Latysh House Layout: Pich, Icon Corner, Main Room
Although the Latych house is NOT a typical house, we chose to document it because we were able to work in it: measure it, photograph it for a week in 2001. Not many families would allow such a disruption in their lives.
The house is somewhat atypical in that it was built from the very beginning as a double house. Normally, a house would be a single main room, with an attached kitchen that would be at least partially outside, connected to an entryway where food stuffs and other household necessities would be stored. As children were born, grew, and married, additional rooms to accommodate their families would be built off of the main room. In the Latysh house, the part for the children was part of the original floor plan and it is divided from the main room by the kitchen/entryway area. It forms a mirror image of the main room.
In spite of it being atypical, it does have many features which are emblematic of village houses: a large pich, an icon corner, and a distinctive main room.
We stayed in Iavorivka again in August 2013. Many things have changed. Here are some pictures which compare 2001 and 2013.
