Timber Frame
Timber frame construction in architecture and design, from traditional joinery to contemporary pavilions, cafés and community buildings built in wood.
Timber frame is a structural system in which a skeleton of heavy wood posts, beams and braces carries the loads of a building, with joints cut to fit without metal fasteners. Its lineage runs through Japanese post-and-beam carpentry, European half-timbering and vernacular barns, and it remains valued for its legibility, its capacity to span open interiors and its low embodied carbon.
Member work under this topic shows timber frames applied at very different scales, from a 17 square metre café wedged between a shrine and a theatre to open pavilions for farms and courtyards. The projects also reach into infrastructure, public institutions and urban infill, where the frame is used to negotiate existing historic fabric.
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Modum Atelier Grafts a Glass and Timber Pavilion onto a Qing Dynasty Qilou to Make a Zhongshan Café
On Zhongshan's Minzu Road, a 77 m² café keeps its Jiaqing-era brick firewalls and timber frame while steel, glass and timber add a modern pavilion.
coletivo 624 Builds a Curved Timber Listening Wall for Anonymous Confessions in a Montpellier Courtyard
In Montpellier, a 10 m² timber and red-fabric installation collects anonymous secrets and replays them as a shared, evolving urban soundscape.
Horibe Associates Wedges a 17 m² Timber Café Between a Historic Shrine and a New Theater in Takatsuki
In Takatsuki, Japan, a glazed café of just 17 square meters, with deep cedar eaves, links an old shrine gate to a new performing arts theater.
Austin Sandy Architects Builds an Open Timber Pavilion for Community Life on a Petaluma Organic Farm
A 1,200 sq ft timber pavilion in Petaluma, California, gives a certified organic farm one deep roof for dinners, festivals, classes and daily work.
