I.13.4
FIREPLACES AND LOUVERS
The primary device for heating the guest and service
buildings of the Plan of St. Gall, as will be shown later,[269]
is
an open hearth (locus foci) located in the exact center of the
house; above it in the ridge is a lantern or louver (testu)
for the escape of smoke and for light and air. In most of the
larger houses these two devices are entered very carefully;
but in some they are omitted, most conspicuously so in the
workshops of the wheelwrights and coopers, and the workshops
of the goldsmiths, blacksmiths, and fullers. Again, I
do not think that these are oversights. Rather they stem
from the draftsman's desire to avoid endless reiteration of a
feature that had been clearly established in all of the truly
important houses of the Plan, and could, therefore, be
taken for granted, the more so in installations where fire
was needed not only for warmth, but also for professional
reasons.
