According to Palladio and Pliny, the timbers for building should be cut as far as the pith, and left standing upright in the woods, upon their trunks, so that their humours may drain away. And this first cut should be made in mid-autumn. And they should be detached from the trunk in mid-winter. But Vitruvius wishes that they be cut at the beginning of autumn, before the wind Favonius, that is the west wind, begins to reign.

The woods that hold up under water are: willow, larch, alder, oak, durmast oak, olive. And these are the best. But they must be put under the water, or under the earth, while they are green, because dry they do not last. And they will keep better barked and charred on the surface than in any other way.

The woods that keep covered in the air are the chestnut, beech, white and black hornbeam, linden, fir and ash. And they are also good for keys and ties of walls.

The rooms of the south should be turned toward the north, and those of the north toward the south, because places of regions excessive in heat or in cold are tempered by their contraries. And the rooms turned to the north, of southern sites, should be vaulted. Let the houses be divided into two parts, and let one be inhabited in summer and the other in winter, and all vaulted, by whoever can. And let the winter rooms be small and turned to the south, and the summer ones ample, and turned to the north, that is boreas or the north.

The walls that have to resist the heat must be much thicker than those that resist the cold. Because heat is a disaggregator of the air and penetrates the pores of the walls, and cold is a condenser and thickens the air, so that it does not spread with ease through the passages and porosity of the walls.

Houses should not be made too high nor too low, because on the plains the air is thick, and on the mountains thin. Therefore at medium height and temperate. And if indeed you are on a mountain, dwell low, and if you are on a plain, dwell high, that is in the lowest or the highest part of the house.