Timber constructions of the 19th century have hitherto received little attention, although timber continued to be employed a lot at least until the early 20th century. Even for buildings exposed to a high fire hazard, timber remained the most common construction material. New building types such as railway stations, riding halls, or theatres frequently required wide-span roofs; together with the dwindling supply of timber and the influence of neo-classical architecture (calling for low-pitched roofs), this forced German architects and carpenters to move away from the classical "liegender Stuhl" constructions (having a reputation of being extremely timber-consuming) and to try purlin roofs and other new structures. It was hoped that the new construction types would require less timber and would therefore save money and reduce the risk of fire. This present work is based on the in-depth analysis of a representative sample of existing 19th century timber roofs, as well as on the evaluation of contemporary printed sources. The rapidly growing technical literature enabled the transmission of new models of roof trusses far beyond traditional established ways of knowledge transfer by travelling workmen and architects. The present study attempts a typological classification of the most common 19th century timber roof trusses and thus provides a framework for the assessment of 19th century architectural heritage with respect to construction. Among the experiments in structure, the development of curved board roofs and the growing use of iron in timber trusses receive special attention. The study includes a comprehensive catalogue with survey drawings and descriptions of all case studies which have been analyzed in the project.    «

Timber constructions of the 19th century have hitherto received little attention, although timber continued to be employed a lot at least until the early 20th century. Even for buildings exposed to a high fire hazard, timber remained the most common construction material. New building types such as railway stations, riding halls, or theatres frequently required wide-span roofs; together with the dwindling supply of timber and the influence of neo-classical architecture (calling for low-pitched...    »