What I get from the comments so far: the pay is too low and construction wrecks your body. This implies that our towns and cities are built on the wrecked bodi

What I get from the comments so far: the pay is too low and construction wrecks your body. This implies that our towns and cities are built on the wrecked bodies of the underpaid folks who build them. It's not a pleasant thought. Does it have to be this way? The Amish come together and build each other's barns still: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_raising https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barn_raising I wonder if something like that could work on a larger scale? Cathedrals come to mind. Christopher Alexander meant for his Pattern Language to be used in situ by the people who were going to be using or living in the buildings, not just to design the buildings but also to construct them themselves. He was experimenting with a kind of foam concrete that is easy to work. I don't want to go off on it here but check out e.g. https://www.domegaia.com/ https://www.domegaia.com/ for DIY "aircrete" dome homes, equipment, and classes. "Aircrete" is fireproof (you can make a fireplace out of it) and waterproof (you can build boats out of it) it's durable yet it can be cut with a hand saw and you can use nails with it. There are companies that make and build with aircrete blocks like LEGO bricks. - - - - Bucky Fuller wanted to build high-tech houses in factories, deliver them by helicopter to prepared sites that had a mast or pole. The houses would be lowered onto the masts, tied down, hooked up to utilities, and you're done. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_house https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dymaxion_house We've got kit homes and pre-fab construction now. There's a 22-unit housing complex at 2711 Shattuck in Berkeley that was built in four days. https://sf.curbed.com/2018/8/6/17656118/fast-apartment-residential-building-berkeley-patrick-kennedy-prefab https://sf.curbed.com/2018/8/6/17656118/fast-apartment-resid... Interestingly, "... the cost of trucking [the modules] to Berkeley from the port of Oakland was more expensive than the cost of shipping from Hong Kong." https://www.berkeleyside.org/2018/08/02/prefab-housing-complex-for-uc-berkeley-students-built-in-four-days https://www.berkeleyside.org/2018/08/02/prefab-housing-compl... The building has a website: https://www.panoramic.com/cityspace-location/shattuck-berkeley/ https://www.panoramic.com/cityspace-location/shattuck-berkel... I think there's a lot of potential for simpler, more high-tech building systems.