I wonder if we will see a shift toward less solid structures, rather than more solid. Homes in Japan always struck me as being very cheaply built, especially given how the Japanese generally seem to embrace quality in most things. Walls were thin. Insulation was awful.** The value of a home was in the land. The structure was a quickly depreciating asset. It seems that in most cases, when someone bought a new home, they tore down the old and put up a new one and the homes were built accordingly--to last a couple of decades, not half a century or more.
This made them much cheaper to build or rebuild after a disaster. I wonder if we will go more in that direction, especially in disaster-prone areas. If the structure rebuild cost is $50k instead of $500k, insurance rates will stay lower, or at least less high. Of course, that's far more junk that ends up in a landfill, but I guess it's less waste than tearing down a comparable-sized home built with more materials, so if it's going to be destroyed by weather anyway, maybe this is less bad?
**This part always struck we as odd, especially given electric costs and considerations. Yes, people are more okay with a range of temperatures. They don't cool to 68 in summer and heat to 70 in winter. Low tables (kotatsu) with built-in heaters, covered by thick blankets are popular. Everyone sits around the table with their legs under the blanket. You heat only the small area you need to use, not the whole house. Central a/c or heat is rare, with mini-splits being common. (This is why you really want a heated toilet seat; your bathroom will be freezing--perhaps almost literally--in winter.)
