Leading the build of a traditional timber-framed hut
I was asked to design and lead the building of a traditional timber-framed hut through an initial week of intensive workshops. I was assisted by young leader Dan and youth worker Tilly at Youth Vision. After designing the basic form of the hut and pre-ordering local timber varieties to suit the various elements of the build, I worked with participants, guiding them through the steps to cut traditional mortice and tenon joins and assemble the hut with oak pegs.
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The timber elements of the hut were as follows: The hut posts, coming down to the paving stone pads are larch, the rest of the frame (wall plates, tie beams, wind braces, ridge plate and rafters) is douglas fir. The wall framing is also douglas fir and the waney edge cladding is spruce.
As you can see, the weather was perfect for much of the build and everyone had great experience learning, teaching and getting on with the time-consuming work of chiselling and trying, then chiselling again, each element of the hut. Much of the work of timber framing is essentially making a kit which is then erected fairly quickly in one go once each of the over 50 intial joins have been cut and test fitted.