hello everyone tonight

I can see that you are a very deep thinker on this subject and enjoy this conversation immensely

Another angle on this thought or line of discussion is the foundations that hold up the structures, whether it be one with let in braces or those that use mortised and tendon-

I suspect that your Swiss/Germanic style buildings especially the outbuildings such as the barns sat on a permanent foundation--here in North America large flat stones were used at the bearing points, making it a necessity to allow for movement--this was the norm here in Upper Canada, also a major depth of frost to deal with, heaving could be as much as 2 to 3 inches, especially around the exterior walls

You can imagine the strain the would come to bear on very rigid let in braces situated in positions adjacent to exterior vertical wall posts, and its connecting cross tie timbers especially as it slowly raised and lowered due to frost heaving year after year- the centre posts being protected from this frost extreme would hardly show any movement, but at the same time feel the unrelenting pull and push of the opposite timber as it rose and lowered, it appears to me that failure could occur.

one final thought on this subject--the word "brace" in my opinion means just that so in any framework where there are opposing braces, and as the framework moves one of the braces is "bracing", as the movement changes direction, the opposing brace does the "bracing"--in my feeble mind a "let in brace" so to speak is not really a "brace" but rather should be named another term to address its real role in the framework

just food for thought

NH