Pick a bent.

Four ways to span a room. Each frame style, its joints, its span, and when to reach for it.

The honest bent — vertical posts, horizontal beams, braced and pegged.

A central post carries the ridge, struts walk the load down to the walls.

Two posts split the span, opening up a wider, taller room.

A short beam thrown from the wall carries the roof, no tie across the room.

Four bents

Frames we've raised, and what they taught us.

Twelve framers, one gin pole, and a day that ended with a standing frame.

Wind-felled pine, hewn on site, every joint visible from the loft.

Eight hammerbeam bents and no walls — shade without enclosure.

Quartered red oak over a maker's shop and gallery.