> I find it wild that many “low performance” suburban homes are still largely built using similar ideas as 100+ years ago. First reaction: the homes are solvin

> I find it wild that many “low performance” suburban homes are still largely built using similar ideas as 100+ years ago. First reaction: the homes are solving the same issue (somewhere to keep people warm safe and dry), so the solutions will look similar. Second thought: Almost none of the actual technology in a modern home is the same as a hundred years ago, from insulation to ventilation, even down to fundamental structure - balloon framing became platform framing, tongue and groove sheathing became plywood, wood shingles that would need to be scraped and painted every half dozen years became one of a dozen products that'll last a quarter century without maintenance easily. A stick framed house a hundred years ago would be lucky to have crumpled paper in the cavity as insulation. Communications cable, high R-value insulation, air exchange with heat recovery, water and waste plumbing, electrical, multi-layer building envelopes, water-tight foundations, ... the list could go on and on, but a house built today is vastly more efficient and useful than one built a hundred years ago. (If you're looking on the market, most hundred year homes will have had all or most of these features added over the decades, at much higher expense) > it seems to me that an interlocking LEGO style brick would make things go up so much faster and cheaper…or at least make DIY more possible If you told me I should make a house out of some sort of brick-style product, all I would see is a hundred joints where water could get in and cause issues. I'm not going to do it unless the product has been on the market and heavily used for decades.