Oxfordshire Woodland Group

Reciprocal timber-frame is an interesting design concept that can be used to produced a circular / octagonal building from either sawn or round timber. In structural terms reciprocal frame structures are 'three dimensional assemblies of mutually supporting beams'

This technique produces a self supporting roof that does not require not internal support posts.

A real life reciprocal framing project was undertaken at Hill Holt Wood, Newark that received a special award as Best Application of Social or Management Science in the 2009 Knowledge Transfer Partnership Awards. This building was visited by HRH Prince Charles on 20 January 2009.

Details of the Woodland Community Hall at Hill Holt Wood together with additional reciprocal timber-frame structures can be found in the Proceedings of the International Association for Shell and Spatial Structures (IASS) Symposium 2009, Valencia .

Further details on how to design, engineer and construct a reciprocal timber frame building can be obtained by examining Professor Olga Popovic Larsen's book - "Reciprocal Frame Architecture".

Chilterns