ABSTRACT
A modern skyscraper is a mutation of the tall building of the past: the tower, originally from the Roman empire. The antique tower is a vertical accumulation of ordinary houses stacked on each other. Our civilisation inherited this archetype: belfries, donjons, campaniles and minarets are of the same primordial design. Pagodas of East Asia may have had a similar origin, with a design pattern slightly different.
