Wood is an abundant natural material that’s widely used in both traditional and innovative ways. It can be used in almost every part of the building, from foundation piles to roofing, floors to structural members to wall cladding. Wood has been used in building for thousands of years, especially in regions of the world that have abundant forests. See, for example:
- the medieval stave churches of Norway:
- the temple architecture of Japan, including the world’s oldest surviving wooden building, the 1300-year-old main hall of Horyu-ji temple:
- and traditional timber-framed houses such as this one from England.
There are over 60,000 species of tree on Earth, of which more than 1500 are internationally traded for timber. Traditional architecture has always taken advantage of the properties of locally available species. Bamboo for example, can be used in construction in very unusual and beautiful ways, such as this example from Bali, Indonesia.
For example, laminated beams, like these ones in South Africa, can be longer and stronger than traditional beams despite using smaller and cheaper pieces of wood.
This has made it possible to build larger wooden buildings than ever before. The world’s tallest wooden skyscraper, the Ascent MKE apartment building in Milwaukee, USA, is 87 metres tall, while the Sanctuary of Truth wooden temple, now under construction in Thailand, is 100 metres tall!
