Intermediate 12 students collaborate with London Timber Frame to stage construction performance

Raising Traditional Timber Frame is a one-day construction performance celebrating the traditional practice of erecting timber-frame buildings. The event took place on Friday 27 February 2026 as a collaboration between Intermediate 12 at the AA and London Timber Frame, a company specialising in the repair and restoration of historic timber-framed buildings in the UK. In the context of the climate crisis and renewed interest in timber construction, the project revisits historical building technologies to test ideas of prefabrication and construction logistics. Staged as a collective raising in the New Yard at 37–38 Bedford Square, the event celebrates historic craft while exploring its relevance for contemporary sustainable construction.

During the medieval period, London developed as a largely timber-framed city, with multistorey buildings lining narrow streets. Timber frames were cut and assembled on the ground using mortise and tenon joints secured with wooden pegs – an early form of prefabrication – before being raised into place. After the Great Fire of London in 1666, many timber buildings were destroyed and gradually replaced with masonry construction.

Drawing on this history, London Timber Frame has developed a portable timber-frame structure based on traditional mortise and tenon joinery. Designed to be quickly erected and dismantled, the structure functions as an educational tool that enables hands-on learning through the act of building.

 Image credit: Razi Ahmad Juliansyah Ihsan (Third Year)