Migrant workers built Brasília, Brazil's capital, in three years
A capital promised by Brazil's new republic in 1889 waited 67 years. Then Kubitschek, Costa, Niemeyer and 30,000 workers built Brasília in three.
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City of London approves twin towers to replace Fountain House
The City of London Corporation approved two new towers on Fenchurch Street, joining a pipeline of new skyscrapers due by 2030.
Two Chinese towers pulled the core out of the middle
A skyscraper's core holds its lifts and mechanical services. Two towers in Beijing and Shenzhen split it or set it apart from the offices.
Giles Gilbert Scott's red phone box, which he wanted silver
Architect Giles Gilbert Scott won a 1924 competition to design Britain's standard phone box, and originally wanted it painted silver.
Al-Azhar: how a Fatimid mosque became a university
Al-Azhar began as a Fatimid mosque in 970. By 988 the state paid 35 scholars to teach there, and it later became a modern university in Cairo.
Chicago's steel frame, and the iron mill that came first
The Home Insurance Building carried its floors on a steel and iron skeleton, not its walls. That idea let Chicago build past five storeys.
Some skyscrapers wear their frame on the outside
A diagrid carries a tower's load on diagonals on its skin. In London it let Newfoundland stand light over an Underground tunnel, and 30 per cent taller.
A barrel vault carries a roof, and shoves its walls outwards
Builders used it from about 4000 BC. A barrel vault keeps its brick or stone in compression, but its base shoves sideways, so abutments must resist.