Architectures Vernaculaires d'Ariège
Analyze and description 1.Vernacular architectures? 2. Which architecture? 3. Organization of the habitat 4. Characters 5 .Climatic adaptation 6. Transformations and pollution	Climatic adaptation of the vernacular habitat of Ariege To protect itself from the rigours of the climate, the ariègeois of the last centuries had only the materials which surrounded it and its ingeniousness. The climate was contrasted more than today, with harder winters, and more important heights of snow. But the man also was harder and resistant. The research of the sun The first of its concerns was the research of the sun, of quite sunny sites where to install its residence and to cultivate the ground. And Ariege east for that enought generous. With the first rise in prepyrenees extended ifrom East to West, and of the solid masses higher but isolated from the chains, it has a number of Southern sides good exposed, the principal soulanes. First sites of permanent installation, these soulanes are inhabited since antiquity whereas low Ariege, glaze of forests, were quasi deserted. In less favorable sites a priori, the multitude of rivers and brooks dug valleys whose meanders release from the South-eastern soils in South-west more exigüs and occupied more tardily. And even the sides North of the solid masses have undulations and secondary hillocks offering of the Southern exposures favorable to the human installation The house ariégeoise is thus remarkable by its research of the sun Part of soulane of Plantaurel This solar concern, presents in all the areas of Ariege, was guided by the energy and food need, but also by a strong cosmic conscience. It is found in the toponimy: many in Ariege the villages and locality containing are the root soul (sun) - Souleilhe, Soula, Soulan, Soulère.. - The house ariégeoise is thus remarkable by its research of the sun Rare are the small groupings or insulated buildings where the exposure is not more favorable. They result from the demographic pressure of the XIXe century with the transformation of barns into habitat or the search for new grounds for the subsistence. Apart from the villages where the contributions of the transportation routes become priority. And still they in bottom of valley to the confluence of brooks settle, thus benefitting from openings in the mountains. Even in low Ariege with the less hard climate the habitat is established preferably with the released top of the hillocks. La protection du vent Sauf vers les sommets, dans les cols ou quelques vallées esposées, les sites de montagne sont assez abrités des vents froids et pluvieux. Seul se ressent le vent de Sud à effet de foehn qui assèche le sol et fait fondre la neige. Il n'en est pas de même en basse ariège plus ouverte ni dans les prépyrénées qui reçoivent les vents de l'atlantique et le vent d'autan méditerranéen. Dans les zones de plaines, côteaux et basses montagnes les habitations s'étendent en longueur pour offrir moins de prise au vent et se protègent en s'entourant de végétation, de bâtiments agricoles, ou en abaissant une toiture face au vent porteur de pluie. A farm in the hills of low Ariège, under the ruins of a windmill A small farm in the plain Ces granges à foin du piémont pyrénéen, ouvertes à l'Est et au Sud, indiquent les directions où la pluie n'est pas à craindre The organization of spaces The space reserved for the habitat is rather weak, with a minimum comfort: a common part, the kitchen dining room, one or two rooms on the floor (if stage), an attic above. Some lean-to buildings joined with the building or separated for the small animals, the reserve of firewood.... The opening of the faces In Ariège, only one frontage contains all the doors and windows of the various parts, the quite exposed frontage, as much for the houses in length of low Ariège that for the habitat in height of the mountainous zones. The openings are enough small not to let enter the cold, which gives an environment interns rather dark. In soulane where the sunny days are lenient, even in winter, the door remained frequently open to contribute to lighting. Finally the privileged balconies, solar spaces, were used for drying of some products and were the place of many activities. And those which advanced on the frontage got a shelter and maintained in the shade, the summer, the glazings of the principal part of low part. Insulation Materials of the house - stones, ground. - did not get a good heat insulation in spite of their thickness. As in good of other regions, sitting on the heavy material ground and built, the house of Ariège exploits its inertia, its temperatures internal not undergoing large variations. If it remains fresh in summer, it is also cold in winter. In certain areas additional spaces surrounding the heart of the house were used as insulation for space of life. Thus the floor inhabited of the house of the country of Foix, with the animals below, the attic above, the hay with the back and of the neighbors on the sides exposes it only one face on outside. I Heating Finally one can speak about the chimney. The ariégeois did not develop techniques of heating as one can meet some in other more Scandinavian countries, for lack of means or because the climate was not judged ultimately like very hard. Only the principal part is equipped with a chimney with wood, with sometimes a baker's oven. The chimney was especially used to cook food, incidentally to heat the people gathered around. Nothing was planned for other spaces. In old times this part was also useful for the night, or the family gathered in only one chambre.Les the coldest nights, of embers of the hearth was placed under cloths in a container, the "monk", and allowed to lie down in a bed less frozen.
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