> One, houses are built out of the most abundant/cheap materials. In some places this is literally concrete. In North America it is lumber. By that standard al

> One, houses are built out of the most abundant/cheap materials. In some places this is literally concrete. In North America it is lumber. By that standard all Austrian houses should be made mostly from lumber but they are not. While lumber plays a huge role in the _design_ of buildings here, they are still built rigidly with a lot of concrete etc. Even the lowest standard house in Austria overranks even well built American houses for reasons that make little sense to me. I can only assume it's a fact of hitting a local economic maximum of what people are willing to pay for.