The regions that today belong to Westphalia-Lippe share a common feature in the rural building tradition of the Low German hall house (niederdeutsches Hallenhaus). It can be found in numerous, regionally slightly different forms in the LWL-Museum Hellerlecht.
Another commonality among the people of Westphalia for a long time was the Low German language (Plattdeutsch) in its special local variations. The name “hellerlecht” chosen for the LWL-Museum comes from the phrase “by hellerlechtem dag” – in standard German, this means “am helllichten Tag” (in broad daylight).