There are some large, beautiful houses being built in the Dominion development just off I-10 on your way out of San Antonio heading west. Huge square footage numbers, outdoor pools, vaulted ceilings, and a South Texas flair you can only find in here. I recently had the opportunity to tour 5 or 6 of them as construction is just wrapping up. I noticed one thing over anything else: these million dollar homes all look very similar.
These homes all feature some very clean lines and most have timber in them for strictly decorative purposes. They have what we call "timber accents" as an asthetic touch the architect feels can add to the look of the house. Many times these accents look out of place to my eye specifically because I am very familiar with trusses only as structural components of the house. We use timbers to hold things up, not to nail to the wall. I was with a prospective customer who was not familiar with timber frames, but I can tell you the "wow" factor for them was nothing compared to their reaction to touring one of our homes. I wondered why an untrained eye had a gut reaction to wood in a house with timber accents so different from that of a timber frame
home.
home.
In a book called "Blink" an argument is made that the mind makes a vast majority of our decisions and judgments from the gut without passing through our conscious thought. Somehow, we just know when something is slightly off or doesn't make sense. I think the mind knows when timbers are used as decorations, and may think that is nice, and when they are used to hold up and create shelter, the mind thinks that that is awesome. The strength and security is conveyed to us below our concious thought.
We are working with local builders here to help them understand that what we do is more than just about mortise and tenon joinery. It is about differentiating the home from all the others in the neigborhood by tapping into a carnal subliminal desire. This desire is for the strength and security of massive timbers with a structural purpose in the place where we live and raise our families. In the home where we are doing structural timber trusses in the Dominion, people, including other builders, will stop and whatch while we erect because that home is different. It is different in the way it looks, yes, and also in the way it feels. It just feels right.
