The Smoke Bay

A Smoke Bay is a section of a house that is dedicated to collecting smoke. It gets its name from the space between each of the vertical wall and roof truss frames of the house, which are called bays. In this example a roof truss is infilled with material similar to the outside walls. This infilled truss acts as a barrier to the smoke as it rises to the roof, Instead of allowing smoke access to the entire roof as in the small thatched hut example. A hole in the roof allows the smoke to escape and creates a draught that pulls smoke out of the house. The smoke bay can also be used as a smoker. Meat was hung on hooks inside the smoke bay to be preserved by the smoke.