Clients ask about timber in almost every first meeting, and the honest answer is more interesting than the marketing. Timber is structurally superb, carbon-wise excellent, and maintenance-wise demanding — and the ledger tells us exactly where it fails.
We specify timber above ground, out of the weather, with generous eaves. We avoid it at grade, in showers, and anywhere water can sit. These are not design opinions; they are the four hundred entries talking.
The best timber buildings are the ones that accept this and detail around it. The worst are the ones that photograph well and leak in year three.