Moving back from the look at a few curiosities and items of historic interest, back to the practical application of things,

In North America, we are accustomed to what I will call the 'High-posted' method of framing. That is, the posts in the bent framework that we use here are the full height of the side walls of the structure, perhaps 16 feet or even more. This is of course a stiff construction, but has the disadvantage of requiring large amounts of material to be removed where girts and other support beams join into these posts. The solution of course being posts significantly larger than would otherwise be necessary.

This method is known in Switzerland, particularly in the central regions of the Swiss Plateau and into the northern parts of the Bernese Midlands. But in the broad pre-alpine region of the canton, houses instead are constructed with what we might call a platform framing method. This is the so-called 'Mischbau'

This has interested me for some time. The obvious thing that would come to mind is that this assembly, using short posts for each story, would be less stable due to the interruption of the framework in the middle of the walls. The reality is that the stiff framework created by the horizontal timbers here -often set in a double log-type course- makes the whole assembly incredibly stout and rigid. The advantage is that smaller timbers can be used, since the resulting joinery removes very little wood from any single member.

Just curious what others think with this system. If you look closely at the top picture in my last post, you can see how this assembly works (you will have to right click and select to view the picture)
Personally, I think it is a brilliant approach to house framing. One particularly attractive aspect of this, for me, is that the framing of the second story is entirely independent of the story below, and is largely independent of the roof framing.