I think the biggest drawback is the plumbing and wiring- how do you handle that unless everything is surface mounted.
I would LOVE to see that, actually. Put everything within decorative boxes, but make it accessible. The idea of burying them inside walls is a real pain in the ass.
I’ve seen houses retrofitted with modern surface-mount wiring that actually looks classy.
I hadn’t thought of it before, but can the days of 120VAC (in the US) wiring come to an end in the not-so-near future? After all, lighting and electronics already runs from low-voltage DC which is safer, easily distributed, and easily protected against overcurrent or faults. Perhaps we’ll end up with one or a few AC points in each room, with a small high-efficiency power converter providing low voltage DC to the point of use. Clearly kitchen appliances, heating devices, would be a different case, but modern devices in the typical bathroom, bedroom, or living space convert AC to DC inside each device anyhow and cheap power conversion electronics is truly one of the wonders of the modern era.
“I think the biggest drawback is the plumbing and wiring- how do you handle that unless everything is surface mounted.”
Well, the walls have hollow spaces in them. I imagine they just stick some access boxes in the concrete before it dries to allow them to run pipes and wires around through the walls.