CategoriesDesign Concepts and Techniques
Timber Frame Construction
Building with a skeleton of wooden posts and beams, from medieval half-timbered houses and Japanese temples to modern mass-timber towers.
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About
In a timber frame, heavy posts, beams and braces carry the building's weight, joined by mortise and tenon and secured with wooden pegs, while the walls between are simply infill. Across medieval Europe the infill of wattle and daub or brick left the frame visible, producing the half-timbered houses of England, the Fachwerk of Germany and the colombage of Normandy. In Japan, the wooden halls of Hōryū-ji, dating back to around 700, are among the oldest surviving timber buildings anywhere, and Norway's stave churches rest on massive corner posts.
In 19th-century America the lighter balloon frame of sawn studs and machine-made nails made houses quicker to build. Since the 1990s engineered cross-laminated timber has allowed multi-storey buildings in wood. Look at the pattern of braces, the joints and whether the frame is exposed or hidden.