the water is falling from the sky or an object makes a hole in the building envelope allowing water to enter, then it is usually covered by the policy. If the water is already on ground and rises up into structure (or a pipe bursts inside the building), then flood insurance covers it. I think that is how it works.

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  5. This picture is of the back. The door is above the masonry at the other end of the foundation wall. Perhaps ladder access or a removed external staircase serviced that door.

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  6. If this structure existed in San Francisco there would only be a back door.

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  7. I'm still not entirely clear on how you enter the building but here's a photo from another angle. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:L%27eschif_de_Creyssac.jpg

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  8. There are many architectural oddities in Europe because of how tax codes were written. In some cases, the taxes were assessed on the dimensions of the foundation at ground level. That would make this a very efficient structure.

    Port-taxes had a similar impact on maritime design with port-taxes being assessed on one of the top decks or the water-line...resulting in tumble home and multiple, flying decks.

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  9. Not earthquake country, I assume.

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