What is timber framing?
Timber framing is heavy timber carpentry using wooden joints secured with wood pegs. It is a structural system that must resolve the building loads. Modern timber framing needs to solve both structural loads and aesthetic requirements. Both traditional and modern designs can be raised in timber.
The craft of timber framing has been practiced for hundreds of years in Europe, China, Japan and North America. In the Western tradition, it reached its highest expression in the great cathedrals, palaces and halls of the medieval age. These large buildings required wooden trusses to support the roof over these large clear spans. Highly skilled carpenters invented, refined and passed down their knowledge of increasing sophisticated wooden connections needed to support the roof.
In the last 30 years, a resurgence in the craft of timber framing has occurred in the United States as people learned to appreciate the beauty and value of this type of construction.