The storage part is the big one, imo. You keep animals in a barn, you don’t want to fuck around going to another building for their food, cleaning supplies, etc. It’s also more efficient land space wise. Building one or two levels up uses less land, which can then hold pastures, a different barn, whatever.
But it really depends on the type of barn. There’s multiple types that gained popularity in the states over time. The oldest styles were English, with simple construction, lots of space for animals, with the storage above, but with usually only two levels. Here in the Appalachians, you see a lot of crib barns, which tend to be shorter on average, and are more for grain storage than animals. There’s tobacco barns all over the south that are one or two stories, but the stories are shorter than the ones meant to hold animals and hay.
There’s a kind of barn that’s specifically built on hills so they have a basement/cellar.
The kind of barns for different types of livestock vary from the ones solely for crop storage as well as each other.
But the reality tall ones are almost always animal barns because you need the height more. You can store grain or whatever on a single level, and just add a little extra height for whatever airflow you need without having an entire extra story.
But when you’ve got livestock, especially cattle, the storage in the same building becomes mandatory, as does having a lot of extra height for good airflow. You get manure with livestock, and if you don’t have good air moving around you end up with sick animals, no matter how well you clean up. There’s modern methods that can sorta bypass the manure issues, but they have their own problems.
Even smaller animals like chickens, where you won’t necessarily have a second story in full, you’ll have a higher roof just for air to move. That’s also why the old style longhouse barns work so well. You get a long building with doors at each end, high peaked roofs, with hay storage above. The air moves freely, which cuts down spoilage of fodder, eliminates mildew from built up moisture, keeps the animals healthy (it even reduces disease spread in some cases), and you get the ability to drop hay down instead of having to haul it around.
A three story barn isn’t common afaik. It’s usually two stories, with a high peaked roof. It ends up being three stories high, but there’s only two levels. Some do have an attic built into them, but it’s pretty rare since it reduces the benefits. But even that depends on where you are and the type of farm you’re on.
You’ll run into it in different ways though. Apartments rely pretty much purely on whatever environmental controls are in place. You move the air mechanically, along with whatever heat and cooling goes on. Some have windows as well.
Houses, it’s turned into the same thing a lot of places. Particularly with new builds, but even those have ways to manage air flow for the house itself, when the area calls for it.
Older houses? Plenty of air flow. Windows, higher ceilings (in warmer climates), floorplans that allow for doors to be open to the outside (but screened) on opposite ends, etc. There’s a lot of ways to manage living space airflow. Plus attics for more general purposes than comfort and environmental management of living spaces.
You’ll see higher houses here in the south a lot because higher ceilings gave you better relief from heat. We also tend to have attic space that’s meant to keep hot air moving out and away. Up north, as I understand it, it’s more about balancing summer and winter needs, whereas we didn’t historically have severe enough winters to worry as much about the balance, even here in the mountains. I don’t doubt there’s equivalents for desert building, coastal, etc.
Back before AC and central heating, pretty much every design of houses had a solution for controlling how air moved.
Storage, temperature control, and airflow.
The storage part is the big one, imo. You keep animals in a barn, you don’t want to fuck around going to another building for their food, cleaning supplies, etc. It’s also more efficient land space wise. Building one or two levels up uses less land, which can then hold pastures, a different barn, whatever.
But it really depends on the type of barn. There’s multiple types that gained popularity in the states over time. The oldest styles were English, with simple construction, lots of space for animals, with the storage above, but with usually only two levels. Here in the Appalachians, you see a lot of crib barns, which tend to be shorter on average, and are more for grain storage than animals. There’s tobacco barns all over the south that are one or two stories, but the stories are shorter than the ones meant to hold animals and hay.
There’s a kind of barn that’s specifically built on hills so they have a basement/cellar.
The kind of barns for different types of livestock vary from the ones solely for crop storage as well as each other.
But the reality tall ones are almost always animal barns because you need the height more. You can store grain or whatever on a single level, and just add a little extra height for whatever airflow you need without having an entire extra story.
But when you’ve got livestock, especially cattle, the storage in the same building becomes mandatory, as does having a lot of extra height for good airflow. You get manure with livestock, and if you don’t have good air moving around you end up with sick animals, no matter how well you clean up. There’s modern methods that can sorta bypass the manure issues, but they have their own problems.
Even smaller animals like chickens, where you won’t necessarily have a second story in full, you’ll have a higher roof just for air to move. That’s also why the old style longhouse barns work so well. You get a long building with doors at each end, high peaked roofs, with hay storage above. The air moves freely, which cuts down spoilage of fodder, eliminates mildew from built up moisture, keeps the animals healthy (it even reduces disease spread in some cases), and you get the ability to drop hay down instead of having to haul it around.
A three story barn isn’t common afaik. It’s usually two stories, with a high peaked roof. It ends up being three stories high, but there’s only two levels. Some do have an attic built into them, but it’s pretty rare since it reduces the benefits. But even that depends on where you are and the type of farm you’re on.
Don’t humans need airflow? Why aren’t our houses that tall
We have it, usually.
You’ll run into it in different ways though. Apartments rely pretty much purely on whatever environmental controls are in place. You move the air mechanically, along with whatever heat and cooling goes on. Some have windows as well.
Houses, it’s turned into the same thing a lot of places. Particularly with new builds, but even those have ways to manage air flow for the house itself, when the area calls for it.
Older houses? Plenty of air flow. Windows, higher ceilings (in warmer climates), floorplans that allow for doors to be open to the outside (but screened) on opposite ends, etc. There’s a lot of ways to manage living space airflow. Plus attics for more general purposes than comfort and environmental management of living spaces.
You’ll see higher houses here in the south a lot because higher ceilings gave you better relief from heat. We also tend to have attic space that’s meant to keep hot air moving out and away. Up north, as I understand it, it’s more about balancing summer and winter needs, whereas we didn’t historically have severe enough winters to worry as much about the balance, even here in the mountains. I don’t doubt there’s equivalents for desert building, coastal, etc.
Back before AC and central heating, pretty much every design of houses had a solution for controlling how air moved.
Now this is an in depth, awesome answer, thank you!
I was rather curious!
glad to :)