>SNIP
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>>There are dozens of other materials to make houses from, including blocks made of certain sorts of industrial waste. Most of them perform better against earthquakes, fire and tornados/hurricanes. It's just that the construction industry here knows everything about wood, and uses the other stuff on rare occasions. It may be that I'm coming from an area (the Pannonian flats) where there's good clay for brick anywhere, just dig two spades deep.
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>That's interesting. I would have thought that stone/brick houses would be far worse in earthquakes, given that they essentially have no "give". Admittedly, that's just my simple mind and some base logic.

Well, not all by themselves - I've seen the walls crack and buildings fall (we usually had one major earthquake every 7-8 years, hitting a small area, few times in major cities). It takes reinforced concrete columns on the corners and around each floor, and that's what holds it together. That's actually mandatory in our area, being the 4th quake zone.

>As regards thhe construction industry here, I believe you're right. Now, over the last year or so in particular, I have seen steel being used for virtually entire dwellings, at least as far as walls and roofs are concerned. I think there was real thin 'composite' wood panels

Which is probably the same thing used for most of the furniture - mix of glue and splinters, pressed. We have a good term for it: "iverica" - "iver" meaning "splinter".

> as the roof topping and still large wood beams for the floor topping the basement.
>All this steel looks and is dimensioned exactly like a 2x4. It is all assembled in sections elsewhere, brought to the sites on flatbeds, and erected real fast. Of course there is brick veneer and drywall as finishing stuff.

I was working in a school building which was built like that. It was erected in early 60s, and it outlasted its projected age of 20 years - I think it's still standing as was. The floors were big slabs of reinforced concrete (with a couple of layers of 6mm crosswire inside), and the walls were movable. They'd just unscrew them from one place and reattach them elsewhere, to a point where the light switch for room A is now in room B :).

You felt the building is different when a herd of students would rush down the top foor hallway, and you felt the vibrations as if standing on a bridge while a train goes by.