Timber Structures

Synonyms

Earthquake design; Earthquake resistance; Timber buildings; Wood; Wood buildings; Wood products

Introduction

As societies developed it was seen as desirable to build buildings in “permanent” materials such as stone and brick, rather than materials such as timber and thatch. This became more desirable as settlements increased in size and buildings were built closer together. This increases the risk of rapid fire spread between closely spaced buildings with timber claddings and thatch or other combustible roofs. Prior to the advent of modern fire fighting equipment and organizations, and automatic suppression systems in the late nineteenth century, noncombustible materials were the only way of preventing fire spread between and within buildings. This is reflected in the earliest building codes which predominantly dealt with designing buildings to prevent urban conflagrations, such as the Roman ordinances reported by Klitze (1959). This desire for permanent materials, however,...