Contents


Preface

The theme of environmental sustainability is highly topical and requires a rethinking of the consumer models to which we have been accustomed to date. All sectors of the productive world are affected by this change of paradigm, and the construction sector, which alone accounts for 40 percent of resource consumption and environmental pollution, plays an important role. Focusing attention on building materials, the trend is to aim for short chain and circular building schemes, pushing production and use of natural materials that are locally produced, recyclable and renewable. In this perspective, a great reassessment is reserved for timber, which offers all the aforementioned qualities in addition to being a resistant, comfortable and economical material. The further impulse to the spread of timber in buildings goes through different phases, such as the optimization of forest management, the implementation of an effective production chain, the information of operators about the opportunities related to the use of this material, and the indispensable phases of scientific research and technological development in order to guarantee

This book provides insight into the spread of the use of timber in the construction industry, presenting some thoughts on important aspects of the topic such as:

• characteristics of the timber buildings market and the importance of its analysis

The themes are addressed both through general approaches and through the reference to specific case studies able to clearly illustrate the issues under consideration.

I wish to express my gratitude to all the authors and co-authors of the chapters for their interest and valuable contributions. I also wish to thank the publishing process

Timber is a natural building material. If used in building elements, it can play structural functions and aesthetic roles at the same time. The use of timber in buildings, which goes back to the oldest of times, is now experiencing a period of strong expansion in virtue of the material's sustainability. However, timber's use as an engineering material calls for constant development of theoretical and experimental research to properly respond to the issues involved. The book aims to contribute

to knowledge in the application of timber in the building industry.

• construction systems that can be implemented by using timber

• the sustainability analysis of all phases of the production process

• the basic aspects of correct timber constructions design

• the importance of the analysis of production costs

best performance.
