zlacker

>>hrl+(OP)
This should be an economics piece, not an environmental piece. The author states that "one of iron’s unalterable properties is that it rusts" yet further on acknowledges the existence of stainless steel.

There's nothing wrong with reinforced concrete, but the incentives to produce long lasting buildings are not there. The cheapest bidder will generally win and their building will last the "design life" of the building, but often not much more. The simplest way to change this is to extend the design life, which would result in stainless steels or another more expensive material being used in this application.

>>brutus+J5
Is it a good thing for society to directly incentivize the construction of longer lasting buildings?

>>miniki+Q5
IMO yes; if the materials cost a lot of time/carbon/resources to produce, then we should make them last!

>>sesuxi+K7
Japan builds buildings to last 30 years on average. They tear them down and build new ones. Is it good, bad, something else? I don’t know, except not everyone builds for things to last a long time.

>>mc32+cl
People quote this figure often, but it really only applies to detached single-family dwellings, which are commonly built for a single owner. Japan certainly doesn't build larger structures such as office buildings for thirty-year lifespans – no one has floated any plans to tear down the Kasumigaseki Building yet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasumigaseki_Building

>>morten+Tm
Have things changed in the last decade or so[1]?

Japanese loathe “second hand” stuff if they can avoid it. This includes property. The service life for buildings is 47 to 50 years or so, for depreciation purposes.

Totally unrelated, but I love that 1000 year old wooden temples get rebuilt every 20 years or so[2] because of the religious idea of renewal.

[1] https://japanpropertycentral.com/2012/06/what-is-the-lifespa...

[2]https://chrispythoughts.wordpress.com/2012/10/19/558/

>>mc32+qo
Possibly.

"A recent innovation in the Japanese real estate industry to promote home ownership is the creation of a 100-year mortgage term. The home, encumbered by the mortgage, becomes an ancestral property and is passed on from grandparent to grandchild in a multigenerational fashion. We analyze the implications of this innovative practice, contrast it with the conventional 30-year mortgage popular in Western nations and explore its unique benefits and limitations within the Japanese economic and cultural framework." The 100-year Japanese residential mortgage: An examination (1995) (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/106195....)

>>mcguir+wE
My understanding is the cost is mostly the land and the building not so much. I think Sweden introduced a law limiting mortgages to ~100 years[1] because property prices were becoming unaffordable to many. So this may be more about "affordability" than longevity of buildings, but time will tell.

[1]https://www.thelocal.se/20160324/sweden-limits-mortgage-loan...