[nemo44x]

A lot of EU dwelling construction is built to be as energy efficient as possible. They use CMUs VS timber, and plaster their bricks instead of hanging drywall in large part because they can make it more energy efficient but also because Europe lacks ample timber supplies in many areas compared to North America. But energy is far more expensive in the EU than in North America so it's more important to save money there. Saving that, insulation in American homes is really good today and I believe R15 is the minimum allowed in new construction.

The drawbacks are European construction tends to be very bland and basic and small compared to homes in America. They also don't have HVAC (I think they'll regret this if the planet continues to heat) or forced air and tend to use radiant heating which is great, but requires high levels of insulation to be effective.

Saying that, you can have your timber framed home have thicker walls or have rockwool, etc put into the internal walls which will deaden noise like old plaster/lath walls.