Half-Timbered Square

Half-Timbered Square is an original illustration set in Franconia, Germany. It lies in mid-latitudes, where the climate is oceanic — mild, wet through the year.

Half-timbered houses stand with dark beams weaving diamond patterns across white infill beneath steep tiled roofs. A small carved stone fountain sits in the square, and the summer evening light is warm on the upper storeys.

Why is the frame timber and the infill something else?

Timber framing with infill panels is what you build where good structural wood is plentiful but bricks are expensive — the frame carries the load and the panel is just weather skin. Steep tiled roofs shed snow and rain. The decorative bracing patterns are regional dialects of the same structural logic, and the fountain marks the square as the town's water source.

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