Brief Introduction to Properties of Wood and Application of Wood in Architectural Structures

Abstract

Wood’s existence in earth is much earlier than human beings’ appearance, after thousands of years’ evolution, many kinds of wood are strong enough to support humans’ basic needs. Since the mid-20th century, scientists had made a great progress in chemistry and civil engineering, which made types of materials for architecture become abundant. However, despite of all the advantages that wood has got, the inflammability and mildew are the main reasons that wood cannot be largely used in the super high-rise building or huge building. The passage mainly introduced the excellent architectural properties of wood with detailed data, wood-based structure along with its characteristics and the typical wooden structures worldwide. From the current situation, wood is widely used in the medium and small-scale building for its good properties and well performance on many respects, including the ancient masterpieces. The typical and contemporary wood building structures system have shown the ingenious ideas and connotation within the structure. Furthermore, modified materials based on wood are developed to adapt the higher standards and requirements for architecture. In this way wood shall overcome the disadvantages of inflammability and mildew and other flaws due to congenital defects and acquired defects caused by environment. Finally, the thesis puts forward simple ideas on how to bring the superiority into full play and expects that the adoption of wood-based composite technology for the prospect of wood products in the construction industry.