Consumer attitudes towards timber frame houses in China

Timber framed architecture owns thousands of years' history in China. However, with the rapid industrialization and urbanization, timber frame houses have substantially deceased. In order to reduce the concentration of the greenhouses gas CO2 in the atmosphere and establish a low carbon society, the promotion of green building materials and energy saving buildings has been put in a prominent place by Chinese government. However, both of the number of timber frame houses and the potential of using timber, the green and sustainable architectural materials, are still very low in China. This paper presents findings from a questionnaire, shows the Chinese consumers' attitudes to timber frame houses. The semi-structured questionnaire method was chosen to explore common consumers' attitudes. It is found that prejudice regarding the deficiency of timber houses, in terms of fire resistance, durability and stability, persists in the minds of consumers. The aim of this paper is better understanding the challenges and difficulties that timber frame houses market facing from the view of consumers, thus figure out better ways for the future development. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.