A seven story wooden structure built in Italy was rated strong enough to withstand a 1995 earthquake in Kobe, Japan, which destroyed some 50,000 houses. Watch It Not Fall Down.
A wooden high rise in Vancouver, B.C. was built in 66 days — cheaply enough for it to offer affordable housing to students in a city ranked second in the world for priciest accommodation.1
Affordable wooden housing built in Portland, Oregon has been criticized for being pricey. It might seem so, until its cost is amortized over a lengthy expected lifetime.2
But wood? Consider the fire risks!
And when just such considering is done, it can be shown why developers should shy away from concrete or steel, which can, and does, sustain greater damage in housing fires than wood.
Have we been led astray by fairy tales in which a wolf performs a huffing and puffing experiment to determine the safest form of housing construction, one in which bricks win out, while sticks fail?
Quite probably we have.
But all that may be changing, according to an article from the BBC: Why We Should Live In Wooden Buildings
