I live in an apartment building built in the mid 1800's. I can play music, yell at the top of my lungs and my neighbors can only hear anything if they put their ear against the wall, and even that only faintly. We tested this when we moved in so that we knew we were being good neighbors!

The culprit is cheap, stick-built construction that has a useful lifetime measured in a couple decades, not a couple centuries. [And if we, as a society, say with a straight face that we can't afford to build that anymore... isn't that a sign of how much poorer we all are collectively?]

Bricks vs. timber, perhaps?

I do realise the general answer is about availability of materials and both work. But ceteris paribus, talking about noise, the prospect of a timber terrace does seem.. unappealing?

IME (in the UK) noise comes through windows, not (external, including to an attached neighbour) walls.

Modern 'partition' (those between rooms within a dwelling) walls aren't brick, but typically between semis or in a terrace the dividing walls are. You might hear the neighbours in the garden through the windows, but not through the wall between your adjoining rooms.

You don't _need_ an air gap. I live in a high rise apartment building which has very soundproof walls. You can be having a full party in your apartment and only get the faintest of sounds from the hallway, and absolutely nothing from inside your own apt .

Better insulation such as compressed cellulose will beat a 10 foot air gap any day.

The airgap costs you in energy terms in most climates in N. America.