Timber Frame Design
Timber frame design offers unparalleled potential for getting character and beauty into your timber framed home, extension or public building. You’ll find you have the opportunity to infuse that sense of playfulness and informality which is so often missing from conventional builds.
Split levels, mezzanines, floor to ceiling glazing, breathtaking roof spaces, open living spaces, balconies, verandahs: it is reassuring to know that wherever your imagination takes you, our timber frame designers can come with you on that journey. We have a range of styles, techniques and materials to help you achieve what you want and make your design expressive of you.
Your Design Process
The design process starts with you – with your tastes and aspirations. We encourage you to think carefully about the look, feel and aesthetic of the building you are ultimately trying to achieve. This process is crucial to being able to give a clear brief and ensure you get the impact you want.
Look at our project gallery, build a Pinterest board, think about the buildings which have inspired you in the past; sometimes it’s about the small things, the details. We are here to help you, so come and see us early on. We can help you to shape your understanding and ideas and guide you as to what is possible.
Want to know more? Contact us to talk through any ideas.
The Design Team
When building a timber frame, the overall design of the building will be dependent on the design of the structural timber frame, so the two things need to be done hand in hand.
Designing the structural frame is a specialist area and is undertaken by our timber frame designers, while the architect is concerned with the whole build.
The core design team is usually made up of you, your architect and our frame designer, all working closely together to help the final design develop.
The Language of Framing
The frame is a primary structural element of your build. It carries the weight of the roof and floors down to the foundations. Therefore, the position of the primary posts is one of the fundamental considerations.
Usually, the frame is visible inside the building and so these posts can either form part of the partition walls or be freestanding. They will have an impact on the layout of the rooms and should be thought about early on.
There are strong precedences for the combination of timber sections, trusses, spans and spacings which have formed over the years into common practices – what you might call the rhythm & language of framing. Many of these details and conventions were established in medieval times.
These conventions are used to inform sketch designs, an understanding of this helps to develop a sketch scheme at the early stages which is sympathetic to being built with a timber frame. This common language is referred to as ‘traditional’ design, and following these established principles is often the most straightforward and most cost-effective route. There are many other possibilities if you want to get creative. We can work closely with your architect and engineer to develop unique designs.
All of our work is bespoke; we can help you design your frame whatever your ambitions are.
Contact us to discuss your project in more detail
