My point about scarfing all the posts had nothing to with restoration. I only mentioned it as a basis for my experience as opposed to just someone with an internet connection and an opinion. We would have scarfed all of the posts to save the historic fabric, but that was deemed to be inadequate by the architect, Jack Sobon, and we decided to put five new purlin posts in to give the frame more strength.

I am aware that materials dictate design, but in this case the preferred design is in the North American range of English or Dutch construction, and they use a lot of longer timbers. I don't think I've seen a thread yet were you haven't tried to mash some other, usually Asian, framing "modality" into the mix.