What house materials are the least flammable?

Reinforced concrete and solid grouted reinforced CMU are the most fire-resistant. Heavy steel with fireproofing is considered equivalent. Brick masonry. Light gauge metal framing with fireproofing. Heavy timber (6×6 and bigger). Light gauge metal framing without fireproofing. Wood-framed would be the least fire-resistant. As a side note, you need to be careful with stone, clay, …

How are speed limits for roads determined?

The simple and unsatisfying answer is traffic engineers doing traffic analyses. A bit more in-depth answer is that roads are broadly divided into highways, arterials, collectors, and streets. Highways connect cities. Arterials are the major routes within cities. Collectors are branch or minor streets but not residential. Streets are your typical residential street. Roads can …

Why does an increase in the total height of a building not always result into an increase of unit cost of production?

Most unit prices consist of averaged prices across a class of project. A typical example would a multi-family project. A multi-family residential building from 3–5 stories will not change much per square foot either at 3 stories or 5 as far as estimates go. At 6 stories you will see a price jump as structural …

Why doesn’t the world change the architecture of the homes, and buildings to look more pretty, like in medieval times?

There are few things you need to remember about old, historic and/or period buildings and housing. You aren’t seeing the typical example from the time. You are seeing the best, most expensive, most well preserved examples. Most of the examples you’ve seen are the mega-mansions of their time. The next thing is homes and buildings …

In land where it is required to use as little space as possible, why would many consecutive buildings be several yards apart?

Most of the other answers are rather entertaining while only touching on the truth. The reason is fire and human safety. Most long-lived cities that don’t have these spaces, called setbacks, have either burned down or were demolished to place setbacks. Setbacks are areas around structures or properties used to stage fire fighting activities and …

Should I repoint/retuck my old 1890 limestone foundation with Type O mortar or Type N? The old mortar is crumbling.

In general, it won’t make much of a difference whether you use type O or N mortar in this case. Also, I would stay away from lime mixes unless you in fact know that was what was used before (its also amongst the weakest mortar types). You are more interested in the components of your …

If there is a lifespan for skyscrapers, do we need to rebuild cities like Hong Kong, New York, Dubai, Chicago etc.?

Most skyscrapers are assumed to have a lifespan of about 150 years. Modern maintenance and construction methods have been extending that so that older examples getting near that number are proving to have considerably longer lifespans. But in many of the cities you’ve mentioned skyscraper tend to get replaced every 50–70 years, especially when they …