Jettying

This article is about the building technique. For the marine structures, see jetty.
A double jettied timber-framed building. The ends of the multiple cantilevered joists supporting the upper floors can easily be seen.

Jettying (jetty, jutty, getee (obsolete) from Old French getee, jette)[1] is a building technique used in medieval timber-frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of increasing the available space in the building without obstructing the street. Jettied floors are also termed jetties.[2][3] In the U.S., the most common surviving colonial version of this is the garrison house.[4] Most jetties are external, but some early Medieval houses were built with internal jetties.[5]

Structure

The under-side of jetties in Germany are sometimes decorated and called a windbrett (wind board). This is an example of a jetty supported on brackets.

A jetty is an upper floor that depends on a cantilever system in which a horizontal beam, the jetty bressummer, supports the wall above and projects forward beyond the floor below (a technique also called oversailing). The bressummer (or breastsummer) itself rests on the ends of a row of jetty beams or joists which are supported by jetty plates. Jetty joists in their turn were slotted sideways into the diagonal dragon beams at angle of 45° by means of mortise and tenon joints.

The overhanging corner posts are often reinforced by curved jetty brackets.

The origins of jettying is unclear but some reasons put forward for their purpose are:[6]

Jetties were popular in the 16th century but banned in Rouen in 1520 relating to air circulation and the plague, and London in 1667 relating to the great fire. They are considered a Gothic style.

Structurally, jetties are of several types:

Vertical elements

Paul Revere House Boston, MA built 1680. This is framed on a few cantilevered beams.
An example of a hewn jetty in Glattfelden, Switzerland

The vertical elements of jetties can be summarized as:

Horizontal elements

Jetties in French are called an encorbellement and may be decoratively carved. Prieuré de Saint-Arnoult, France

The horizontal elements of jetties are:

Cantilever

Main article: Cantilever

Jettying was used for timber-framed buildings, but was succeeded by cantilever which are used for the same reason as jettying, to maximise space in buildings. This is often utilised on buildings which are on a narrow plot and space is at a premium.

Forebay

The Pennsylvania barn in the U.S. has a distinctive cantilever called a forebay, not a jetty.[10]

Mediterranean area

The traditional Turkish house is a half-timbered house with a cantilevered or supported overhang called a cumba.

The House of Opus Craticum built before 79 A. D. in Roman Herculaneum has a supported cantilever.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jetty (timber framing).

References

  1. Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. 1989. Jetty
  2. Illustration of a jettied house
  3. Techniques
  4. Noble, Allen George, and M. Margaret Geib. Wood, brick, and stone: the North American settlement landscape. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1984. 22.
  5. Alcock, N. A., Michael Laithwaite. "Medieval Houses in Devon and Their Modernization". Medieval Archaeology vol. 17 (1973), 100–125. http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-769-1/dissemination/pdf/vol17/17_100_125.pdf accessed 01/08/2013
  6. Harris, Richard. Discovering timber-framed buildings. 2d ed. Aylesbury: Shire Publications, 1979. 55–57.
  7. Garvan, Anthony N. B., Architecture and Town Planning in Colonial Connectucut (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1957. 92.
  8. Harris, Richard. Discovering timber-framed buildings. 2d ed. Aylesbury: Shire Publications, 1979. 56.
  9. Davies, Nikolas, and Erkki Jokiniemi. Dictionary of architecture and building construction. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Architectural Press, 2008. 144. false jetty.
  10. Ensminger, Robert F.. "Origin." The Pennsylvania barn: its origin, evolution, and distribution in North America. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.
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