What would be the effects on daily life if wood was unavailable?

Question

I'm am currently creating a world in which wood is not used as a resource because it is not available. People can use stone, reed or other plants, but not wood. To specify; the world is in medieval like times and revolves around big cities, with no countrysides.

Which things in daily life would be different? I already thought about how doors and furniture and such would be made different, from plants and stone, but what other things am I missing? Does it have a major impact on how people live or is the difference debatable?

To give some more examples, for instance, how would light and heat work without wood? Can fire be made easily with plants, or will it be something else? Or, what kind of tools do need wood to work and would now be completely different? And as for cooking and such, do you still have pots the same way but just all made of steel and stone, or does the absence of wood change it?

Long ago they couldn't make pressboard out of plant fiber... you could still frame with steel. There are plenty of others for heat... — J. Musser, Feb 07 '16 at 02:58
What is "reet"? The only definition I could find was: "good, proper, excellent," 1934, jazz slang, from American English dialectal pronunciation of right" from Dictionary.com — fi12, Feb 07 '16 at 03:19
What does 'no countrysides' mean. Without surrounding farmlands cities would starve. — user2448131, Feb 07 '16 at 06:03
The farmlands are in the cities themselves. This question: http://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/34727/6989 is about the same world, maybe its a better reference to add? — Noralie, Feb 07 '16 at 16:31
@Noralie do you want me to go back and edit my post on the linked question to reflect the material constraints? — Bellerophon, Feb 07 '16 at 19:55
I edited the title a bit, so that it might not seem quite as broad. I'm assuming your not talking about what buildings will be made of, right? Although I do agree, without country sides everyone is going to die. — Xandar The Zenon, Feb 07 '16 at 19:56
@XandarTheZenon, thanks, I've never been could at getting the titles right xD — Noralie, Feb 07 '16 at 20:02
Possible duplicate of Could a technological society develop without wood? — James, Feb 08 '16 at 15:12
I saw that question, but its different from mine. I don't want a technological society to develop. — Noralie, Feb 08 '16 at 15:16
@Noralie Try focusing on one thing, e.g. how would cooking change or ask what substitutes would replace wood. This would make it narrower, probably still not quite there yet but it would be a start. — Bellerophon, Feb 08 '16 at 21:07
So how would I do that in this question? Just take one element to specify, and make new questions for the other elements? — Noralie, Feb 09 '16 at 14:44

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 16 '20 at 11:03

The people of the world would survive quite well and probably be as good as us.

The main things we use would for are:

Fire

The cities have large underground tunnels so coal should be easyish to get. Even without coal you could burn dung, dried out plants or even natural gas. Probably dung is best as in a city space is valued so having special farms just producing plants to burn is wasteful.

Furniture

If the people are skilled enough with tools they could carve stone tables and chairs although chairs may want some form of reed cover to make them more comfortable. For more portable chairs they could use bamboo.

Weapons

Bows wood be difficult to make so slings may be the main form of ranged weaponry. You can make bamboo backed bows but but you still need another wood to use on the belly of the bow. Spears could use bamboo shafts or bone from a creature like a horse or other long straight boned creature. The same could be used for axes. If they are skilled in metal work then they could have metal shafts. Shields could be made from metal although this is heavy, ceramics although these are also heavy and not brilliantly strong, or maybe (not sure if this would have enough strength) woven reeds in bundles tied together covered by leather. This would be padded enough to weaken blows and hopefully swords would get buried n the reeds and be torn from the attackers hand.

Plates, bowls, cooking equipment etc

Use ceramics, they are easy enough to make and durable, strong and where used in real life.

I don't want to imagine how would cooking food with dungs feel, but it's still a possibility. — a1901514, Feb 07 '16 at 20:05
@a1901514 Which would you prefer, dung cooked food or no food? — Bellerophon, Feb 07 '16 at 20:10

Stu W · Answer 2 · 2016-02-07T05:31:29.070

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There are plants that convert well to make supportive fiber and/or structures. The first two that come to mind are hemp and bamboo.

Although I'm pretty sure at least one of the above can be burned, it's common in Plains cultures to burn animal dung, especially horse, for heat.

As for building, the Jews/Egyptians were quite successful at using bricks made of mud and straw

I don't see why cookware would be anything but metal.

Cooking fires would probably be coal in areas with industrialization. Gunpowder was available in the West by the 12th century and perhaps 200 years earlier in China. It was used like lighter fluid (and really cool fireworks before some stupid male decided you can kill people with it).

edited Feb 07 '16 at 05:31

answered Feb 07 '16 at 05:18

Stu W

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You forgot to mention native Eskimos and other peoples that used animal bones, such as whale bones for tools and structures. Also, pretty sure that fireworks came a lot later, after people started killing each other with gunpowder. – Xandar The Zenon Feb 07 '16 at 06:08
Fireworks is true; although, not by the modern definition. Good call on the bones--my list wasn't meant to be exhaustive. – Stu W Feb 07 '16 at 14:36
Cookware could be ceramic, easier to make than metal, – Bellerophon Feb 07 '16 at 19:38
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Sure! Again my list wasn't meant to be exhaustive. I'm currently writing historical fiction 15th century. Metal seemed ubiquitous in Western Europe (although the ovens were often ceramic), but ceramic seemed more common in Ottoman Empire heading east. Cannons and early firearms, dating to the 13th century, were usually a hybrid of the two: the firing chamber was metal and the barrel was ceramic. The heavy cannons used by the Turks in the siege of Constantinople in 1451 could shoot a projectile up to a mile. It required about 50 horse and 300 men to move. – Stu W Feb 07 '16 at 21:29

What would be the effects on daily life if wood was unavailable?

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