I have been expanding the outline for part three of the Guild Training Curriculum: 3A-Historic Periods.

The first goal is to learn "The evolution of timber framing". Yes, from the Ancient World to our modern hybrid framing.

Boy could I use some help! I am looking for people to help provide outlines of significant events in the history of Asian and Balken timber framing. No doubt help would be nice for European framing too. Turkey was an important area in the development of wooden buildings but I know very little about framing in that part of the world.

I have heard of ancient wooden buildings in the Middle East but I have not been able to google anything on them.

What are the most important (oldest, biggest, otherwise siginficant, spectacular) timber buildings in the world?

Good thing that in many places they use mud bricks instead of timber framing and Russia used log construction, that narrows it down a bit!

Anyone up for a challange?

take a look at the curriculum pages 39-41.
http://www.tfguild.org/Apprenticeship/ApprenticeshipTrainingCurriculum.pdf


Thanks;
Jim

Hi,
I only contribute this because coincidentally, there was a news story the other night about a restoration - or the completion of a restoration - of what the reporter claimed to be one of the largest completely wooden buildings in the world. It was the St Peter and Paul cathedral in Paramaribo. So you could add South America to your regional list, although the building is naturally colonial in origin and not indigenous.
The evolution of timber framing. That's a big topic. Good luck.

Hey Don - There was a real mix of cultures there in Par'bo and Suriname, and there is a documented timber framing tradition there. A good article was published in Timber Framing on that tradition (as old as any of the transplanted traditions mixed morphed and made local here in the new world) a few back. I missed out on playing into a project there when budget forced a change to a simpler non-scribed design, and do wish the opportunity hadn't slipped by.

I tried Googling the newstory you mentioned and didn't find it, but the Cathedral did come up in the Sketchup 3D library which does give some sense of the framing - http://tiny.cc/osf3k

Jim - Count me in for the history and development of Wood Truss and Covered Bridges.

Hi Don;

Thanks. It is interesting to learn of a Dutch influence frame in South America.

Will, thanks for the link to the drawing.

I have had the clarification that the apprenticeship training curruculum only needs to cover the basics so people taking the training can be "conversational" about the history of timber framing, not world experts. That will make it a lot easier!

Perhaps half of my learning experience will be about education rather than about timber framing!

Does anyone know of a book that discusses the basics of Asian timber framing?

Thanks;
Jim

Hi Don, et.al.

Here is a brief story of the cathedral in Surianame:

http://woodculture-org.woodlab.org/thread.cfm?Category=3828&Thread=6112&InFrame=0

Jim

On this topic, what can be said about the influence of the 3 field system introduced in the middle ages on the development of timber framing?

Before this, people tended to migrate as their fields stopped producing -this being the major push behind all of the Germanic Migrations over the centuries. But this system introduced sustainable farming, where it became possible to establish communities on one spot for generations. This, in turn, led to people building permanent housing.

Hello,
Well, Jim, here is a fairly decent look at the inside of the building. If you look closely at the page there is even a movie to be seen. The text there says basically the same thing as the page you put up there, but maybe google translate can be of help.