Wooden towns � cultural heritage in decay?

Wooden buildings used to be a common European building tradition in the Middle Ages. Wood was prohibited to use as a building material in towns and villages in most parts of Europe, because of the fire hazard. The authorities in Norway did not make strong efforts to make sure that the buildings would be built in brick, probably because of economic reasons. That is why we still have many wooden towns in our country. These towns are now considered an exceptional contribution to the world architectural heritage. After the great fire in Ålesund in 1904, wood was forbidden as a building material in towns in Norway. During the 20th century, the wooden towns decayed and many wooden buildings were demolished. From 1970-80 and onwards, there was a change in attitude. The old wooden towns are now restored and represent popular residential areas and their cultural value has been recognised. However, in Norway many of the wooden towns are still threatened. The buildings are not well protected and as time goes by, they are supposed to vanish and replaced by new, modern buildings in concrete and steel. Our historic wooden towns will probably slowly change in the direction of modern conformity. From an environmental and economic point of view, the authorities now encourage to use more wood as building material, also in towns. In this paper I will discuss how to preserve and develop the wooden towns with their urban character and qualities and discuss the architectural and cultural arguments for using wood in our towns. Should we regard the use of wooden material as part of the conservation principles of our wooden towns?