After any travel through Italy, Greece, Spain, then western U.S., one wonders why we build as we do.<p>It must be that kindling is easy to bring to a site and cheap? It certainly doesn't insulate as well. Never mind that kindling burns, rots, hosts insects, or gets snapped like matchsticks in a strong breeze.<p>If rural EU -- or Ancestral Puebloan dwellings -- are our guide, these earth homes will long outlast their neighbors.