Timbercraft: Lost Tectonics from East Asia traces the structural logic and joinery traditions of timber architecture across China, Japan, and Korea through nine case studies spanning more than 1,400 years, making the case that these techniques are as relevant to contemporary architecture as they are to history.
About This Book
As mass timber construction reshapes the ambitions of contemporary architecture, this book insists on looking backward before looking forward. Jae K. Kim examines the deep structural intelligence embedded in traditional East Asian timber building — not as historical curiosity, but as a living body of knowledge with real implications for how we design and build today. Nine case studies, each rendered through meticulous drawings and diagrams, reveal the precision of joinery systems that have endured across centuries in China, Japan, and Korea. Historical analysis sits alongside discursive essays that unpack the values — cultural, spatial, tectonic — encoded in these traditions. For architects and designers working with timber, this is essential context.
Key Features
- 168 pages of detailed technical drawings, diagrams, and historical analysis of East Asian timber architecture
- Written by Jae K. Kim
- Nine case studies spanning over 1,400 years of timber construction across China, Japan, and Korea
- Published by Nai010, ISBN: 9789462089631
What You'll Discover
- The structural and aesthetic logic of traditional East Asian joinery systems, documented through meticulous technical drawings
- How nine case studies spanning more than 1,400 years reveal consistent principles of precision and craft across three distinct building cultures
- The relationship between material, technique, and cultural value in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean timber traditions
- How premodern tectonic knowledge can inform contemporary approaches to timber construction and mass timber design
About the Author
[Details available upon request]
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 168
- Dimensions: 227 × 301 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9789462089631
- Publisher: Nai010
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and designers working with timber construction, historians of East Asian architecture, structural engineers with an interest in traditional building systems, and educators teaching tectonic design.