Comments on: Precut – Modern Japanese Timber Construction

By: MichaelSJ

MichaelSJ — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 22:41:40 +0000

These carpenters have prolonged their usefulness by incorporating machine technology to take the grunt work out of traditional joinery (chopping and sawing).
Analogies are always poor examples: My son is a machinist who started in on manually lathes. Even I can operate a manual lathe (smile), but he went on to learn how to use CNC on lathes. He is now one of the few in the San Jose area who is still working in the machine shop industry and is NEVER out of work.
He could not have achieved his status as a highly respected machinist if he had stayed with manual lathes.
Gotta do what you gotta do to survive.

By: Steve_OH

Steve_OH — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 19:17:53 +0000

You might be surprised at how much the process in the video resembles traditional Japanese construction processes. Japanese construction has been highly modularized for over 1000 years, with most major components being prefabricated offsite, labeled, wrapped and then assembled (yes, a bit like Lego) at the building site.

The skills of the traditional Japanese carpenter fall into two broad categories: Experienced senior carpenters understand how to translate the language of modular components, including the myriad variations of joinery, into living and working spaces (what modern architects refer to as the “program” of a building), and journeyman carpenters are able to quickly and efficiently cut the joints that are required. The mechanization in the video replaces (or, more accurately, supplements) the latter, but not the former.

_Measure and Construction of the Japanese House_, by Heino Engel, and _Genius of Japanese Carpentry_, by Azby Brown, are good starting points for understanding traditional Japanese construction techniques.

-Steve

By: CarlosJD

CarlosJD — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 18:35:11 +0000

Matt S, Not sure that I agree with everything you said. Yes they are replacing man with machine but is there rush of people trying to get into that profession who would be affected. As they said it is an aging work force and I don’t think they would want it to die. What’s the alternative . . . stick built homes like we have here? It was these craftsmen who created this type of joinery and construction methods and I think they would welcome it continued using modern methods as opposed to it dieing.

Don’t get me wrong, I know where you’re coming from but this has become a world of limited resources. Some things just need to be modernized and made more efficient.

By: hmann

hmann — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 14:58:01 +0000

At least in Japan they are trying to preserve a building method/tradition with ‘new’ technology. Although still available, timber framing in the states has almost been completely replaced with platform, stud, stick, etc (whatever you want to call it) type of framing; and even then the majority of it is manufactured off site as panels and hoisted in place on the job site. So, while old masters may prefer to see their craft die than be replaced by machines at least traditional buildings can still be built that will last many decades, even centuries. Plus, I would imagine some will still carry on their time honored methods even though the numbers involved in the craft might be much smaller. Something like this can even spark a revival and help preserve how the work was done in centuries past.

By: Matt S

Matt S — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 09:10:37 +0000

I hope everyone realizes that this is just more of replacing man with machine. I think if you asked the old masters of the craft if they would rather see it die than to be replaced by machines, and the craftsmen reduced to skilled Lego assemblers, they would let it die. Just my two cents.

By: Eric R

Eric R — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 05:47:03 +0000

That’s gotta send a shiver up the spine of the hang tool only crowd…….
Score one for the machines.