History EDU of the Timber Framed House (English)

Half-timbered, a wooden frame, consisting of a frame of intersecting beams and supports, often reinforced with diagonal struts. The quadrilateral or triangular compartments thus formed are filled in (out-tacked) with masonry or clay-lime wickerwork. Building with half-timbered was a way to save wood. Diagonal stiffeners are really only needed in the corners, but it was fashionable to put them in almost every compartment.

The half-timbered house probably first appeared in the Mediterranean area. Half-timbered houses from Roman times have been found, for example, in Pompeii. During the Middle Ages, half-timbered houses began to appear in Central Europe and spread from there to England and Scandinavia. Its competitiveness lay primarily in the reduced consumption of wood.

In Sweden as it was before the border changes of 1658 and 1645, there was virtually no half-timbered construction in the countryside. Skåne and Denmark differed greatly from the Swedish wooden house tradition and it was with the incorporation of the old eastern Danish provinces that Sweden acquired a tradition of half-timbered buildings.

However, in some of the Swedish cities along the east coast up to Stockholm, there were occasional half-timbered houses even before the 17th century.

Half-timbered buildings continued to be the dominant building method on the plains of Skåne until the 19th century opened up for new styles and materials in house construction. Half-timbered buildings then came to be seen as a sign of poverty and many half-timbered houses were given a plastered facade or demolished to be replaced by houses built of stone in the inner city centers.