In single-family homes, gable or pitched-roof forms are fairly common. They serve to shed snow and water, and also have been transported down over centuries, rooting them in a particular locale. Nevertheless the space under the sloping roofs is often relegated to attic area, tucked above a ceiling. Take away that ceiling, along with the structural role it plays in stabilizing a building’s walls and roofs, and also a grand area is made, one needing substantial structural members to withstand lateral forces (wind) and transfer vertical loads (snow, the roof itself) to the walls or columns. Input trusses.
Once we think of exposed timber trusses — those structural members composed of multiple timbers in triangular configurations, frequently holding up pitched roofs — pastoral spaces come to head. But open spaces incorporating wood trusses shouldn’t remember ski chalets or older barns. Even modern/contemporary structure, whose flat roofs have a tendency to deter these kinds of structural members, can adopt them. The next examples merge exposed timber trusses with clean and simple surfaces, creating modern and contemporary spaces.
Robert Young Architects
1 way of giving exposed timber trusses a modern taste is to treat them in exactly the exact same manner as the rest of the construction. This Lake House on Long Island gives each surface — walls, floor, ceiling, trusses — a consistent whitewash. With this treatment, the massive living room remembers a gallery, where items stick out from the white background.
Robert Young Architects
Seen 90 degrees from the previous photograph, the trusses in the Lake House provide the living room a rhythm that helps break down the scale of this room. And in this picture we see the most important justification for the (lack of a) colour palette: the view outside becomes a expansive painting of sorts, the colours improved by the white surfaces.
The antithesis of the previous case may be this Hillside House, where the timber beams are left in a natural appearance. This approach lends this distance a warmth, but the treatment of this structure, the walls, and also the windows has a simplicity that’s still modern.
It ought to be noted that the roof structure isn’t technically composed of trusses; they are rafters resting on beams in the bottom and assembly in a ridge beam over. The horizontal members in the middle of this photograph tie both sides together for lateral aid, where the rafters are awakened, creating a nice rhythm.
SB Architects
The distance in the previous photograph can seen behind the glass in the top-right corner. In the foreground we see a version on handling the roof structure: intermediate beams helps stabilize the roof structure in concert with all the walls on either side of the open area. It’s evident in this opinion the Hillside House uses wood for just about everything, yet always in a pared-down manner that produces the design quite modern.
David Vandervort Architects
This grand space additionally keeps lets the wood’s natural appearance prevail. A great deal of glass means lots of light and views, be it down low, in a clerestory (barely visible in the upper left), or the accent window beneath the roof’s top point. Note that the trusses are built as hybrids, using a steel tension pole taking the place of the bottom chord in the center.
Burton Architecture
Here we have another inside that covers many surfaces with timber, but the form isn’t quite as simple as the preceding examples. The trusses beneath the roof bend down in the foundation and combine into an angled wall ; in the foreground front of the roof continues behind us, and angled columns break down the inside area. Notice the turned-down roofing observable through the triangular window in the top-middle of this photograph. This is a lively chain of distances, no doubt formed and made explicit by the exposed timber structure.
Furman + Keil Architects
Obviously, one can selectively expose trusses, as in this barn conversion in Texas. The trusses are abandoned open beneath the light monitor that runs the length of the large double-height area with mezzanine, but they are covered with plaster down below. 1 speculation about this is to hide mechanical and other solutions (ducts) supporting the ceiling.
Vanni Archive/Architectural Photography
In this example, we could see a light monitor in the top-right corner, similar to the previous photograph, but here the architect left the timber exposed and handled the lower part with simple white walls.
John Lum Architecture, Inc.. AIA
And you might be asking, “are all trusses pitched?” Well, since this example attest, the solution is obviously “no.” (To go into much more detail, technically all trusses are pitched at a 1/4″ each foot to permit for drainage on flat roofs.) Paradoxically these flat-roof trusses, gray with prominent grain, are somewhat more pastoral than the prior examples.
John Lum Architecture, Inc.. AIA
Another view shows the powerful rhythm and directionality of a row of trusses.
John Lum Architecture, Inc.. AIA
And yet another view shows how a distance could be informed by the arrangement. Here the two walls with storage behind doors follow the rhythm of the trusses above.
James Hill Architect, AIA
A couple atypical examples finish this ideabook. Here is a pergola adjacent to a pool, where timber slats contain the sun shade over the structure. Notice the way the timber members criss-cross in the bottom-right corner, giving a kinked shape to the roof.
Goring & Straja Architects
This unique carport features wood (at least I believe that they’re timber) trusses cantilevered from a freestanding wood-stud wall. Above the trusses is a roof of translucent corrugated plastic. The articulation of this trusses creates an implied ceiling in the bottom chords, which makes this outdoor space seem rectangular: a box to get a vehicle.
Ashford Associates
This postmodern design shows a collection of trusses painted green, readily standing out from the white surfaces. Here the trusses appear more as graphic apparatus than actual structures, as their spacing seems too far apart, and the triangulation is overlooking that all-too-important vertical from the apex towards the bottom chord. However the effects of the trusses on the area is incontrovertible.
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