Gabel,

I was not involved with these particular houses on the picture but many others. I cannot post all those pictures here but you get the idea.

As for the wood species and dryness level. Yes this is an oak frame since we want it to last. Dried to about 12%. Shrinkage or expansion is not an immediate problem. After some hundreds of years though the bricks may start falling out. But by then some of the frame work may have to be repaired also. So not really an issue.
All timbers have a V-groove along the face that is facing the brick infill. This way the mortar will lock in place and the infill will not fall out. As you can see the frame sits on a 6" brick sill with weep holes. The frame is 120mm (~5") thick.
Wall cross section, inside to outside: 120mm frame with brick infill, 40mm furring (~1.5") for venting the frame/brick, 15mm woodfiber insulating sheathing (~1/2") this is sort of like a MDF but very soft( not sure what it is called here) never seen it at any lumber yard, 120mm stone wool insulation, 115mm limestone wall with 15mm gipsum plaster. So that is a total of 425mm which equals 17". Second and third story walls are similar only there we are using a 2x6 wall with insulation instead of the limestone wall.

Now you might argue that this is a waste of space and very costly. Well from a european point of view I have to say that first of all this makes a very energy efficient and air tight house with very small utility costs. Also Europeans are not so crazy about having a huge house with fireplaces over two stories and "open" floorplan which essentially yes looks impressive but is pointless and useless since there is a lot more space wasted that way than having thick walls. And since many houses are still being build with brick or some sort of stone masons are not as expensive there as they seem to be in the States. So building a house like that on the picture would cost around 200000 Euro including taxes. Hope this claryfies some of your questions. If not, ask me again.

Enrico