Spanish wooden interlaced carpentry, the beginning of prefabrication in architecture

Abstract

One of the architectural peculiarities that identify the dissemination of Spanish inherited knowledge was interlaced carpentry, wrongly called 'mudéjar', which puts together the inheritance of Visogothic, European and Islamic culture. Interlaced carpentry, a development of Visogothic tradition, knew how to readapt the oriental sketches to make them into a resource that provided an exceptional precision to its carpentry works, something that was achieved by the use of a system of carpentry squares and managed completely without the use of the inaccurate measuring stick. The habit of using carpentry squares for the construction of frameworks promoted a spectacular development of a set of geometrical drawings that contributed to facilitating the prefabrication of frameworks, guaranteeing the accuracy of measures of the various components, which once finished could be mounted without any coupling default at the top of the building. In short, this interlaced carpentry which started in the 14 th Century, was, perhaps, the first method of prefabrication in architecture.