Over on the Italian forum I belong to, someone is building a raised layout using clay building tiles. These tiles are different than the ones I’m used to seeing that were used for most interior partitions in commercial buildings at one time. They certainly will have a life span much longer than wood. Then again, the Italians know how to build things that last for quite a long time. Here is a link to the forum page. Oh, it’s all in Italian but using Google Translate you can get the gist of what they are saying, but there are enough photos and you know what they say about pictures…
http://scalag.forumup.it/viewtopic.php?t=3277&highlight=&mforum=scalag