The Story of Buildings

We spend most of our lives in buildings. We make our homes in them. We go to school in them. We work in them. But why and how did people start making buildings? How did they learn to make them stronger, bigger, and more comfortable? Why did they start to decorate them in different ways? From the pyramid erected so that an Egyptian pharaoh would last forever to the dramatic, machine-like Pompidou Center designed by two young architects, Patrick Dillon’s stories of remarkable buildings — and the remarkable people who made them — celebrates the ingenuity of human creation. Stephen Biesty’s extraordinarily detailed illustrations take us inside famous buildings throughout history and demonstrate just how these marvelous structures fit together.

About the Contributors

Patrick Dillon is an architect and historian. He is the author of The Story of Britain from the Norman Conquest to the European Union, a narrative history for children, and of two highly acclaimed history books for adults. On writing The Story of Buildings, he says, “My two favorite things are stories and buildings. Telling stories about buildings is as good as it gets.” Patrick Dillon lives in London.

Stephen Biesty is the creator of Stephen Biesty’s Incredible Cross-Sections, which has sold more than a million copies worldwide since its publication in 1992. He lives in Somerset, England.