I just got back from a month in Argentina. I traveled this time and in previous trips throughout the country from seismic to large urban to mountain village to extreme heat and humidity.

The houses are rarely have insulation, heat or air. The houses get hot by the end of the day and don't cool off until almost morning. In the winter the houses stay at nearly outdoor air temperature.

Poor people live in CMU houses maybe 12' x 12' with a dirt floor and sheet metal roof (held down by more CMUs). Really poor people live in wood houses about the same size.

The approved construction is a skeleton of rectangular columns and beams heavily reinforce with small diameter rebar, with stirrups down to 6mm. On large walls columns are every 10' to 20' otherwise they are just at the corners. They infill between the columns and beams with brick or more often with hollow terracotta bricks.

Floor are usually a precast inverted "T" beam every 50cm with similar hollow bricks to fill in-between them until they pour concrete over the top, roofs are often done the same way. They often cantilever multi-stories and decks.

Do you think we are missing something by not doing this perimeter columns and beams? And why don't we cantilever our walls?

Can I get a comment here. I feel like such a failure, getting no replies.

OK, OK, we can't have any of our "regulars" feeling like "a failure"

My response to your question "...............are we missing something here...........?" NO!.............They are!