Hacker News Reader

Were I'm from NO building is made of wood period.

I don't get why Americans pay top dollars for "houses" made of wood, plastic, etc, and with crappy construction (I've lived in several all around the US).

I'd take EU-style bricks, concrete, stones, etc any day of the week.

View on HN

Where I'm from we have earthquakes.

Which is orthogonal.

No it's not. For example, the vast majority of 1-2 storey buildings in New Zealand have wooden framing, because it allows seismic resistance at a relatively low cost.

Most people that died in the Christchurch earthquake a couple of years ago were killed by falling bricks and stone, and a couple of collapsed concrete block buildings.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com