The Asian Timber Frame

  The Asian timber frame is one of the more versatile building systems available today, and it is an elegant example of art and simplicity. Blending the inside, and outside of the house together, occupants become more in tune with their surroundings. (In Japanese the word home literally translates house garden illustrating the need for both to be complete) It is by definition contemporary and flexible. Provided you have enough property, an Asian home can grow with you, allowing opportunity for life changes. It is functional in that most, if not all rooms can be multipurpose spaces. Rooms grow and shrink with the addition, and removal of sliding panels. Shoji panels can allow light to pass through while providing limited privacy, solid panels can also be used when necessary.
   Asian timber frames have been described as perfect having been refined completely in method, its only limiting factor being the smaller size of its spaces. However with the rise in fuel prices and growing awareness of environmental factors, I believe that the trend in the future will be more in line with smaller spaces, and natural building techniques. After all this system of building predates all of mankind’s destructive chemical based materials, so naturally its green building. Architecturally it has proven itself, in the course of time the oldest wooden structures in the world (some 1400 years old) were built using these techniques. Surviving hurricanes, typhoons and earthquakes they have shown us that it is better to be flexible than rigid, resulting in amazing longevity that baffles science, and disproves modern building codes a system tailored to humanity and human measure.