Yes, and this is why American housing, including apartment housing, ticks me off so much. The building materials are crappy and neighbors can typically hear eac

Yes, and this is why American housing, including apartment housing, ticks me off so much. The building materials are crappy and neighbors can typically hear each other ("luxury housing" may not be affected as much when everything is built from concrete, including the floors/ceilings). Cities have laws about how much surface area ought to be covered with rugs to reduce noise for the neighbor below while walking. Yes, please build to last. It will discourage crappy design, it will be more forward thinking because you can't just tear it down or slap it together in 3 months, it will be more economical in the long term (better insulation than the 2x4 cardboard boxes common in the US). Building materials are less toxic. It will also buck the consumerist glut that currently affects every sector of the economy and has led to enormous waste and poor quality. Actually, that's really the way in. To buck consumerism, an ethos of quality and classic style and design needs to be promoted. Anything else should be shunned as cheap and low quality.