,
Svendborg, Denmark, from 1560 in
Warwickshire, England: Its timber framing is typical of vernacular
Tudor architecture. The techniques used in timber framing date back to
Neolithic times, and have been used in many parts of the world during various periods such as ancient Japan, continental Europe, and Neolithic Denmark, England, France,
Germany, Spain, parts of the
Roman Empire, and Scotland. The timber-framing technique has historically been popular in climate zones which favour deciduous
hardwood trees, such as
oak. Its northernmost areas are
Baltic countries and southern Sweden. Timber framing is rare in Russia, Finland, northern Sweden, and Norway, where tall and straight lumber, such as pine and spruce, is readily available and
log houses were favored, instead. Half-timbered construction in the Northern European vernacular building style is characteristic of medieval and early modern Denmark, England, Germany, and parts of France and Switzerland, where timber was in good supply yet stone and associated skills to dress the stonework were in short supply. In half-timbered construction, timbers that were
riven (split) in half provided the complete skeletal framing of the building. Europe is full of timber-framed structures dating back hundreds of years, including manor houses, castles, homes, and inns, whose architecture and techniques of construction have evolved over the centuries. In Asia, timber-framed structures are found, many of them temples. Some Roman carpentry preserved in
anoxic layers of
clay at
Romano-British villa sites demonstrate that sophisticated Roman
carpentry had all the necessary techniques for this construction. The earliest surviving (French) half-timbered buildings date from the 12th century. Important resources for the study and appreciation of historic building methods are
open-air museums.
Topping out ceremony The
topping out ceremony is a
builders' rite, an ancient tradition thought to have originated in Scandinavia by 700 AD. In the U.S., a bough or small tree is attached to the peak of the timber frame after the frame is complete as a celebration. Historically, it was common for the master carpenter to give a speech, make a toast, and then break the glass. In Northern Europe, a wreath made for the occasion is more commonly used rather than a bough. In Japan, the "ridge raising" is a religious ceremony called the
jotoshiki. In Germany, it is called the
Richtfest.
Carpenters' marks Carpenters' marks are markings left on the timbers of wooden buildings during construction. • Assembly or marriage marks were used to identify the individual timbers. Assembly marks include numbering to identify the pieces of the frame. The numbering can be similar to Roman numerals except the number four is IIII and nine is VIIII. These marks are chiseled, cut with a
race knife (a tool to cut lines and circles in wood), or saw cuts. The numbering can also be in Arabic numerals which are often written with a red grease pencil or crayon. German and French carpenters made some unique marks. (
Abbundzeichen (German assembly marks)). • Layout marks left over from
marking out identify the place where to cut joints and bore peg holes; carpenters also marked the location on a timber where they had levelled it, as part of the building process, and called these "level lines"; sometimes they made a mark two feet from a critical location, which was then called the "two-foot mark". These marks are typically scratched on the timber with an awl-like tool until later in the 19th century, when they started using pencils. • Occasionally, carpenters or owners marked a date and/or their initials in the wood, but not like masons left
masons' marks. • Boards on the building may have "
tally marks" cut into them which were numbers used to keep track of quantities of lumber (timber). • Other markings in old buildings are called "ritual marks", which were often signs the occupants felt would protect them from harm.
Tools with felling axes; in the green coat is the master carpenter carrying his tools including a
frame saw; on the ground, a ring dog (precursor to the
cant dog and
peavey); in the background sawyers
pit sawing on trestles; on right carpenters striking a mortising chisel with a mallet and boring a hole with a T-auger; lower right on ground a two-man
crosscut saw,
steel square,
broadaxe, and (hard to see) a
froe.|300x300px Many historic hand tools used by timber framers for thousands of years have similarities, but vary in shape. Electrically powered tools first became available in the 1920s in the U.S. and continue to evolve. See the
list of timber framing tools for basic descriptions and images of unusual tools (The list is incomplete at this time).
British tradition in
Holborn,
London Some of the earliest known timber houses in Europe have been found in
Great Britain, dating to
Neolithic times;
Balbridie and
Fengate are some of the rare examples of these constructions. Molded plaster ornamentation, pargetting further enriched some English
Tudor architecture houses. Half-timbering is characteristic of English
vernacular architecture in East Anglia, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Shropshire, and Cheshire, where one of the most elaborate surviving English examples of half-timbered construction is
Little Moreton Hall. In
South Yorkshire, the oldest timber house in
Sheffield, the "
Bishops' House" (c. 1500), shows traditional half-timbered construction. In the
Weald of
Kent and Sussex, the half-timbered structure of the
Wealden hall house, consisted of an open
hall with bays on either side and often
jettied upper floors. Half-timbered construction traveled with
British colonists to North America in the early 17th century but was soon abandoned in
New England and the mid-Atlantic colonies for clapboard facings (an
East Anglia tradition). The original English colonial settlements, such as
Plymouth, Massachusetts and
Jamestown, Virginia had timber-framed buildings, rather than the
log cabins often associated with the American frontier.
Living history programs demonstrating the building technique are available at both these locations. One of the surviving streets lined with almost-touching houses is known as
The Shambles,
York, and is a popular tourist attraction. Norwood Farmhouse.jpg|Farmhouse in
Wormshill,
Kent, England Mill Street, Warwick.jpg|Historic timber-framed houses in
Warwick, England Shambles shopper 8686.jpg|
Intersection of Shambles and Little Shambles streets,
York, England Newcastle upon Tyne, Bessie Surtee's house.jpg|
Bessie Surtees House, Quayside,
Newcastle upon Tyne, England Presidents Lodge, Queens' College, Cambridge.JPG|The President's Lodge,
Queens' College, Cambridge, England LittleMoretonHall.jpg|The south range of Little Moreton Hall,
Cheshire, England Bignor cottage.JPG|The Yeoman's House,
Bignor,
West Sussex, England, a three-bay Wealden hall house Lavenham - The Crooked House - geograph.org.uk - 234909.jpg|
The Crooked House,
Lavenham,
Suffolk, England
English styles For Timber-framed houses in Wales see: Architecture of Wales Historic timber-frame construction in England (and the rest of the United Kingdom) showed regional variation which has been divided into the "eastern school", the "western school", and the "northern school", although the characteristic types of framing in these schools can be found in the other regions (except the northern school). A characteristic of the eastern school is
close studding which is a half-timbering style of many studs spaced about the width of the studs apart (for example six-inch studs spaced six inches apart) until the middle of the 16th century and sometimes wider spacing after that time. Close studding was an elite style found mostly on expensive buildings. A principal style of the western school is the use of square panels of roughly equal size and decorative framing utilizing many shapes such as
lozenges, stars, crosses,
quatrefoils,
cusps, and many other shapes. The major types of historic framing in England are
'cruck frame',
Jettying was introduced in the 13th century and continued to be used through the 16th century.
French tradition Elaborately half-timbered houses of the 13th through 18th centuries still remain in
Bourges,
Tours,
Troyes,
Rouen,
Thiers,
Dinan,
Rennes, and many other cities, except in
Provence and
Corsica. Timber framing in French is known colloquially as '
and half-timbering as '. Alsace is the region with the most timbered houses in France. The
Normandy tradition features two techniques: frameworks were built of four evenly spaced regularly hewn timbers set into the ground ('
) or into a continuous wooden sill (') and mortised at the top into the plate. The openings were filled with many materials including mud and straw, wattle and daub, or horsehair and gypsum. 37 - Tours Place Plumereau.jpg|Half-timbered houses in
Tours (Centre, France) TroyesColombages.JPG|Old houses in
Troyes (Champagne, France) Châlons-en-Champagne maisons à colombage R01.jpg|Half-timbered houses in
Châlons-en-Champagne (Champagne, France) Church of Drosnay (Marne, Fr).JPG|Church of
Drosnay (Champagne, France) Rennes pl Ch-Jacquet DSCN1770.jpg|Old houses in
Rennes (Brittany, France) Encorbellement-primitif.JPG|14th-century early corbelled house,
Rouen (Normandy, France) St Sulpice de Grimbouville.jpg|15th-century manor,
Saint-Sulpice-de-Grimbouville (Normandy, France) (Albi)_Maison_Enjalbert_Albi_XVI°_siècle_MériméePA00095478.jpg|16th-century house in
Albi (Occitanie, France) Charpente.Notre.Dame.Paris.3.png|Framing of the roof,
Notre-Dame,
Paris. Illustration by
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc La Trinité-Langonnet (56) Église 17.JPG|Trinity Church of
Langonnet (Brittany, France)
German tradition (Fachwerkhäuser) Germany has several styles of timber framing, but probably the greatest number of half-timbered buildings in the world are to be found in Germany and in Alsace (France). There are many small towns which escaped both war damage and modernisation and consist mainly, or even entirely, of half-timbered houses. , Hesse, on the
German Timber-Frame Road at the river
Moselle, built in 1417 The
German Timber-Frame Road (''
) is a tourist route that connects towns with remarkable fachwerk''. It is more than long, crossing Germany through the states of
Lower Saxony,
Saxony-Anhalt,
Hesse,
Thuringia,
Bavaria, and
Baden-Württemberg. Some of the more prominent towns (among many) include:
Quedlinburg, a
UNESCO-listed town, which has over 1200 half-timbered houses spanning five centuries;
Goslar, another UNESCO-listed town;
Hanau-Steinheim (home of the
Brothers Grimm);
Bad Urach;
Eppingen ("Romance city" with a half-timbered church dating from 1320);
Mosbach;
Vaihingen an der Enz and nearby UNESCO-listed
Maulbronn Abbey;
Schorndorf (birthplace of
Gottlieb Daimler);
Calw;
Celle; and
Biberach an der Riß with both the largest medieval complex, the
Holy Spirit Hospital and one of Southern Germany's oldest buildings, now the
Braith-Mali-Museum, dated to 1318. German
fachwerk building styles are extremely varied with a huge number of carpentry techniques which are highly regionalized. German planning laws for the preservation of buildings and regional architecture preservation dictate that a half-timbered house must be authentic to regional or even city-specific designs before being accepted. A brief overview of styles follows, as a full inclusion of all styles is impossible. In general the northern states have
fachwerk similar to that of the nearby Netherlands and England while the more southerly states (most notably
Bavaria and Switzerland) have more decoration using timber because of greater forest reserves in those areas. During the 19th century, a form of decorative timber-framing called
bundwerk became popular in Bavaria, Austria and
South Tyrol. The German
fachwerkhaus usually has a foundation of stone, or sometimes brick, perhaps up to several feet (a couple of metres) high, which the timber framework is mortised into or, more rarely, supports an irregular wooden sill. The three main forms may be divided geographically: • West Central Germany and
Franconia: • In West Central German and Franconian timber-work houses (particularly in the Central Rhine and Moselle): the windows most commonly lie between the rails of the
sills and
lintels. • Northern Germany, Central Germany and East German: • In
Saxony and around the
Harz foothills, angle braces often form fully extended triangles. • Lower Saxon houses have a
joist for every post. • Holstein fachwerk houses are famed for their massive beams. • Southern Germany including the Black and Bohemian Forests • In
Swabia,
Württemberg,
Alsace, and Switzerland, the use of the
lap-joint is thought to be the earliest method of connecting the wall plates and tie beams and is particularly identified with Swabia. A later innovation (also pioneered in Swabia) was the use of
tenons – builders left timbers to season which were held in place by wooden pegs (
i.e., tenons). The timbers were initially placed with the tenons left an inch or two out of intended position and later driven home after becoming fully seasoned. The most characteristic feature is the spacing between the posts and the high placement of windows. Panels are enclosed by a
sill,
posts, and a
plate, and are crossed by two rails between which the windows are placed—like "two eyes peering out". However, the half-timbered houses which can be observed nowadays have been built in regions that were historically German or had significant German cultural influence. As these regions were at some point parts of German
Prussia, half-timbered walls are often called (lit. Prussian wall) in Polish. A distinctive type of house associated with mostly
Mennonite immigrant groups from
Frisia and the Netherlands, known as the
Olędrzy, is called an "arcade house" (''''). The biggest timber-framed religious buildings in Europe are the
Churches of Peace in southwestern Poland. There are also numerous examples of timber-framed secular structures such as the
granaries in
Bydgoszcz. The
Umgebindehaus rural housing tradition of south
Saxony (Germany) is also found in the neighboring areas of Poland, particularly in the
Silesian region. Another world-class type of wooden building Poland shares with some neighboring countries are its
wooden church buildings. Bdg KarczmaMlynska 16 07-2013.jpg|Timber frame architecture, Mill Island,
Bydgoszcz Zgorzelec Dom Kolodzieja.jpg|Wheelwright croft in
Zgorzelec Antoniów 84 Dom przysłupowo-zrębowy DSC 0120.JPG|
Antoniów, Lower Silesian Voivodeship Spichrz-ul Mennica 2 2204.jpg|Granary in Bydgoszcz, built in 1795 upon 15th-century gothic cellar SM Sułów Kościół Piotra i Pawła 2017 (1) ID 596258.jpg|Sts. Peter & Paul Church in
Sułów Trutnowy 005.jpg|
Trutnowy Mennonite arcade house Zabytkowy budynek ul Bydgoska.jpg|19th-century timber frame manor house in
Toruń Spain The Spanish generally follow the Mediterranean forms of architecture with stone walls and shallow roof pitch. Timber framing is often of the
post and lintel style.
Castile and León, for example
La Alberca, and the
Basque Country have the most representative examples of the use of timber framing in the Iberian Peninsula. Most traditional Basque buildings with
half-timbering elements are detached farm houses (in Basque:
baserriak). Their upper floors were built with
jettied box frames in
close studding. In the oldest farmsteads and, if existing, in the third floor the walls were sometimes covered with vertical
weatherboards. Big holes were left in the gable of the main façade for ventilation. The wooden beams were painted over, mostly in dark red. The vacancies were filled in with
wattle and daub or rubble laid in a clay mortar and then plastered over with white chalk or nogged with bricks. Although the entire supporting structure is made of wood, the timbering is only visible on the main façade, which is generally oriented to the southeast. Although the typical Basque house is now mostly associated with half-timbering, the outer walls and the fire-walls were built in masonry (rubble stone, bricks or, ideally,
ashlars) whenever it could be afforded. Timber was a sign of poverty. Oak-wood was cheaper than masonry: that is why, when the money was running out, the upper floor walls were mostly built timbered. Extant baserriak with half-timbered upper-floor façades were built from the 15th to 19th centuries and are found in all Basque regions with
oceanic climate, except in
Zuberoa (Soule), but are concentrated in
Lapurdi (Labourd). Some medieval Basque
tower houses () feature an overhanged upper floor in half-timbering. To a lesser extent timbered houses are also found in villages and towns as
row houses, as the photo from the
Uztaritz village shows. Currently, it has again become popular to build houses resembling old Basque farmsteads, with more or less respect for the principles of traditional half-timbered building. Inharria Ibarron.jpg|Inharri baserri in Ibarron (Lapurdi) Aranguren dorretxea Orozko.jpg|Aranguren dorretxea (Orozko, Bizkaia) Ustaritz Façades basques.jpg|Half-timbered houses from Uztarritz (Lapurdi) Casa-con-entramado-guadilla-de-villamar-2018.jpg|Timbered house from Guadilla de Villamar (Spain). Popular style.
Switzerland , Switzerland Switzerland has many styles of timber framing which overlap with its neighboring countries.
Belgium Nowadays, timber framing is primarily found in the
provinces of
Limburg,
Liège, and
Luxembourg. In urban areas, the ground floor was formerly built in stone and the upper floors in timber framing. Also, as timber framing was seen as a cheaper way of building, often the visible structures of noble houses were in stone and bricks, and the invisible or lateral walls in timber framing. The open-air museums of
Bokrijk and
Saint-Hubert (
Fourneau Saint-Michel) show many examples of Belgian timber framing. Many post-and-beam houses can be found in cities and villages, but, unlike France, the United Kingdom, and Germany, there are few fully timber framed cityscapes. Gretry - Casa natal (retocado).jpg|The house where
André Grétry was born in
Liège Fourneau St-Michel 050829 (32).JPG|The
Sugny House (18th century), in the Fourneau Saint-Michel Museum Theux JPG06.jpg|A House in
Theux (17th century) Lierneux Mou1a.jpg|The former water mill of
Lierneux Bokrijk 02.jpg|Small "chapel" (shrine) at the
Bokrijk Open Air Museum Fourneau St-Michel 050829 (29).JPG|Unskilled worker's thatched cottage (Hingeon 19th century) transplanted and reconstituted in the open-air museum
Fourneau Saint-Michel Timber Frame Structure.JPG|Timber-frame structure in
Bruges Denmark Timber frame (
bindingsværk, literally "binding work") is the traditional building style in almost all of Denmark, making it the only Nordic country where this style is prevalent in all regions. Along the west coast of Jutland, houses built entirely of bricks were traditionally more common due to lack of suitable wood. In the 19th and especially in the 20th century, bricks have been the preferred building material in all of Denmark, but traditional timber-frame houses remain common both in the towns and in the countryside. Different regions have different traditions as to whether the timber frame should be tarred and thus clearly visible or be limewashed or painted in the same colour as the infills.
Sweden The Swedish mostly built log houses but they do have traditions of several types of timber framing: Some of the following links are written in Swedish. Most of the half-timbered houses in Sweden were built during the Danish time and are located in what until 1658 used to be Danish territory in southern Sweden, primarily in the province
Skåne and secondarily in
Blekinge and
Halland. In Swedish half-timber is known as . •
Stave construction is called . Scandinavia is famous for its ancient
stave churches. Stave construction is a traditional timber frame with walls of vertical planks, the posts and planks landing in a sill on a foundation. Similar construction with earthfast posts is called . and
Palisade construction where many vertical wall timbers or planks have their feet buried in the ground called
post in ground or earthfast construction is called . (see also
Palisade church) •
Swedish plank-frame construction is called . This is a traditional timber frame with walls of horizontal planks.
Norway Norway has at least two significant types of timber-framed structures: the
stave church and . The term
stave (a post or pole) indicates that a
stave church essentially means a framed church, a distinction made in a region where
log building is common. All but one surviving stave churches are in Norway, one in Sweden. Replicas of stave churches and other Norwegian building types have been reproduced elsewhere, e.g. at the
Scandinavian Heritage Park in
North Dakota, United States.
Grindverk translates as
trestle construction, consisting of a series of transversal frames of two posts and a connecting beam, supporting two parallel
wall plates bearing the
rafters. Unlike other types of timber framing in Europe, the trestle frame construction uses no mortise and tenon joints. Archaeological excavations have uncovered similar wooden joints from more than 3,000 years ago, suggesting that this type of framing is an ancient unbroken tradition. Grindverk buildings are only found on part of the western coast of Norway, and most of them are boathouses and barns.
Log building was the common construction used for housing humans and
livestock in Norway from the
Middle Ages until the 18th century. Timber framing of the type used in large parts of Europe appeared occasionally in late medieval towns, but never became common, except for the capital
Christiania. After a fire in 1624 in Oslo, King
Christian IV ordered the town to be relocated to a new site. He outlawed log building to prevent future conflagrations and required wealthy burghers to use
brickwork and the less affluent to use timber framing in the Danish manner. During the next two centuries, 50 per cent of the houses were timber framed. All of these buildings disappeared as a consequence of this small provincial town of Christiania becoming the capital of independent Norway in 1814. This caused a rapid growth, with the population rising from 10 000 to 250 000 by 1900. Increasing prices caused a massive
urban renewal, which resulted in all wooden structures being replaced with office blocks. Borgund stave church 2009.JPG|
Borgund stave church in Lærdal, Sogn og Fjordane country, Norway Garmo stave church detail.jpg|
Garmo Stave Church detail. Note how the sills lap and the post fits around the sills. The post is the stave from which these buildings are named. Kaupanger stave church - posts.jpg|
Kaupanger stave church interior,
Kaupanger, Norway 2004-05-28-YtsteSkotet04B.JPG|An example of grindverk framing. The tie beams are captured in slots in the post tops. Frogner Hovedgård X1.JPG|
Frogner Manor in
Oslo, timber-framed building 1750, extended 1790 01Brugata 14.JPG|Brugata 14,
Oslo. Timber-framed building from around 1800.
Netherlands , Netherlands The Netherlands is often overlooked for its timbered houses, yet many exist, including windmills. It was in
North Holland where the import of cheaper timber, combined with the Dutch innovation of
windmill-powered
sawmills, allowed economically viable widespread use of protective wood covering over framework. In the late 17th century the Dutch introduced vertical
cladding also known in Eastern England as clasp board and in western England as weatherboard, then as more wood was available more cheaply, horizontal cladding in the 17th century. Perhaps owing to economic considerations, vertical cladding returned to fashion. Dutch wall framing is virtually always built in bents and the three basic types of roof framing are the rafter roof, purlin roof, and ridge-post roof.
Romania Half-timbered houses can be found in Romania mostly in areas once inhabited by
Transylvanian Saxons, in cities, towns and villages with Germanic influence such as
Bistrița,
Brașov,
Mediaș,
Sibiu and
Sighișoara. However the number of half-timbered houses is small. In
Wallachia there are few examples of this type of architecture, most of those buildings being located in
Sinaia, such as the
Peleș Castle. File:Pelisor Castle, Sinaia.jpg|The
Pelișor Castle in
Sinaia File:01 Chateau Peles.jpg|
Peleș Castle File:OlimpiaBV.jpg|"Olimpia" Sports Complex, Brașov File:Sinaia.jpg|A half-timbered building in Sinaia
Baltic states As the result of centuries of German settlement and cultural influence, towns in the Baltic states such as
Klaipėda and
Riga also preserve German-style Fachwerkhäuser.
Americas Most "haft-timbered" houses existing in Missouri, Pennsylvania, and Texas were built by German settlers. Many are still present in
Colonia Tovar (
Venezuela),
Santa Catarina and
Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil), where Germans settled. Later, they chose more suitable building materials for local conditions (most likely because of the great problem of tropical termites.)
New France In the historical region of North America known as
New France,
colombage pierroté, also called
maçonnerie entre poteaux, half-timbered construction with the infill between the posts and studs of stone rubble and lime plaster or
bousillage Similar building techniques are apparently not found in France Settlers in New France also built horizontal log, brick, and stone buildings.
New Netherland Characteristics of traditional timber framing in the parts of the U.S. formerly known as
New Netherland are H-framing also known as dropped-tie framing in the U.S. and the similar anchor beam framing as found in the New World
Dutch barn.
New England Some time periods/regions within
New England contain certain framing elements such as common
purlin roofs, five sided ridge beams, plank-frame construction and plank-wall construction. The
English barn always contains an "English tying joint" and the later
New England style barn were built using
bents.
Japanese Japanese timber framing is believed to be descended from Chinese framing (see
Ancient Chinese wooden architecture). Asian framing is significantly different from western framing, with its predominant use of
post and lintel framing and an almost complete lack of diagonal bracing.
Revival styles in later centuries ,
Dyker Heights, Brooklyn,
New York, built in 1899, has half-timber decoration.|left , built in 2008, has glass
curtain wall combined half-timber framing. When half-timbering regained popularity in Britain after 1860 in the various revival styles, such as the
Queen Anne style houses by
Richard Norman Shaw and others, it was often used to evoke a "Tudor" atmosphere (
see Tudorbethan), though in Tudor times half-timbering had begun to look rustic and was increasingly limited to village houses (
illustration, above left). In 1912, Allen W. Jackson published
The Half-Timber House: Its Origin, Design, Modern Plan, and Construction, and rambling half-timbered beach houses appeared on dune-front properties in
Rhode Island or under palm-lined drives of
Beverly Hills. During the 1920s increasingly minimal gestures towards some half-timbering in commercial speculative housebuilding saw the fashion diminish. In the revival styles, such as
Tudorbethan (Mock Tudor), the half-timbered appearance is superimposed on the brickwork or other material as an outside decorative
façade rather than forming the main frame that supports the structure. The style was used in many of the homes built in
Lake Mohawk, New Jersey, as well as all of the clubhouse, shops, and marina. For information about "roundwood framing" see the book
Roundwood Timber Framing: Building Naturally Using Local Resources by Ben Law (East Meon, Hampshire: Permanent Publications; 2010. ) == Advantages ==