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Non-Destructively Disassembling a Timber Framed House

...to be moved and reassembled elsewhere

By Rain Noe - April 19, 2021

in Architecture

It's not that traditional timber-framed structures were designed for disassembly; but because they lack metal fasteners, modern adhesives and cementitious elements, their construction happens to be completely reversible. All of the components are made from wood that slots together, cleverly held in place with small wooden pegs. Remove these pegs, and the components can be non-destructively separated.

Thus Japanese carpenter Dylan Iwakuni and his crew have been hired to disassemble a 92-year-old timber-framed home at an undisclosed location in Japan. (The point is to move it and reassemble it elsewhere.) In this video, you can see them carefully knocking and teasing the components apart, occasionally revealing some fiendishly complicated joinery that's been quietly doing its job for decades:

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Not every piece will be carried over, of course; Japanese cedar is hardy, but some of the components are too weather-beaten to save and will be recreated by Iwakuni and his crew. Nevertheless, it's hard to believe the entire structure can be dismantled and most of it reassembled at the materials cost of a bunch of new pegs, plus whatever replacement pieces are necessary.

You can follow this project at Iwakuni's Instagram and/or YouTube pages.

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steve hassler

4 years ago

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Just wonderful. Thank you for this.

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John Whitley

4 years ago

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It’s worth noting that the demountable nature of Japanese timberframe joinery extends to the original construction workflow. The original joinery work happens at the carpenter’s workshop, and only the assembly happens on site. So in some sense, what Iwakuni’s team is doing is an extension of that original workflow, they’re taking the building timbers from another structure rather than from their workshop.

Amazingly, these buildings basically just go right together at assembly time, possibly with the help of some BIG mallets. Professional carpentry teams don't really fiddle with the fit of the joints, rework them on-site, etc., as furniture makers often do. And a tight fit is important as it’s key to the structural qualities of these buildings: rigid enough to stay standing over the long-haul, but flexible enough to handle shear loads from winds, earthquakes, etc.

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