THE EXPRESSIVE CAPACITY OF THE TIMBER FRAME
- Publication Type:
- Article
- Issue Date:
- 2007-10-04T04:13:27Z
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Assembling for the first time a braced, timber frame as a freestanding structure, where no piece
could be taken away without collapsing it, was surely a ‘eureka’ moment in architecture. The
expressive potential of the timber frame can be argued to have led both to its development as
well as to its later transfer and transformation.
It is the intention of this paper to present the braced frame of the medieval stave-church as the
opportunity for expressing Christian ‘church-like’ qualities in pagan Norway – a part
transformation in timber-rich Norway from the established practise of constructing stone
churches in the south.
Six centuries later ecclesiologists sought medieval examples for the construction of wooden
churches in colonial diocese - such as those in Canada and New Zealand where timber was
plentiful. Several mid-C19th publications, such as The Reverend William Scott’s paper “On
Wooden Churches”, raised awareness among ecclesiologists of the potential of medieval
Scandinavian examples to contribute to the transformation of the wooden church in the colonies
by transferring ‘church-like’ qualities to the utilitarian ‘god box’.
The C19th wooden churches by R.G. Suter in Queensland are innovative examples of an
ecclesiastical architecture in timber that takes advantage of the expressive potential of exposing
the frame and the use of ‘outside studding’.
There are direct transfers of these earlier techniques and technologies through the use of
‘outside studding’ and the exposed timber frame in the work of Andresen O’Gorman Architects.
In this contemporary architectural practice techniques and technologies are transferred as much
for the frame’s expressive potential as for the pragmatic use of a renewable resource.
Mooloomba House will be used as an example to identify conceptual ideas expressed through the timber frame rather than an explanation of the architectural project as a whole.
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