Resisting Earth's Forces: Typologies of Timber Buildings in History

Despite the fact that timber is perhaps the world's most versatile building material, few engineering students are attracted to make it the subject of their studies or specialization. With growing interest in energy conservation and sustainable construction materials, wood is now gradually gaining greater recognition for use in larger, engineered buildings. This essay explores its historical use, in combination with masonry, in earthquake areas over the past millennium from Roman Herculaneum, to Japan, Turkey and Kashmir. Pre-modern generations of builders have utilized timber to impart tensile strength and earthquake-resistance to masonry buildings over the centuries, and the resilience that these buildings have demonstrated in recent earthquakes that have felled hundreds of much newer reinforced concrete structures provides a good reason to revisit the modern-day potential of this time-honored material.