Some would say progress is continually achieving a higher and higher level of capability as individuals and collectively as a society. For example, we can buy improved cell phones, computers, and automobiles each year. Others would say that progress involves reaching a state of balance such that we are not destroying any nonrenewable resources and not using any more renewable resources than we produce. But, perhaps either of those cannot be achieved consistently without the other. Recently, an initiative launched in Japan seeks to increase the average lifespan of homes to 200 years. That would conserve resources as fewer home building materials would be needed over the long term. Homes would serve several generations before replacement and include flexibility in arrangement to meet the needs of a variety of families.
For a variety of historic, geographic, and cultural reasons, homes in Japan have an average life of only 30 years as compared to 55 in the United States or 70 in the United Kingdom as stated in the article. Achieving durability will require changing a culture to value newness less than other criteria in addition to modifying construction practices. The main engineering challenge will be long term energy efficiency, modularity of the mechanical and electrical systems of the house to permit later upgrades, and limiting maintenance costs (as almost any house could last 200 years with an unlimited maintenance budget). [ad name="Adsense Small Horz Banner"] Since homebuilding is subject to codes enforced by the government for the good of all citizens, this is not a situation of a purely free market where builders would have to convince every buyer of the need for increased initial costs. As long term costs to the overall economy and society would be lower, the democratic government in this case has an interest in promoting the change.
The main portion of the house I am sitting in right now was built around 1920 nearly 90 years ago. Although, many changes have been made since then, a significant amount of the structural wood beams and brick walls are from the original structure. Perhaps, one future measure of our progress will be how old our homes are.