IN-PERSON: Prague – Section B

Abstract

The importance of wood as a constructive material is present in all civilizations and cultures, from the analysis of the construction processes of monumental buildings, the development of construction techniques and procedures that represented technological and aesthetic advances to the analysis of the homes of the less favored social classes where wood is one of the affordable materials for the human being. There is a symbiotic-evolutionary relationship between humans and trees; In the cosmogony of ancient civilizations trees were considered as beings of interconnection between the world of the gods and the world of human beings (the Greeks considered trees as the first temples of the gods, in the biblical and Muslim texts there are descriptions of trees as sacred beings. Trees were described in religious texts as living beings that accompanied the human being at relevant times; Throughout the history and development of cultures, a strong relationship is created with the construction processes of cities and monumental buildings when trees are used as raw material. For example; in the construction of the pyramids of Egypt the cedars (Cedrus) transported from the current country of Lebanon were used for the construction of transport ramps in support of the mobilization of construction materials, another example is in Mexico City where the trunks of the ahuehuetes (Taxodium mucronatum) were used for the foundation of the city (buildings and roads) on the lakes. Wood is a construction material of high economic, heritage and social value for contributing to the development of cities and therefore human development.