this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2026
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Americans deserve shit for a lot that's going on right now, but the "they build houses out of cardboard and sticks" thing has never been exclusive to America. Also, there are plenty of drawbacks to building houses out of bricks and concrete.
You are correct but the stereotype has a point - something like 90% of houses in the US have wood frames. What's wrong about the stereotype is the implication that wood framing is outright worse than brick as you alluded.
The two biggest factors are speed and cost. Unlike most of the world, the US expanded wide and fast. And also unlike most of the world, the US has an insane amount of forest (even more before colonization). Wood framing has come a long way since then and a well-built house is incredibly strong.
Europe had to build out housing extremely fast after WWII, because whole cities were practically demolished by bombings. Cities built huge blocks of apartment towers, typically from prefabricated concrete panels. These were made in a factory, trucked to the building site, and assembled into 4-20 story towers (8-10 the most typical).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large-panel-system_building
The apartments are small, and typically have district heating and no AC. These buildings provided housing for lower income or middle class families, depending on the area, from Spain to Russia. In America, the closest equivalent are the projects. The concrete walls don’t make for very comfortable living spaces. Sound travels between apartments, walls between rooms are frequently drywall. It’s a bitch to drill into if you want to hang anything. District heating means too hot inside when it’s on, and you can’t turn it on or off when you want it.