HALF-TIMBER WORK, in architecture, a type of con struction in which the spaces between structural timber members, such as posts, girts, beams, braces, etc., are filled in with lath and plaster, wattle and daub, or brick work, leaving the structural members exposed to view, either outside or in. Half-timber work is a natural building technique wherever braced frame con struction in timber is common. It is thus widely used in farm houses and rural buildings in China and was at one time almost universal throughout northern Europe. It is probably an ancient form. Reliefs on the column of Trajan (A.D. 113) at Rome show that the Romans employed for camp buildings, bridges, etc., wood-framed structures that resemble half-timber. Viollet-le-Duc studied, in 1834, a Romanesque house at Dreux, dating from the middle of the 12th century, whose front was of heavy half-timber work between end walls of stone. In this example, although the great size of the timbers, the round arch forms in solid wood, and the shallow incised decoration, all reveal a crude and tentative technique, the projecting of the upper stories and the use of brackets and braces show, already, typical half-timber forms that were to remain in use for 600 years. By the middle of the i3th century tremendous advances had been made and a house at Chateaudun, of this date, shows delicate members, straight forward design and a much greater area of filling. In the i4th century the development continued towards an ever greater free dom in the arrangement of the timber members, which are placed with more and more regard for decorative effect, yet with none of the fantastic elaborations that were to come. Typical of this work are many lovely examples in Strasbourg and also a chapel at Cronceus, near Troyes, illustrated by Viollet-le-Duc (Dictionnaire raisonne, 1861-75, article "Pan de Bois"), in which great charm is achieved by delicate cusped arched windows set between the upright posts, and the simple trusses and wooden ceiling.
During the 15th and i6th centuries, half-timber work was made lavishly decorative; not only was rich carving applied to brackets and beams, but also buttress forms were carved on the posts, and curved and diagonal braces became common. In northern France and Germany there is much similarity in the half-timber work of this period and many examples exist at Hildesheim, Goslar, Nuremburg and many of the Rhine towns in Germany, and in France at Rouen, Caen, Lisieux, Bayeux and Beauvais. In all of these the vertical posts dominate the design and frequently project markedly from the wall face to carry the decoration already referred to. Braces are frequently criss-crossed under the windows, and the dimensions of the timber kept delicate.
In England, where most of the extant examples are of the i6th and 17th centuries, the development was along different lines. The area of timber work exposed is proportionately greater than in the examples on the Continent, and in earlier instances, the de sign was less formalized and made a greater use of large curved braces and ties. The posts are often further apart. Later, and in the more lavish buildings, the use of criss-crossed and cusped elements became common, the contrast between timber and filling developed as a purely decorative idea and many wooden members added for which there was no structural necessity. Of the simpler type, Staple Inn, at Holborn, London, and Newgate house, York (c. 145o) deserve mention; of the more decorative, Speke hall, near Liverpool (17th century), Moreton old hall, Cheshire (1550 59) , St. Peter's hospital, Bristol (1607) and Leicester hospital at Warwick (before 1571) are particularly noteworthy.
Half-timbering is used as a decorative motive in many modern houses in England and America. Owing to the difficulty in making true half-timber construction wind and water tight, and the high cost of large timbers, the greater part of this is purely imitation, the apparent timbers being thin boards applied to the face of construction of a different kind. The taste of this is questionable.
(T. F. H.)