* Same applies to Japan, of course.
In Japan, houses were traditionally built of wood, paper and straw. Wealthy people would have tiles, rather than a thatched roof. The 70% of Japan which is uninhabitable mountains is covered in forest. So no shortage of forest products, all it took was a lot of effort. The culture was/is one of constant replacement. A house would last 2-3 generations and then be replaced with something new.
No-one builds with masonry here. With the earthquakes, that would be suicide. The post-war buildings were of very poor quality, and many of those are being replaced now. Modern building regulations are very strict. Everything (including my garage) has reinforced concrete footings, an inverted "T" buried a metre down. You can go up two stories with timber frame, anything taller needs to be steel frame. Frames are bolted to the footings (earthquakes) and roofs are bolted to the walls (typhoons).
Danny
I was interested of your description of the car park with a lift. That is very common here. The simplest hold about 40 cars in two columns and comprise an endless loop with cages. You drive in to an empty cage and park and that's it. When you retrieve the car, hand over the ticket, and they go round and round until yours gets to the bottom. Reverse out, they spin you round on a turntable and Bob's your uncle. The more complex systems, you drive into a "garage", park on a pallet, the doors close and your car gets whisked away and stuffed into a rack. Somewhere. You hope
