The Use of Structural Timber in Europe: An Overview on Recent Developments

Abstract

The prerogatives of sustainability, excellent strength-to-weight ratio and high prefabrication level, make the structural timber as a highly performant construction material widely used in Europe for new constructions or for retrofitting the existing ones. The recent development of structural timber was due to the introduction of engineered wood products that gave the possibility to realize buildings for residential and commercial destinations, also in seismic-prone areas. Moreover, in the light of the Next Generation EU Plan -released be the European Parliament as aid to the economy recovery following the covid-19 pandemic -which introduced the concept of green transition to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, timber surely occupies a prominent place among the building materials. This paper deals with an insight on the use of timber in Europe as sustainable, green, and highly seismic and energetic performant construction material. The aim is that of providing a comprehensive overview on the state-of-art and highlighting recent advancements and future trends both in research field and engineering practice in Europe. Particular emphasis is paid to (i) new timber-based products and/or subassemblies used for low, medium and high-rise seismicresistant constructions; (ii) timber-based solution for combined seismic and energetic retrofit of existing masonry and reinforced concrete buildings; (iii) new prospective of short chains to improve life cycle of material and its impact on environment, (iv) codes and guidelines. The peculiarities of each topic treated are discussed in detail.