The demand for wood has increased in recent years due to new technical possibilities and environmental concerns. This paper provides an analysis of the factors that affect the use of wood in the construction sector, and an assessment of their importance in individual countries and for groups of stakeholders. The study covers the technical, societal, political, economic, and gender aspects of wood construction, with the aim of increasing global understanding regarding national differences, the current situation, and the potential for further development. The subject was investigated using a survey, and the most important opportunities for and barriers to growth in the use of wood in the construction sector were selected, following a statistical analysis. The results indicate strong regional and cultural differences regarding the acceptance of some of the opportunities and barriers related to the development of wood construction. The findings indicate that there is a need to promote wood construction based on its technical and economic benefits rather than its societal ones. On the other hand, the current societal barriers should be addressed as a priority, together with the establishment of common and harmonized policies. The results of this study, therefore, will contribute to the generation of regional-sensitive information that can be useful for policymakers when updating the building codes in their individual countries.

The aim of this work is to investigate the origin of the piezochromism and thermochromism exhibited by the copper oxide ${\mathrm{CuMoO}}_4.$ These optical phenomena are associated with structural phase transition (PT) from the triclinic $\alpha$ (green) modification to the $\gamma$ (brownish-red) modification. The variation of the optical-absorption spectrum with pressure and temperature indicates that the piezochromic and thermochromic transitions can be reached from ambient conditions either by applying pressure at 2.5 kbar or by cooling at $T=200\mathrm{}\hspace{0.5em}\mathrm{K}.$ We show that the change of color at the $\overrightarrow{\alpha }\gamma \hspace{0.5em}\mathrm{PT}$ is due to the broadening of the first ${\mathrm{O}}^{2-}\to {\mathrm{Cu}}^{2+}$ charge-transfer band, and the disappearance of an intense peak at 1.49 eV, related to the presence of pyramidal ${\mathrm{CuO}}_5$ complexes in $\alpha -{\mathrm{CuMoO}}_4.$ The measured oscillator strength suggests that this peak corresponds to the $\overrightarrow{e}{b}_1$ crystal-field transition within ${\mathrm{CuO}}_5$ rather than to an ${\mathrm{O}}^{2-}\to {\mathrm{Cu}}^{2+}$ charge-transfer band. The correlation between optical and structural properties performed in this work confirms this interpretation, and also explains the strong dichroism exhibited by the crystal in the high-pressure $\gamma -\mathrm{}{\mathrm{CuMoO}}_4$ modification.