8000 BC Jericho the first town
Jericho, often quoted as the first town, grows into a settlement covering ten acres

8000 BC Bricks that dry in the sun
Sun-dried bricks are used in the construction of buildings in Jericho

6500 BC Exciting new concept - rooms with windows
The neolithic town of Catal Huyuk has rectangular rooms with windows, a design with lasting appeal

6500 BC Paved street in Cyprus
The neolithic town of Khirokitia in Cyprus has a paved public street with lanes leading off to courtyards of round tent-like houses

4000 BC Passage grave on Île Longue
A passage grave with a superb corbelled dome is constructed on the Île Longue off the southern coast of Brittany

2620 BC Chief minister builds pyramid for pharaoh
Imhotep creates the first pyramid - the 'step pyramid' at Saqqara - as a tomb for the pharaoh Djoser

2500 BC World's largest pyramid
The first and largest of the three great pyramids at Giza is built for the pharaoh Khufu, later known to the Greeks as Cheops

2500 BC Stone village with stone furniture
A small neolithic community builds a village at Skara Brae in the Orkneys, of stone houses with built-in stone furniture

2500 BC Magnificent Irish grave
A superb passage grave is built at Newgrange in Ireland

2000 BC Knossos built in Crete
Knossos, and other such palaces, are built for dynasties in Minoan Crete

2000 BC Beehive tombs in Spain
The cemetery at Los Millares in Spain contains more than 100 beehive tombs

1500 BC Columns of Karnak and Luxor
The temples of Karnak and Luxor, in ancient Thebes, introduce the massive stone architecture of column and lintel

1400 BC Giants build walls of Tiryns?
The massive architecture of Mycenaean cities such as Tiryns is said in Greek legend to have been built by one-eyed giants, the Cyclopes

1400 BC Treasury of Atreus
The so-called Treasury of Atreus, at Mycenae, is the most spectacular of the beehive tombs of this period

1380 BC Great temple at Luxor
The pharaoh Amenhotep III commissions the great temple to Amen-Re at Luxor

1250 BC Temple at Abu Simbel
Ramses II creates a spectacular temple in his own honour at Abu Simbel

1000 BC First American pyramids
The Olmecs raise large clay platforms, probably with temples at the top, beginning the long American tradition of sacred pyramids

1000 BC Ohio burial mounds
Burial mounds feature in the Ohio valley, built first in the Adena culture and then by Hopewell tribes

650 BC Greek pillars take shape
The capitals of Greek pillars are by now in the two basic patterns of Doric and Ionic

530 BC Cyrus buried at Pasagardae
Cyrus the Great is buried in an austerely impressive tomb at Pasagardae, in Persia

530 BC Greek temples in Paestum
The Greek colonists of Paestum, in southern Italy, build the first of their three superb temples

518 BC Darius builds Persepolis
Darius starts to build a spectacular new palace and capital at Persepolis

447 BC Work starts on Parthenon
The Athenians begin building the Parthenon, a temple to Athena, which they complete within ten years

447 BC New style for Parthenon
Ictinos, the architect of the Parthenon, blends Doric and Ionic elements in a way which will later influence many other Greek temples

410 BC Classical orders of architecture
The Greeks develop the three classical styles of column, the Doric, the Ionic and the Corinthian

350 BC Artemisia builds mausoleum
Artemisia, widow of Mausolus, builds him a tomb at Halicarnassus so spectacular that his name provides a new word - mausoleum

340 BC Theatre at Epidaurus
The theatre at Epidaurus is the earliest and best surviving example of a classical Greek stage and auditorium

215 BC Great Wall joined up
The Qin emperor joins up earlier fortifications to create the Great Wall of China

200 BC Nazca Lines in Peru
The earth drawings of the Nazca people, known now as the Nazca Lines, are some of the largest works of art ever created

120 BC Seven wonders of the world
Antipater, a Greek author living on the Phoenician coast, lists the seven wonders of the world

20 BC Vitruvius explains architecture
Roman author Vitruvius writes De Architectura, now generally known as The Ten Books of Architecture

20 Pont du Gard
The Romans construct the massive Pont du Gard to bring water to the city of Nîmes

120 Spectacular dome for Pantheon
The Pantheon, roofed with the most spectacular dome of antiquity, is built in Rome by Hadrian

200 Rock tombs of Petra
The rock tombs of prosperous Petra, now incorporated in the Roman empire, are carved in the cliffs as classical temples

315 Constantine's first churches
Constantine founds several churches in Rome, among them the first St Peter's

320 Transept introduced in Rome
Constantine's new churches in Rome introduce an important element in church architecture, the transept

360 First Santa Sophia
The first church of Santa Sophia in Constantinople, begun by Constantine himself, is completed

450 Squinch and pendentive
The squinch, soon followed by the more sophisticated pendentive, proves a great boon to builders of domes

535 World's first castles
Belisarius, conquering the Vandals in north Africa, pioneers the strategic concept of the castle

537 New Santa Sophia
The great domed church of Santa Sophia, rebuilt on the orders of Justinian, is completed after only five years of construction

537 Santa Sophia uses the pendentive
The vast dome of Santa Sophia in Constantinople is supported on a square of four arches, making the most sophisticated use so far of the pendentive

607 Horyuji temple and pagoda
Prince Shotoku Taishi, an enthusiastic patron of Buddhism, builds the Horyuji temple and pagoda at Nara

691 Dome of the Rock
The Dome of the Rock is completed as a Muslim shrine on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem

800 Era of Romanesque
The style of architecture of early medieval Europe is Romanesque, in the sense of deriving from Roman examples

805 Pope consecrates Charlemagne's chapel
Pope Leo III consecrates Charlemagne's new palace chapel in Aachen, modelled on San Vitale in Ravenna

862 Mosque at Kairouan acquires dome
During refurbishment of the mosque at Kairouan, in north Africa, a high fluted dome is added

900 Iconostasis to display icons
With the end of inconoclasm, the screen between the nave and the altar sanctuary becomes covered in icons in Orthodox churches

1093 New cathedral at Durham
Work begins on a new cathedral in Durham, which will become an outstanding example of Norman (or Romanesque) architecture

1130 Perfection of Romanesque at Vézelay
The full flowering of the Romanesque style is seen in the nave of the abbey church at Vézelay, in France

1132 Capella Palatina in Palermo
Work begins on the exquisite palace chapel in Palermo, built for the Norman kings of Sicily

1142 Krak des Chevaliers
The great castle of Krak des Chevaliers is built in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem by the Knights of St John

1144 Gothic style in France
The new abbey church of St Denis is consecrated near Paris, introducing the style of architecture later known as Gothic

1175 English Gothic in Canterbury cathedral
The Gothic style is first seen in Britain in the new east end of Canterbury cathedral

1238 Delights of the Alhambra
Work begins on the Alhambra, the palace fortress of the Muslim kings of Granada

1243 Sainte Chapelle to house relic
Construction begins in Paris on the Sainte Chapelle, designed to house relics acquired by Louis IX, the king of France

1298 Siena protects Campo
The authorities in Siena publish strict regulations for the design of the buildings around a new central piazza, the Campo

1300 Flying buttresses a Gothic development
Flying buttresses are a striking new structural feature on the exterior of Gothic cathedrals

1300 Decorated replaces Early English
The Early English phase in Gothic architecture gives way to the Decorated style

1320 Italian Gothic takes bright new direction
In places such as Siena and Orvieto, Italian architects add a blaze of colour to the more restrained northern pattern of Gothic

1340 New palace for Venetian doge
The Doge's Palace, begun in its present form in this year, is only one of the spectacular beauties of Venetian Gothic

1345 New old bridge in Florence
The bridge now known as Ponte Vecchio is constructed in Florence (replacing an older old bridge)

1350 Perpendicular follows Decorated in England
The Perpendicular style develops from the Decorated phase in English Gothic architecture

1390 Fan vaulting
Fan vaulting becomes part of the Gothic tradition, seen to perfection in the cloisters of Gloucester cathedral

1397 Golden Pavilion in Kyoto
The Golden Pavilion in Kyoto is built by the shogun Yoshimitsu as his own villa

1405 Timur buried in Samarkand
Timur is buried in a mausoleum (the Gur Amir) in Samarkand, a city which becomes an inspiration to his descendants

1410 Timur's son rebuilds Herat
Shah Rukh, son of Timur, begins rebuilding the city of Herat

1415 Brunelleschi studies Roman ruins
Filippo Brunelleschi begins studying the ruins of classical Rome, with a view to rediscovering classical architecture

1418 Brunelleschi wins competition
A competition is launched for an architect to construct a dome above Florence's cathedral, and is won by Brunelleschi

1420 Glass windows - latest thing
Glazed windows become a feature of the richer homes of northern Europe

1430 Work begins on Pazzi chapel
Work begins in Florence on Brunelleschi's Pazzi chapel, which encapsulates in miniature the new ideals of Renaissance architecture

1450 Characteristic Inca architecture
The massive architecture of the Incas, consisting of finely dressed irregular blocks of stone, becomes a feature of Cuzco

1462 Conqueror begins Topkapi Sarayi
Mehmed II, conqueror of Constantinople, begins to build Topkapi Sarayi as his palace

1471 Sixtus founds chapel and choir
The new pope, Sixtus IV, secures his name in history, establishing the Sistine chapel and the Sistine choir

1500 Machu Picchu in jungle
Even the remote city of Machu Picchu, on its peak above the jungle, is built in the massively precise Inca style of masonry

1506 Foundation stone for new St Peter's
Julius II, together with the architect Bramante, lays the foundation stone for the new St Peter's

1514 Wolsey begins Hampton Court
Thomas Wolsey begins to build himself a palace at Hampton Court, but will later consider it politic to give it to Henry VIII

1527 Francis I at Fontainebleau
Francis I begins to transform Fontainebleau into a palace, employing artists who establish the mannerist school of Fontainebleau

1557 Sinan's greatest mosque
Sinan completes his masterpiece, the mosque of Suleiman I in Istanbul

1563 Philip begins Escorial
Philip II begins construction of the palace and monastery known as the Escorial

1570 Palladio revives the villa
Palladio publishes I Quattro Libri dell'Architettura ('The Four Books of Architecture'), which include his influential designs for villas

1571 Akbar begins Fatehpur Sikri
Akbar builds his new palace of Fatehpur Sikri close to the shrine of a Sufi saint

1573 Tomb of Humayun in Delhi
The tomb in Delhi of the Mughal emperor Humayun introduces the shape of dome which characterizes his dynasty's architecture

1590 St Peter's is complete
The dome of St Peter's is finished, completing nearly a century of construction on Europe's largest church

1599 Globe built on Bankside
The Globe, where many of Shakespeare's plays are first performed, is built on Bankside in London

1609 Blue Mosque in Istanbul
The Blue Mosque, commissioned by Ahmed I, begins to rise in Istanbul like a twin to the nearby Santa Sophia

1618 First proscenium theatre
The Teatro Farnese in Parma is the first to have a proscenium arch, framing perspective scenery painted on flat wings

1629 Bernini is architect to St Peter's
The sculptor and architect Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini is given the task of adding the drama of baroque to the newly completed St Peter's in Rome

1632 Wife remembered in Taj Mahal
Shah Jahan begins building the Taj Mahal as a memorial for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal

1664 Leading team head-hunted for Versailles
Louis XIV commissions a well-established team of designers to provide him with a spectacular palace and garden at Versailles

1667 Bernini colonnade for Rome pilgrims
Bernini's great curving colonnade is completed, to form the piazza in front of St Peter's

1670 Dutch develop town house
The Dutch develop a new pattern of middle-class urban life and architecture, later copied in England

1673 Aurangzeb commissions Badshahi Mosque
The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb begins building the great Badshahi Mosque in Lahore

1675 Sash windows introduced
The double-hung sash window is introduced in England and soon spreads to Holland

1710 New St Paul's completed
Christopher Wren's new domed St Paul's cathedral is completed in London

1715 Campbell promotes Palladian style
Colen Campbell creates interest in the Palladian style in Britain with the publication of his Vitruvius Britannicus

1717 Burlington employs Campbell
The earl of Burlington employs Colen Campbell to remodel his Piccadilly house in the Palladian style

1746 Frederick begins Sans Souci
Frederick the Great begins to build the summer palace of Sans Souci at Potsdam

1750 Horace Walpole begins Strawberry Hill
Horace Walpole begins to create his own Strawberry Hill, a neo-Gothic fantasy, on the banks of the Thames west of London

1757 Robert Adam back from Rome
Robert Adam returns to Britain after two years in Rome with a repertoire of classical themes which he mingles to form a new British neoclassicism

1767 Edinburgh's New Town
Work begins on Edinburgh's New Town, to the design of the 23-year-old architect James Craig

1770 Jefferson builds himself a house
27-year-old Thomas Jefferson begins constructing a mansion on a hilltop in Charlottesville, calling it Monticello ('little mountain')

1792 Work begins on Charlotte Square
Charlotte Square in Edinburgh begins to be built to the design of Robert Adam

1800 President moves into White House
US president John Adams moves into the newly completed White House, named for its light grey limestone

1805 Sezincote brings India to Gloucestershire
With advice from Thomas Daniell, Samuel Pepys Cockerell builds himself a house, Sezincote, with a roof line of fanciful Indian domes

1815 Exotic pavilion in Brighton
English architect John Nash designs the exotic Royal Pavilion in Brighton for the Prince Regent

1822 Walter Scott starts Abbotsford
Walter Scott begins to transform Abbotsford into a romantic house that he refers to as his 'conundrum castle'

1835 Pugin and the Gothic Revival
English architect and designer Augustus Welby Pugin plays a major part in the second stage of the Gothic Revival

1837 Barry begins Houses of Parliament
Work begins on Charles Barry's spectacular design for London's new Houses of Parliament

1851 Osborne House completed
Thomas Cubitt completes Osborne House, designed as a quiet retreat for Victoria and Albert on the Isle of Wight

1851 Crystal Palace built in six months
Joseph Paxton's Crystal Palace, built in London in six months, is the world's first example of prefabricated architecture

1852 Victoria opens new House of Parliament
Queen Victoria opens the new Houses of Parliament, designed by Charles Barry and Augustus Welby Pugin

1852 Crystal Palace moves across river
The Crystal Palace is dismantled in Hyde Park, to be re-erected south of the river Thames at Sydenham

1856 New royal castle at Balmoral
Victoria and Albert complete their fairy-tale castle at Balmoral, adding greatly to the nation's romantic view of Scotland

1859 Big Ben chimes
A 13-ton bell is installed above London's Houses of Parliament, soon giving its name (Big Ben) to both the clock and the clock-tower

1863 Albert Memorial
British architect George Gilbert Scott designs a memorial for Prince Albert in Kensington Gardens

1881 Adler and Sullivan join forces
The Chicago architects Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan set up a partnership

1883 Gaudí begins work on Sagrada Familia
Antoni Gaudí begins a life-long commitment to the building of a modern cathedral in Barcelona, El Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia

1898 Howard launches 'garden city' concept
English town-planner Ebenezer Howard puts forward a Utopian scheme in Tomorrow a Peaceful Path to Real Reform

1901 Voysey builds at Chorley Wood
Charles Voysey completes a house for himself, The Orchard, at Chorley Wood in Hertfordshire

1901 Wright's Prairie Houses
Frank Lloyd Wright designs low residential buildings, suitable for the plains around Chicago, and calls them Prairie Houses

1904 Saarinen to build Helsinki railway station
Finnish architect Gottlieb Eliel Saarinen wins the competition to build Helsinki's railway station

1904 Hill House completed in Helensburgh
The publisher Walter Blackie moves into Hill House at Helensburgh, designed for him by Charles Rennie Mackintosh

1904 Schlesinger and Meyer Department Store
US architect Louis Sullivan completes the Schlesinger & Meyer Store (later known as the Carson, Pirie & Scott Store) in Chicago

1906 Post Office Savings Bank in Vienna
The first part of the Post Office Savings Bank in Vienna is completed, to the designs of Otto Wagner

1906 City Hall and Law Courts in Cardiff
Cardiff's new Civic Centre is launched with the completion of the City Hall and Law Courts, designed by Lanchester, Stewart and Rickards

1906 Gaudí's Casa Batlló
Antoni Gaudí completes his radical rebuilding of the Casa Batlló in Barcelona

1906 Frank Lloyd Wright's Unity Temple
Frank Lloyd Wright builds a Unity Temple for the Unitarians in Oak Park, now a suburb of Chicago

1907 Le Corbusier's first commission
20-year-old Le Corbusier builds his first house at La Chaux-de-Fonds, in his native Switzerland

1908 Adolf Loos's Ornament and Crime
Modernist architect Adolf Loos attacks architectural ornament in Ornament and Crime

1910 Liver Building completed
The Liver Building, surmounted by two legendary Liver Birds, is completed in Liverpool

1910 Gaudí's Casa Milá
Antoni Gaudí completes an apartment block, the Casa Milá, in Barcelona

1910 Steiner House in Vienna
The Steiner House, designed by the Austrian architect Adolf Loos, is completed in Vienna

1911 Penn Station completed
Pennsylvania Station opens in New York, designed by McKim, Mead & White

1911 Wright designs Taliesin
Frank Lloyd Wright designs Taliesin, as his own home and studio, near Bear Run in Wisconsin

1911 Fagus Factory by Gropius
Walter Gropius builds the Fagus Factory at Alfeld an der Leine in Germany

1911 Chapel for Knights of the Thistle
Robert Lorimer completes a chapel for the Knights of the Thistle in St Giles' Cathedral in Edinburgh

1912 International Modern style in architecture
Walter Gropius and other architects in Germany develop the International Modern style

1913 Grand Central Station
A new and spectacular Grand Central Station opens in New York, designed by Charles Reed and Alan Stern

1913 Woolworth Building is world's tallest
The Woolworth Building opens in New York as the world's tallest skyscraper, a distinction it retains until 1930

1913 Winning design for Canberra announced
A young American architect, Walter B. Griffin, wins the competition to design Canberra

1913 Lutyens' New Delhi
Construction begins on the government buildings in New Delhi, designed by Edwin Lutyens and Herbert 1Baker

1914 Gropius makes his mark
A building by Walter Gropius for the Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Cologne brings him international attention

1914 Gaudí's Park Güell
Antoni Gaudí completes the fanciful Park Güell, a residential project north of Barcelona based on the English concept of the garden city

1915 Maison Domino
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret develops Maison Domino, a system of low-cost housing with reinforced concrete columns and precast floors

1916 Corbusier's Villa Schwob
The Villa Schwob is completed, the last house designed by Le Corbusier in La Chaux-de-Fonds and one of the first in the world to use reinforced concrete

1919 Gropius and the Bauhaus
Walter Gropius becomes director of the newly formed Bauhaus in Weimar

1920 Le Corbusier's L'Esprit Nouveau
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret launches and edits a radical architectural journal, L'Esprit Nouveau

1920 Jeanneret adopts a pseudonym
The Swiss architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret adopts the simpler Le Corbusier as a pseudonym in L'Esprit Nouveau

1921 Klee at the Bauhaus
Paul Klee becomes a teacher at the Bauhaus in Weimar

1921 Le Corbusier in partnership with cousin
The Swiss architect Le Corbusier begins a 20-year partnership with his cousin, Pierre Jeanneret

1923 Le Corbusier's New Architecture
Le Corbusier publishes an influential collection of his articles under the title Towards a New Architecture

1926 Loos builds for dadaist poet
The Austrian architect Adolf Loos builds a house in Paris for the Romanian dadaist poet Tristan Tzara

1926 Sagrada Familia incomplete on Gaudí's death
Spanish architect Antoni Gaudí dies after being hit by a tram, with his masterpiece the Sagrada Familia unfinished

1926 Monument to Liebknecht and Luxemburg
Mies van der Rohe designs a monument in Berlin for the Spartacus leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg

1926 Bauhaus moves to Dessau
Walter Gropius designs buildings in Dessau as a new home for the Bauhaus

1927 Weissenhofsiedlung defines Modernism
Stuttgart's Weissenhofsiedlung, designed by Mies van der Rohe, le Corbusier, Gropius and others, sets a defining standard for International Modernism

1928 Architects establish CIAM
Le Corbusier and other modernist architects set up the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM)

1930 Irish National War Memorial
The Irish National War Memorial opens in Dublin, designed by Edwin Lutyens in a garden setting

1930 Chrysler Building
The Chrysler Building opens in New York as the world's tallest skyscraper, but holds the record for only one year

1931 Empire State Building
President Hoover switches on the lights to inaugurate the world's new tallest skyscraper, the Empire State Building in New York

1932 Lubetkin and Tecton
Russian-born architect Berthold Lubetkin and others set up in London the modernist firm of Tecton

1934 Speer designs Nuremberg rally
Nazi architect Albert Speer designs a spectacular new setting for the party's annual Nuremberg rally

1934 London penguins in modernist setting
Berthold Lubetkin and Ove Arup provide a modernist pool for the penguins in London Zoo

1934 Gropius leaves Germany
Openly hostile to the Nazis, the architect Walter Gropius moves to England and three years later makes the USA his home

1935 Aalto at Viipury
The Viipury Library in Finland makes the reputation of a young Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto

1935 Wright designs Fallingwater
Frank Lloyd Wright designs Fallingwater in Mill Run, Pennsylvania, for Edgar Kaufmann

1936 Frank Lloyd Wright designs low-cost housing
Frank Lloyd Wright experiments with prefabrication for low-cost housing in a style he calls Usonian (meaning 'in the US style')

1936 Berlin stadium by Werner March
German architect Werner March designs spectacular buildings for the Berlin Olympics

1937 Wright designs Taliesin West
US architect Frank Lloyd Wright designs Taliesin West in Arizona as his winter home and studio

1938 The Culture of Cities
US architectural critic Lewis Mumford publishes The Culture of Cities

1944 Monte Cassino in ruins
The monastery and town of Monte Cassino are left in ruins after the Allies finally break through the German defences

1945 Brutalism in architecture
Le Corbusier's use of béton brut (raw concrete) introduces Brutalism

1948 Le Corbusier's Modulor
Swiss-born French architect Le Corbusier introduces the Modulor, an architectural unit based on the Golden Section

1949 Johnson's Glass House
US architect Philip Johnson builds the Glass House in Connecticut in the International Style

1950 Le Corbusier develops Chandigarh
Le Corbusier begins a 15-year project designing Chandigarh as a new joint capital for Punjab and Hariyana

1951 Skylon by Powell & Moya
British architects Arnold Powell and John Moya design the Skylon as a central feature for the Festival of Britain

1951 Spence to design Coventry cathedral
British architect Basil Spence wins the competition to design a new cathedral for Coventry

1951 Pevsner begins Buildings of England
British art historian Nikolaus Pevsner undertakes a massive task, a county-by-county description of The Buildings of England

1951 Matisse's chapel at Vence
Henri Matisse completes the Chapel of the Rosary at Vence, with every detail designed by himself

1952 Le Corbusier's Unité d'Habitation
Le Corbusier's completes his most massive modernist development, the Unité d'Habitation at Marseilles

1953 Kahn's art gallery for Yale
US architect Louis Kahn makes his reputation with the Yale Art Gallery in New Haven

1954 Corbusier church at Ronchamp
Le Corbusier completes the reinforced-concrete pilgrimage church of Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp

1957 Utzon to design opera house for Sydney
Danish architect Jørn Utzon wins the competition to design Sydney Opera House

1957 Niemeyer to design Brasilia
Oscar Niemeyer is appointed chief architect for his country's new capital, Brasilia

1958 Seagram Building
Mies van der Rohe and Philip Johnson complete a skyscraper for Seagram in New York

1959 Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum opens in New York after seventeen years of work on the project

1960 Brasilia becomes capital city
The Brazilian government moves to Brasilia, into public buildings designed by Oscar Niemeyer

1962 Coventry's new cathedral
Coventry's new cathedral is inaugurated, enhanced by a wide range of work by leading British artists

1962 Saarinen's TWA building
Finnish-born US architect Eero Saarinen completes his TWA terminal for New York's Kennedy airport

1963 Foster and Rogers form Team 4
Young British architects Norman Foster and Richard Rogers work together as Team 4

1966 Work begins on Twin Towers
Construction work begins on the twin towers for the World Trade Center in New York, designed by US architect Minoru Yamasaki

1967 Geodesic dome at Expo 67
The US pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal is a geodesic dome by the architect Buckminster Fuller

1973 Sears Towers
The Sears Tower opens in Chicago, displacing the Empire State as the tallest building in the world

1973 Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House opens with a performance by Australian Opera of Prokofiev's War and Peace

1974 Buildings of England
German-born British art historian Nikolaus Pevsner completes his monumental 46-volume Buildings of England

1975 Willis Faber building
The Willis Faber building, by English architect Norman Foster, is completed in Ipswich

1976 National Theatre in London
Britain's new National Theatre, designed by Denys Lasdun, opens on the South Bank in London,

1977 Pompidou Centre
The Pompidou Centre, designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers, opens in Paris

1983 A.T. & T. skyscraper in New York
Philip Johnson completes the A.T. & T. skyscraper in New York, an early example of Post-Modernism

1984 New Stuttgart art gallery
British architects James Stirling and Michael Wilford complete a new art gallery for Stuttgart

1987 Libeskind's City Edge project
US architect Daniel Libeskind designs the City Edge project in Berlin, building it up from startlingly fragmented forms

1988 Parliament completed in Canberra
The 'new and permanent' Parliament House of Australia is completed in Canberra

1988 Gehry House in Santa Monica
US architect Frank Gehry builds a strikingly unconventional house for his family in Santa Monica

1993 Pei's pyramid for the Louvre
US architect Ieoh Ming Pei completes his underground extension of the Louvre, surmounted by a glass pyramid

1994 Kansai airport
Italian architect Renzo Piano completes Kansai airport, on an artificial island in Osaka bay

1997 Guggenheim in Bilbao
Frank Gehry wins world-wide attention with his design for the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao

1998 Hong Kong International Airport
The British architectural firm of Foster & Partners completes the Hong Kong International Airport

2015 May 21 Palmyra taken
The ancient city of Palmyra in Syria, famous for its remains of classical architecture, is captured by the Islamic State (ISIS)