1 As societies urbanize, a growing proportion of the global population, and an 2 increasing number of housing units will be needed in urban areas. High-rise 3 buildings and environmentally friendly, renewable materials must play 4 important roles in sustainable urban development. To achieve this, it is 5 imperative that policy makers, planners, architects, and construction 6 companies understand consumer preferences. We use data from urban 7 dwellers in the Oslo region of Norway to develop an

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... derstanding of material 8 preferences in relation to environmental attitudes and knowledge about wood. 9 We emphasise wood compared with other building materials in various 10 applications (structural, exterior and interior) within urban apartment blocks. 11 We use 503 responses from a web-panel. Our findings show that Oslo area 12 consumers tend to prefer materials other than wood in various applications in 13 apartment blocks, especially structural applications. Still, some respondent 14 prefer wood, including some applications in apartment blocks where wood is 15 currently not commonly used. The best target for wood-based urban housing 16 includes younger people who have strong environmental values. As 17 environmental attitudes evolve in society and a greater proportion of 18 consumers search out environmentally friendly product alternatives, the 19 opportunities for wood to gain market share will most likely increase. 20 21