[flavius29663]

Speaking for Romania here (if you go more "Central" they have smaller earthquakes and it might be different), the houses are supported by pretty big reinforced concrete columns, and the floors/ceilings are all reinforced concrete. You can use other materials other than brick, like aerated concrete bricks, the main role is thermal/sound/fire insulation, there is no strength value assigned to the walls, only to the corners+columns. e.g. https://img3.imonet.ro/XV08/V0801LH4N7O/casa-la-rosu-in-oras...

Romania used to have brick-only houses, but after a major earthquake in 1977 that is not allowed anymore.

Bricklaying is relatively easy, and it's a quick part of the building process, it only takes a couple of days for a regular house. I was looking at the robot, and an experienced bricklayer can lay the bricks just as fast, if you can keep the bricks and mortar coming.

[mytailorisrich]

Here in the UK I believe the full training to become a qualified bricklayer takes 2-3 years.

So "relatively easy" has to depends on the quality and specifics of the end result... for instance, here in the UK, most houses are 100% bricks and visible ones on the outside, and the result is flawless (definitely not 'easy' to achieve) and lasts for literally centuries.

[flavius29663]

The UK doesn't have the earthquakes that Romania does, bricks houses just don't last there. So they use thick bricks with many airholes, for insulation, because winters are harsher, and then cover the bricks with mortar/stucco. They still line them up right, but obviously there is no need for them to be as nice as in the UK.

[HNUser01100011]

> Here in the UK I believe the full training to become a qualified bricklayer takes 2-3 years.

This has nothing to do with how difficult it is to learn how to lay bricks (insert ali g joke?) but more to do with capitalism. Paying apprentices £20-40 a day is a lot cheaper, shock horror, than paying a "qualified" brickie 3-600 a day.

Anecdotal I know, but family in the trades. I spent ~18 months* whilst doing my degree on the roofs, side by side with brickies on projects that range from single site, domestic, to 1500+ dwellings and commercial sites. A good 85-95% of them don't even have a GCSE. It's, still, a very much family business - at least in the UK. Connections will get you everywhere - most were pulling in 60-150k.

The main thing I learnt from the brickies I worked with, never mess with them. Even if you're in the right. They may look unhealthy, but jesus christ they're more than capable of throwing you a not insignificant distance. Going up a ladder all day, every day, with 24 bricks on your shoulder when your labor doesn't turn up will turn you into a beast - albeit one covered in fat due to poor diet.

*Weekends and 4-6 hours a day when the schedule allowed it. Site carpenters are just as bad. Most are bent as hell, very few take pride in their work. The housing stock in England is shit for a reason and it's entirely historic. Take a look at the city and guilds guides. Sparkies are the best and...that's not saying best.

Edit: Just watched the promo video, these are - special - breeze blocks. With a veneer? Stuck together with at best glue? This is going to be a hyperlocalised response to a labor shortage and wouldn't hold up to building standards outside Australia.

[airbreather]

I'm in Western Australia and building standards are pretty high here, but we have very few earthquakes.

[noir_lord]

> The housing stock in England is shit for a reason and it's entirely historic.

To an extent that's always been true I'll agree but it has gotten better and worse at times, when we where looking at houses I specifically gave more weight to stuff built in the 70's/80's over anything after that or before that, relatively new (for our housing stock) but built at a time when pride in work was still a thing.

As a result the build quality on my house is excellent (and I used to be a sparkie so I know a lot of the trades tricks).

The new builds we looked at had much better energy efficiency but god when you go look in the loft/anywhere that wasn't immediately visible was the quality dire plus tiny in comparison, 90sq/m2 for the same as we paid for a 4 bed 128 sq/m2.