The Building code is an overlooked factor in the reason our home design market is in its current state. The residential building code has become more formulaic over the years. This is a good thing with regards to simplifying it enough to allow anybody with some intelligence to understand and design from it. The flip side of the coin is that you get a lot of unimaginitive people who buy a $30 cad program design homes. From what I've seen the worst come from the contractors themselves who either don't have the design sense to do something creative or haven't the nerve to tell their customer that what they are designing is going to look like a pile of garbage.

I applaud the accessibility of the building code, since I design 2 or 3 homes per year on the side and it has saved me massive amounts of time, not having to reinvent the wheel and also by not requiring me to get an Engineer to stamp my drawings. At the same time I realize the cost of that accessibity to the market means there are worse designers than me doing the same thing. Those worse Designers (in my own opinion of course) are making the mcmansion the norm that its hard to convince my own clients that it could be so much better. Not only do they want their mcmansions now, but they are starting to expect drive-thru service for the drawings. Just last Friday I had to ask my clents if they noticed a drive thru window on the side of my house when they came in. It was said with a smile, and they got the point. This isn't In-n-out.

Smyth in a rare moment of almost lucidity, mentioned the standard sizes everything comes in. A lot of this is also code related. In specifically the American Disability act, although it has less effect on the residential market than commercial. But since the ADA sets the counter heights, toilet heights and more, the industry is loathe to deviate from that since it means the Dept of Justice has the right to swoop down and sue the pants off of everyone involved. This isn't local jurusdictions anymore, this is quite literally a federal case once ADA is violated. I know some engineers who hav barely held onto their practices after a DOJ attack, because the owner refused to settle and fix the mistakes.

Its a complicated issue for sure. Regulation is a big part of it, but so is the fact that most homes are not designed by Architects anymore. Not that that's necessarily bad considering I'm also not yet licensed, but perhaps the gates are open a bit too wide.