> This misses a big point: highly skilled craftsmanship will never again be affordable on an architectural scale. So we'll have it again when it can all be done by machine.
That's not really the case. As with the internet and software, architecture was hijacked by building products corporations and tradespeople were duped into playing along, just like the employees of social media corporations one can see on this site who try to justify the evil activities of the companies they work for.
Background: when I quit software in the latter half of the 2000s I bought a house built in 1908 in the central US. It needed lots of things, so I basically lived in half of it and worked on the other half for about 10 years.
What I learned in the process of learning how to do all of that stuff by trial and error (including building custom windows and doors... wooden ones to replace the 'new' ones from previous owners that I threw away) is that prior to the 1980s there were lots of small machines built for the market of a small custom shop that might build things for local clientele. They have all been replaced by worse (in every respect) multi-function machines that only make boring things badly.
As a baseline, the most notorious of big box stores [1] says that new plastic windows cost 800 - 1000 dollars. That's highway robbery. There's about 30 board feet of rough sawn lumber in a 4' x 3' wooden double hung window. The material cost (assuming cypress in the southeast or douglas fir in the north/west) is gonna be around 5 dollars per board foot. Glass in smallish bulk quantities lets say 3 dollars per square foot, and hardware about 50 dollars per window, I'll give 10-20 dollars for paint and what not. So we're looking at a material cost of around $250.00 per window if someone wanted wooden windows in a common size.
The problem is not that it's impossible to compete with the plastic window on quality at a slight price markup, the problem is that there's no one to do it because everyone has been turned into a middle man, serving rent seekers. Outside of major cities with enough of a concentration of historic buildings to keep real craftsmen busy, there aren't going to be any such real craftsmen. They're all going to be glorified salesmen with a few hand tools from the local building supply retailer.
It didn't have to be this way. As an example, up until the late 1970s a company named Powermatic built a small single end tender (model # 2A) that is shown here [2] and here [3]. These were marketed to small shops, not giant industrial factories. These machines have appreciated in value on the used market in the past 10 years, because people are still using them! Ten years ago you could buy a serviceable 2A tenoner for $500-1000 dollars, now they're going for $2500 to 3k. I met people running window and door shops doing historic preservation work around Boston that were stockpiling every one they find for sale for parts. Powermatic the company on the other hand was sold and the brand "cashed in" on cheap import imitations of other tool companies' products long ago.
Another example would be the machine called a "sash trimmer" shown here [4] and here [5]. I use the term "machine" very loosely because it's not even motorized, you operate it with your foot like an old sewing machine. This machine could be replicated in a machine shop today using an old milling machine or mortiser as a base for probably $3000 dollars or so in custom parts. It's how you make fancy wooden windows like these [6]. It's virtually impossible to make such a wooden window without that machine, because modern machines can't replicate the required angled mortises. I looked for years and never found one for sale in the southeastern US. Despite the fact that thousands of historic homes in the southeastern US have such windows, that are all over 80 years old now and gradually rotting away.
You can extend this to any other item in the typical single family home in the US. For instance there's no reason for kitchen cabinets to have plywood in them. Plywood is another notorious "profit margin" item by the building products corporations that is basically scrap and glue with a picture of real wood on top of it. Why isn't there a set of jigs like the ones used 80+ years ago for sale by which a local cabinet maker can produce "stick built" cabinets without plywood shells? Why does the local cabinet maker pay obscene prices for fake lumber pressed into sheets, when by the square foot solid yellow pine is cheaper? Because the local cabinet shop sees himself as a building product middle man just like the corporate stores do, there is no other reason.
As if the entirety of American architecture being beholden to corporate producers of junk products isn't bad enough, general contractors are charging an additional 20-30% markup (at least) on top of the supplier's markup, to lead people to think that the junk they've bought is reasonably that expensive.
As the wise machine said in the movie from the cursed decade: "the only way to win, is to not play."
Read a few books, go to architectural salvage stores to look at things in person and see how they were built, go to your local woodworker's meetup group, go watch youtube videos about how to glaze windows and hang doors. You don't have to buy a shop full of antique machines and start with rough lumber if you don't want to, but if you know how to spec and order things from local craftsmen on your own without the aforementioned rent seeking middlemen charging you 20-30% to do it on your behalf, you can have a house just as nice as those from the late 19th and early 20th century, albeit with some quality of lumber compromises due to the lack of old growth supply.
1. https://www.homedepot.com/c/cost_install_replacement_windows
2. https://youtu.be/TT13WmJZyU0
3. https://www.thewoodfurniturefactory.com/tour.htm
4. https://www.facebook.com/seattlehistoricwindow/videos/102924...
5. http://vintagemachinery.org/photoindex/detail.aspx?id=9824
6. https://www.google.com/search?q=diamond+window+sash
