Richard, thanks again for the thoughts

Those are some good considerations, let's examine.

The Swiss Bauernhaus, the large farm structure, does often sit on a very sturdy foundation, but it hasn't been so for very long. Old structures were set on boulders or foundations of random stone. Later on, they built more substantial foundations of mortared stone, this largely arising with the advent of cellars and more important in southern regions where the mountainous terrain requires building on heavily sloped ground.

But the biggest thing is the sill. The sills are huge and very securely joined together. They may be as much as 18" deep, and the corners are joined either with a heavy passed lap joint or with a double through wedged mortise and tenon (Don't know what we call it in English, in German it's Steckzapfen)

As for the final thought on bracing,

the word 'brace' works equally well for a member that pushes or one that pulls to prevent distortion. A steel cable, for example, braces a structure. One that pushes can be more specifically referred to as a 'Buttress' which is a member that acts by pushing the forces of one thing into another. For example, buttresses on arched structures such as Gothic Cathedral push against the walls and against the ground to redirect the spreading force of the arch. Mortise and tenon braces work similarly by buttressing the forces of one timber into another. (Though the word is more accurately used to describe an angled member that actual redistributes primary load forces, for example a strut under a balcony that buttresses the weight back into the walls of the structure)

Braces in many modern structures are designed to pull, for example in large steel framed structures we will often use long steel cables in a 'X' pattern between the posts to brace the frame. These can only act in tension.