Why do Americans build their homes with wood while some Africans, Europeans and Asians prefer brick?

Eben-Haezer Sión
@ebenezer
7 years ago

This has been an issue I have been pondering  upon for quite a while now. Having travelled quite a fair bit to a number of continents and as a lover of architecture, smart buildings and the evolving modern building technologies, I decided to research this topic. And here is what I found out.  IT IS ALL ABOUT THE ECONOMICS - COST COST COSTWood has been traditionally cheaper and more plentiful in America and Canada. Especially in the more northern states of the US, where there are more trees. That great house smell in parts of America and Canada.1) Cost of wood:The USA has an abundance of trees per capita whereas Africa, Asia and other European nations has very less trees per capita. That makes wood a more attractive building material in the US than most other regions in the world. Furthermore, many trees in the US are long(pine, redwood) which makes wood extraction easier and cheaper than the usual trees found in Africa, Asia and other European that have a lot of branches(Banyan, Peepal etc).2) Cost of labor:Brick and mortar houses require more labor than wooden houses.(That is one of the reasons why people build big buildings with glass panels on the outside: saves labor). Africa, Parts of Europe and most of Asia has cheaper labor and thus brick houses are not that costly. WEATHER & INSULATIONIn the US, wooden houses offers insulation. Even if one builds brick and mortar houses, one has to put layers of wood on the inside for insulation. Thus making everything out of wood seems the natural choice.Fact of the matter is that a well insulated wooden house is much more comfortable in both hot and cold conditions over the mostly uninsulated concrete houses in developing countries, have more architectural flexibilities, quicker and cheaper to build, and much better suitable in earth quake prone areas CULTUREWhen the pioneers and settlers from Europe came to the Americas, there were far more trees than there is now, and the trees by far the only building material available to them. Even in Europe due to similar reasons common people had wood houses, only the nobles had brick/stone houses. Thus wooden houses have become the norm.However in Africa, brick houses are considered the norm. The traditional house for common people in Africa consisted of brick walls (with coating of lime/mud depending on the income) even before modern times.However, developing countries adopted their building methods from their previous colonial masters - mostly European countries that have a long tradition of using concrete and stone for building.Developing countries are very traditional and conservative - thinking that buildings have to be “concrete” strength to be sturdy, and secure, not realizing concrete houses are just as vulnerable through various entry points such as windows, doors and ceiling tiles. So the question lingers on Why Do Africans, Nigerians especially, still use concrete to build houses?Resources:#FF0000;" href="https://www.quora.com/Why-do-some-Americans-build-their-homes-with-wood-while-some-Europeans-prefer-brickhttps://www.quora.com/Why-are-houses-in-the-USA-made-from-wood-and-brick-whereas-houses-in-other-developing-countries-such-as-India-are-made-from-concrete-or-tinhttps://www.quora.com/What-are-the-benefits-of-building-houses-out-of-wood-instead-of-concretehttps://www.quora.com/Why-are-there-wooden-houses-in-the-West-but-in-India-every-house-is-made-of-bricks-and-cement-whether-they-are-a-poor-or-rich-familys  " target="_blank">https://www.quora.com/Why-do-some-Americans-build-their-homes-with-wood-while-some-Europeans-prefer-brickhttps://www.quora.com/Why-are-houses-in-the-USA-made-from-wood-and-brick-whereas-houses-in-other-developing-countries-such-as-India-are-made-from-concrete-or-tinhttps://www.quora.com/What-are-the-benefits-of-building-houses-out-of-wood-instead-of-concretehttps://www.quora.com/Why-are-there-wooden-houses-in-the-West-but-in-India-every-house-is-made-of-bricks-and-cement-whether-they-are-a-poor-or-rich-familys