Would you live in a timber house?

[lolsteve]

can i have the ground floor with this layout please

I'll do you one better and combine the bathroom and kitchen so you can wash you meat and two veg in the bathtub. Water savings !

That is some fire there Chris, would not want to be the guy to explain to the client that their project had burnt down

Id live in a timber building. From a fire point of view, providing they are built within the correct standards, they are just as safe as a concrete building and in terms of eco friendliness, they are virtually carbon neutral and come from a renewable resource.
Don't forget, most new buildings (not your normal 3 bed house...more blocks of flats etc) are a concrete core construction but almost every internal wall (and in some cases, external walls) is wood construction.

I've been looking into bamboo as well due to its quicker rate of growth and it takes in irrc around 3 times more carbon dioxide than more softwood while it's growing depending on species etc. It is also incredibly hard just problems with sourcing it and it has a habit of deforming slightly if not treated properly e.g cheap bamboo wood flooring
I haven't heard higher rise buildings 4 stories + using timber as the external walls but then this university doesn't explain much outside of 'use steel n concrete but be environmental about it!'.
Having said that I did hear from one of the lectures about the new eco friendly student village they built here which uses timber external walls and a inner concrete core for the lift shaft however they didn't plan for the wood to shrink so now there's like a couple cm dip between the lifts and the floor and some of the window frames don't line up
The current design plan is panels that can be assembled on site to ensure proper fitment and ease of construction, structurally insulated panels are an option but I just need to compare the strengths against cross laminated panels which I believe is pretty much the same thing but no insulation and more wood.

Again thanks to everyone who has done the survey so far and given feedback, this has given me alot to think over and write up about