Why Heavy Timber Is the Future of Design and Construction
The Evolution of a Proven Building Method
Sponsored by Mid-Atlantic Timberframes
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While traditional timber framing was an ideal building method for thousands of years, it fell out of favor briefly as steel, concrete, and stick-built methods emerged. Today, this time-tested technique for creating durable and beautiful structures has come roaring back into fashion. The cause is a confluence of factors: An aesthetic desire for the old-world honesty of timber framing, the human need to connect with natural elements, the demand for stronger buildings to withstand harsh seismic and climatic events, the development of computer-assisted design and machining, advances in engineering and structural analysis, and the environmental need to return to the only renewable building material: wood.
This course shows the evolution of timber-framed structures from more than 1,000 years ago, to their return to the scene a few decades ago, to their current blend of old-world sensibility with state-of-the art production in a controlled environment. Timber framing has come full circle.
Photo courtesy of Jana Bannan
Originally published in ASSEMBLY
Originally published in July 2022
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
- Discuss the history and evolution of heavy timber framing as a sustainable building method.
- Identify the modern benefits of designing and building with heavy timber such as biophilia, sustainability, value, embodied carbon, thermal performance, structural performance, and fire resistance.
- Describe the process of heavy timber framing including designing with assistance from the heavy timber company, engineering, and construction perspectives for both residential and commercial applications.
- Identify timber-related technology, automation, and the future of the heavy timber industry.
- Discuss several projects where heavy timber satisfied program needs for aesthetics, engineering capabilities, sustainability, and other factors.
