Timber framing

Half-timbered buildings in Dornstetten, Germany

Timber framing (German: Holzfachwerk) is a way to build buildings. Timbers are the structure of the building and fit together like a skeleton. Sometimes the timbers can be seen from the outside. This is called half-timbered. The spaces between the timbers are filled with brick, plaster, wattle or daub. These spaces are often for decoration. Germany is famous for half-timbered buildings. There are also such buildings across Europe and in North America and Japan. The building method is over a thousand years old and has many styles.

Rue du Gros-Horloge in Rouen, France, a city with half-timbered buildings

Timber Framing Media

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  The market square of Dornstetten, Germany, showing an ensemble of half-timbered buildings

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  Lemgo, Germany, downtown

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  A "true" or "full" cruck half-timbered building in Weobley, Herefordshire, England: The cruck blades are the tall, curved timbers which extend from near the ground to the ridge.

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  Interior of a two-aisled market hall, Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, England

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  Half-timbered wall with three kinds of infill: wattle and daub, brick, and stone. The plaster coating which originally covered the infill and timbers is mostly gone. This building is in the central German city of Bad Langensalza.

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  Krämerbrücke in Erfurt, Germany, with half-timbered buildings dating from c. 1480

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  A variation of the second meaning of half-timbered: the ground floor is log and the upper floor is framed (half-timbered in the first sense). Kluge House, Montana, U.S.

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  Joints in an ancient French roof; the wooden pegs hold the mortise and tenon joinery together.

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  Projecting ("jettied") upper storeys of an English half-timbered village terraced house, the jetties plainly visible