The most obvious means of cutting the consumption of wood and other resources is to build smaller, space-efficient houses. Multi-family housing uses less wood in shared walls 2 . Roof and Floor Framing Using engineered trusses instead of stick framing allows a substantial reduction in the amount of timber. Engineered lumber beams also use less wood for roof and floor framing. Design House designs that make use of 60cm dimensional increments greatly reduce the amount of waste generated on-site from offcuts.
Simple designs allow for less complex framing that requires less wood.
Open floorplans that have few interior walls also reduce wood use. See under Architects, Designers , in the Building Section of the Alternative Directory. The ' Australian Light Timber Framing Code ' uses 'Advanced Framing Techniques' based on ideas as in the text, above. The Code includes detailed structural tables. Also note that US framing specifications may be up to twice the size of Australian specs.