While watching an episode of Grand Designs, in which a timber framed house was imported to the home counties from Germany, I was told that this was a new idea. Timber framing is modern, sustainable and is absolutely the latest thing.
Not really though, if you think back to the great fire of London. If those buildings hadn’t been timber framed, the fire would probably never have travelled further than the legendary bakery in Pudding Lane.
Yes, but the timber framed house filmed being erected for Grand Designs was delivered in prefabricated sections and slotted together almost like a flat pack wardrobe. That’s definitely new.
Ok, so it’s probably only a matter of time before IKEA begins to flog whole buildings, but maybe that is the point. These systems have been used in Scandinavia for decades. They have the timber, you know!
However, pre manufactured wooden housing isn’t a even a new idea in the UK. I don’t mean the post war pre-fabs which housed grateful Londoners displaced by the blitz. The history of this building type goes back further than that.
