Editing Timber framing (section)

==Half-timbering==
[[File:Fachwerk-Konstruktion-2004.jpg|thumb|Half-timbered wall with three kinds of infill: [[wattle and daub]], brick, and stone. The plaster coating which originally covered the infill and timbers is mostly gone. This building is in the central German city of [[Bad Langensalza]].]]
[[File:Timbered houses.jpg|thumb|alt=Timbered houses|[[Krämerbrücke]] in [[Erfurt]], Germany, with half-timbered buildings dating from {{Circa|1480}}]]

'''Half-timbering''' refers to a structure with a frame of [[load-bearing wall|load-bearing]] timber, creating spaces between the timbers called panels (in German {{lang|de|Gefach}} or {{lang|de|Fächer}} = partitions), which are then filled-in with some kind of nonstructural material known as [[infill wall|infill]]. The frame is often left exposed on the exterior of the building.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Nikolas |last1=Davies |first2=Erkki |last2=Jokiniemi |date=2008  |title=Dictionary of Architecture and Building Construction |publisher=Architectural Press |isbn=978-0-7506-8502-3 |page=181}}</ref>

===Infill materials===
Gallery of infill types:
<gallery mode="packed">
Otterndorf Eulenloch.jpg|Decorative fired-brick infill with [[owl hole]]s
Fachwerk 9814.jpg|Ordinary brick infill left exposed
Casa a Graticcio.jpg|Stone infill called ''opus incertum'' by the Romans, ''The House of [[opus craticum]]'', [[Herculaneum]], Italy
Fachwerk Dorfstraße16 in der Kircher Bauerschaft (Isernhagen) IMG 4826.jpg|Some stone infill left visible
Kirchhain-Niederwald 20110925 Emha 3508.jpg|The wattle and daub was covered with a decorated layer of plaster.
2008-08 lehmhauswand.JPG|Like wattle and daub, but with horizontal stakes
Fachwerkgiebel aus dem Jahre 1856 in Osnabrück.jpg|Here, the plaster infill itself is sculpted and decorated.
Timber frame infills.jpg|Top: wattle and daub, bottom: rubblestone
</gallery>

The earliest known type of infill, called ''[[opus craticum]]'' by the Romans, was a [[wattle and daub]] type construction.<ref>[https://archive.org/details/vitruviusonarchi00vitruoft/page/128/mode/2up?ref=ol&view=theater Vitruvious On Architecture (translated in 1931 from the eighth century Latin), Book II, Chapter 8, paragraph 20]</ref> ''Opus craticum'' is now confusingly applied to a Roman stone/mortar infill as well. Similar methods to wattle and daub were also used and known by various names, such as clam staff and daub, cat-and-clay, or ''torchis'' (French), to name only three.

Wattle and daub was the most common infill in ancient times. The sticks were not always technically wattlework (woven), but also individual sticks installed vertically, horizontally, or at an angle into holes or grooves in the framing. The coating of daub has many recipes, but generally was a mixture of clay and chalk with a binder such as grass or straw and water or [[urine]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Sunshine |first=Paula |title=Wattle and Daub |location=Princes Risborough |publisher=Shire Publications |date=2006 |pages=7–8 |isbn=0747806527}}</ref> When the manufacturing of bricks increased, brick infill replaced the less durable infills and became more common. Stone laid in mortar as an infill was used in areas where stone rubble and mortar were available.

Other infills include ''[[bousillage]]'', fired [[brick]], unfired brick such as [[adobe]] or [[mudbrick]], stones sometimes called ''[[pierrotage]]'', planks as in the German ''[[post-and-plank|ständerbohlenbau]]'', timbers as in ''ständerblockbau'', or rarely [[Cob (material)|cob]] without any wooden support.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Glick |first1=Thomas F. |first2=Steven John |last2=Livesey |first3=Faith |last3=Wallis |title=Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia |location=New York |publisher=Routledge |date=2005 |page=229 |isbn=0415969301}}</ref> The wall surfaces on the interior were often "ceiled" with [[wainscoting]] and plastered for [[thermal insulation|warmth]] and appearance.

Brick infill sometimes called [[brick nog|nogging]] became the standard infill after the manufacturing of bricks made them more available and less expensive. Half-timbered walls may be covered by siding materials including [[plaster#Cement plaster|plaster]], [[weatherboarding]], [[tile]]s, or slate shingles.<ref name="Pollard 2006 710–711">{{cite book |last1=Pollard |first1=Richard |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |author2-link=Nikolaus Pevsner |title=The Buildings of England: Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |year=2006 |location=New Haven and London |pages=710–711 |isbn=0-300-10910-5}}</ref>

The infill may be covered by other materials, including [[weatherboarding]] or [[tile]]s,<ref name="Pollard 2006 710–711" /> or left exposed. When left exposed, both the framing and infill were sometimes done in a decorative manner. Germany is famous for its decorative half-timbering and the figures sometimes have names and meanings. The decorative manner of half-timbering is promoted in Germany by the [[German Timber-Frame Road]], several planned routes people can drive to see notable examples of ''Fachwerk'' buildings.

Gallery of some named figures and decorations:
<gallery mode="packed">
Michelau Fachwerkdetail.JPG|Simple saltires or St. Andrews crosses in Germany
AndreasX0X.JPG|Two curved saltires also called St. Andrews crosses during repairs to a building in Germany: The infill has been removed.
Wilder Mann Figur.JPG|Several forms of 'man' figures are found in Germany; this one is called a 'wild man'.
Epp-alemann-weibl.jpg|A figure called an Alemannic woman
AB Steingasse 9.JPG|Wild man (center), half-man (at the corners)
Fotothek-df ge 0000106-Figuren am Rathaus.jpg|Relief carvings adorn some half-timbered buildings.
Quedlinburg - Fachwerkhäuser am Marktplatz 02.jpg|The foot braces are carved with sun discs (''Sonnenscheiben''), a typical design of the North-German ''Weser-Renaissance''.
</gallery>

The collection of elements in half timbering are sometimes given specific names:
<gallery mode="packed">
File:Eppingen-baumannsches-haus.jpg|Upper German Fachwerk (''from 1582/83 in Eppingen BW'')
File:Fränkisches Fachwerk Röttingen.JPG|An example of Fachwerk in Franconia (''Fränkisches Fachwerk''). Image:I, Metzner
File:Muersbach 7.jpg|Fachwerk in Upper Franconia often used to be detailed.
File:Quai des arts 7230.jpg|[[Close studding]] is found in England, Spain and France.
File:Fachwerkhaus in Brelingen IMG 7657.jpg|Square-panel half-timbering with fired brick infill: Square paneling is typical of the [[Low German house]], and is found in England.
File:Cruck-frame, Ryedale Folk Museum, Hutton-le-Hole - geograph.org.uk - 244444.jpg|[[Cruck frame|Cruck framing]] can be built with half-timber walls. This house is in the Ryedale Folk Museum in England.
</gallery>

===History of the term===
According to Craven (2019),<ref>{{cite web |last=Craven |first=Jackie |date=3 July 2019 |title=The Look of Medieval Half-Timbered Construction |url=https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-half-timbered-construction-177664 |access-date=20 April 2022}}</ref> the term:
<blockquote>was used informally to mean timber-framed construction in the Middle Ages. For economy, cylindrical logs were cut in half, so one log could be used for two (or more) posts. The shaved side was traditionally on the exterior and everyone knew it to be half the timber.</blockquote>

The term half-timbering is not as old as the German name {{lang|de|Fachwerk}} or the French name {{lang|fr|colombage}}, but it is the standard English name for this style. One of the first people to publish the term "half-timbered" was [[Mary Martha Sherwood]] (1775–1851), who employed it in her book, ''The Lady of the Manor'', published in several volumes from 1823 to 1829. She uses the term picturesquely: "...passing through a gate in a quickset hedge, we arrived at the porch of an old half-timbered cottage, where an aged man and woman received us."<ref>{{cite book |last=Sherwood |first=Mary Martha |title=The lady of the manor being a series of conversations on the subject of confirmation. Intended for the use of the middle and higher ranks of young females |volume=5. Wellington, Salop. |location=London |publisher=F. Houlston and Son |year=1827 |page=168 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=teYKAAAAYAAJ |access-date=20 April 2022}}</ref> By 1842, half-timbered had found its way into ''The Encyclopedia of Architecture'' by [[Joseph Gwilt]] (1784–1863). This [[wikt:juxtaposition|juxtaposition]] of exposed timbered beams and infilled spaces created the distinctive "half-timbered", or occasionally termed, "[[Tudor period|Tudor]]" style, or "black-and-white".

===Oldest examples===
The most ancient known half-timbered building is called the House of ''opus craticum''. It was buried by the eruption of [[Mount Vesuvius]] in 79 AD in Herculaneum, Italy. ''[[Opus craticum]]'' was mentioned by [[Vitruvius]] in his books on architecture as a timber frame with wattlework infill.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/L/Roman/Texts/Vitruvius/2*.html#8.20 |title=LacusCurtius • Vitruvius de Architectura – Liber Secundus |website=penelope.uchicago.edu |access-date=1 May 2018}}</ref> However, the same term is used to describe timber frames with an infill of stone rubble laid in mortar the Romans called ''opus incertum''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=Nigel Guy |title=Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece |location=London |publisher=Routledge |date=2006 |page=82 |isbn=0415973341}}</ref>

===Alternative meanings===
[[File:Kluge 2012 01.jpg|thumb|A variation of the second meaning of half-timbered: the ground floor is log and the upper floor is framed (half-timbered in the first sense). [[Kluge House]], Montana, U.S.]]

A less common meaning of the term "half-timbered" is found in the fourth edition of John Henry Parker's ''Classic Dictionary of Architecture'' (1873) which distinguishes full-timbered houses from half-timbered, with half-timber houses having a ground floor in stone<ref>{{cite book |first=Joyn Henry |last=Parker |orig-year=1875 |title=Classic Dictionary of Architecture |edition=4th |year=1986 |publisher=New Orchard Editions |location=Poole, Dorset |pages=178–179}}</ref> or [[log building|logs]] such as the [[Kluge House]] which was a log cabin with a timber-framed second floor.