These deeply satisfying GIFs explain intricate Japanese joinery

Here’s a fun thing for architecture and design nerds: somewhere on the internet, someone is sharing super mesmerizing GIFs of traditional Japanese joinery. Passed on for hundreds of years, Japanese joinery features intricate interlocking wooden joints that hold up without the nails and screws we depend on today.

As Spoon & Tomago reports, the project comes from a Japanese automobile marketer who became fascinated with these traditional joinery techniques and began collecting all sorts of wood joinery books. When he found those books to be lacking in comprehensiveness and clarity—2D diagrams certainly fell short in explaining the complicated joints—he proceeded to make his own 3D animated illustrations using Fusion360, a mechanical design software. Take a look at a few he's made so far, in a quest to create the "complete 3D guide to joinery."

See dozens more on his Twitter account, @thejoinery_jp.

• Animated GIFs Illustrating the Art of Japanese Wood Joinery [Spoon & Tomago via ArchDaily]