This report is a publication of the European Network COST Action CA20139 “Holistic design of taller timber buildings – HELEN”, established with the aim to “work towards optimized holistic approaches to improve the performance of taller timber buildings and to widen their competitiveness and use across the EU and rest of the world” (https://cahelen.eu/). The activities conducted in the first year of the Action by the Working Group (WG) 3 – Accidental load situations – are summarized in this document in the form of a state-of-the-art report (STAR) regarding design, analysis and construction methods of taller timber buildings subjected to load situations due to earthquake, fire and blast. The report is the result of a deep review of scientific literature, international projects, national regulations, design guidelines, as well as case studies. Particular attention has been paid to the potential interactions with other fields of design and to the efforts made in the recent years to overcome the limitations for the progress in the construction market of timber buildings under seismic, fire and blast loads. The information collected in this STAR document represent the starting point of discussion to identify solutions, research targets, methods and resources for the future of taller timber buildings under seismic, fire and blast loads following a holistic design approach. Three different sub-groups (SGs) have been defined for WG3 STAR activities, namely SG1 – Seismic Loads, SG2 – Fire and SG3 – Blast. For each SG, different subtopics have been analysed and discussed. This report is structured into three parts. Part 1 includes the review conducted by SG1 on the seismic design and seismic analysis of taller timber buildings and consist of seven documents. The review regarding the fire design situations is summarized in Part 2 through four documents. Part 3, composed of four documents, addresses the review of current knowledge on blast design of timber buildings.
