• Ancient Greek Roof TilesHow the Greeks developed interfitting terracotta and marble roof tiles, beginning with the 7th-century BCE Protocorinthian system at Corinth.
• AntefixA vertical ornamental block, usually terracotta, that closed the open end of each cover tile along the eaves of Greek, Etruscan and Roman roofs.
• Asuka-deraJapan's first full Buddhist temple complex, begun in 588 with Baekje craftsmen; the first building in Japan known to have used fired roof tiles.
• Banpo HousesSemi-subterranean round houses with steep, overhanging thatched roofs at Banpo, a Yangshao culture village near Xi'an, China, about 4700-3600 BCE.
• Beijing National StadiumThe 'Bird's Nest' stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, whose roof and facade form a single lattice of about 121,000 tons of steel.
• Border CaveRock shelter in South Africa's Lebombo Mountains with grass bedding about 200,000 years old, among the earliest evidence of prepared resting places.
• Bronze Age and Iron Age RoundhouseThe circular house with a conical thatched roof that was standard in Britain and Ireland from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age.
• Buckminster FullerAmerican designer and inventor (1895-1983) who popularised the geodesic dome, patented in 1954, and designed the US Pavilion at Expo 67.
• Budj Bim Stone HousesRemains of Gunditjmara domed houses with basalt walls in the Budj Bim World Heritage landscape of south-west Victoria, Australia.
• Catalan VaultA shallow vault of thin flat tiles laid in layers without formwork, from Catalonia and Valencia; brought to the US by Rafael Guastavino.
• Çatalhöyük RoofsThe flat roofs of Neolithic Çatalhöyük in Turkey, where houses had no streets between them and people entered from the roof.
• Chaitya VaultThe chaitya vault is the ribbed barrel-vaulted ceiling of ancient Indian Buddhist prayer halls, carved in rock to copy lost roofs of timber and thatch.
• Chinese Glazed Roof TilesGlazed ceramic roof tiles in imperial yellow, green, blue and other colours, used on Chinese palaces and temples to signal rank.
• Chinese Imperial Roof FiguresGlazed ceramic statuettes marching along the ridges of Chinese imperial buildings; their number signalled the building's rank.
• ChiwenChiwen are dragon-like ornaments at the ends of Chinese roof ridges, descended from the Han-period chiwei and believed to protect buildings from fire.
• Church of the Nativity RoofThe timber-trussed, lead-covered roof of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, restored from 2013 after centuries of leaks.
• Churches of ChiloéWooden churches of Chile's Chiloé archipelago, clad in timber shingles; 16 are UNESCO World Heritage Sites inscribed in 2000.
• CrannogAn artificial island dwelling in a lake, bog or estuary in Scotland and Ireland, typically topped by a roundhouse with a conical roof.
• Crystal PalaceJoseph Paxton's iron-and-glass hall for the Great Exhibition of 1851, with a ridge-and-furrow glass roof of about 293,000 panes.
• Dinorwic QuarryA vast former slate quarry above Llanberis, Gwynedd, which employed over 3,000 men in the late 19th century and closed in 1969.
• Dome of St Peter's BasilicaThe double-shelled brick dome of St Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, designed by Michelangelo and completed in 1590 by della Porta and Fontana.
• DougongDougong are interlocking timber bracket sets of blocks and arms that carry the roof and deep eaves of traditional Chinese and East Asian halls.
• Earliest Fired Clay Roof TilesThe oldest known fired clay roof tiles: Neolithic pan and cover tiles from Qiaocun, China, and early flat tiles from mainland Greece.
• Etruscan Terracotta RoofsEtruscan temples of central Italy, from about 600 BC, had timber roofs edged with brightly painted terracotta antefixes, revetments and ridge statues.
• Filippo BrunelleschiFlorentine architect and engineer (1377-1446) who designed and built the dome of Florence Cathedral without timber centring.
• Florence Cathedral DomeBrunelleschi's brick double-shell dome over Florence Cathedral, built 1420-1436 and the first octagonal dome raised without temporary timber centring.
• Foguang Temple East HallThe East Hall of Foguang Temple, Shanxi, completed in 857, is one of China's oldest timber halls, with a hipped tiled roof on Tang bracket sets.
• François MansartFrench Baroque architect (1598-1666) whose frequent use of the double-sloped roof gave the mansard its name.
• Frei OttoGerman architect and engineer (1925-2015), a pioneer of lightweight tensile and membrane roofs, including the Munich Olympic roofs.
• Global Spread of Corrugated IronHow corrugated galvanised iron travelled from Britain to colonial Australia, Africa, the Americas and Asia, becoming one of the world's most common roofs.
• Great Boston Fire of 1872A fire on 9-10 November 1872 that spread across wooden mansard roofs and destroyed 776 buildings in downtown Boston.
• Great Fire of London (1666)The fire of 2-5 September 1666 destroyed about 13,200 houses; the rebuilding laws that followed banned exterior timber and favoured brick, stone and tile.
• Hagia Sophia DomeThe great dome of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, built 532-537, rebuilt after a collapse in 558 and repaired after further failures in 989 and 1346.
• Hammerbeam RoofAn open timber roof truss of English Gothic origin in which short brackets (hammer beams) project from the walls, allowing spans longer than any single timber.
• Hanging Gardens of BabylonA legendary terraced garden, one of the Seven Wonders, often cited as the first roof garden; its existence and location are disputed.
• Hassan FathyEgyptian architect (1900-1989) who revived Nubian mud-brick vaults and domes for low-cost housing, most famously at New Gourna near Luxor.
• Hauran Basalt Corbelled RoofsFlat roofs of long basalt slabs on corbels and stone arches, used in late antique towns of the Hauran in Jordan and Syria.
• Hemudu Stilt HousesRaised timber houses of the Hemudu culture of Zhejiang, China, about 7,000 years old, with the earliest known Chinese mortise-and-tenon joints.
• History of Asbestos Cement RoofingAsbestos cement sheets and slates, patented by Ludwig Hatschek in 1900 and sold as Eternit, roofed buildings worldwide until health risks led to bans.
• History of Asphalt ShinglesAsphalt shingles were first cut from surfaced roll roofing around 1901-1903 in the United States and became North America's most common house roof.
• History of Built-Up RoofingBuilt-up roofing, the layered 'tar and gravel' roof of felts and bitumen, developed in 19th-century America and dominated flat roofs for decades.
• History of Cool RoofsCool roofs reflect sunlight to stay cooler; research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Cool Roof Rating Council (1998) shaped modern practice.
• History of Copper RoofsCopper has roofed temples, cathedrals and castles for centuries, prized for its long life and the green patina it develops over decades.
• History of Green RoofsFrom Scandinavian sod roofs to the modern German green roof industry of the 1970s and city mandates such as Toronto's 2009 by-law.
• History of Japanese KawaraHow fired clay roof tiles (kawara) arrived in Japan with Buddhism in 588 and spread from temples to palaces, castles and ordinary houses.
• History of Korean GiwaGiwa are Korean fired clay roof tiles, introduced with Buddhism in the 4th century and refined in the Three Kingdoms period with lotus-pattern roof-end tiles.
• History of Roll RoofingRoll roofing grew from 19th-century American composition roofing into factory-made rolls of saturated felt, later surfaced with mineral granules.
• History of RoofingAn overview of how people have covered buildings, from brushwood huts and thatch to fired tiles, slate, metal sheet, asphalt and synthetic membranes.
• History of Roofing Fire RegulationsHow urban fires led cities to ban thatch and wood roofs, from London in 1212 to Boston in 1631 and 1872 and the US push against wood shingles in 1916.
• History of Single-Ply MembranesHow factory-made sheets of synthetic rubber and plastics (EPDM, CSPE, PVC, TPO) replaced much hot-applied built-up roofing on flat roofs.
• History of Standing Seam RoofingStanding seam roofing grew from centuries-old hand-folded joints in copper, lead and zinc sheet into today's machine-formed metal panel systems.
• History of Thatch in BritainThatch was the main roof of rural England until the late 1800s; around 60,000 thatched properties survive in the UK, some with base coats over 500 years old.
• History of the Geodesic DomeGeodesic domes, spherical frames of triangles, were first built by Walther Bauersfeld in Jena in the 1920s and popularised by Buckminster Fuller after 1948.
• History of the Mansard RoofThe mansard is a double-sloped hip roof named after François Mansart; it first appeared around 1550 and boomed with Second Empire architecture.
• History of Timber Roof FramingHow carpenters moved from simple paired rafters to medieval trusses, hammerbeams and, in modern times, factory-made metal-plate trusses.
• Imbrex and TegulaThe ancient Greek and Roman roof tile system of flat tiles (tegulae) with half-round tiles (imbrices) covering the joints.
• Invention of Corrugated Iron (1829)In 1829 Henry Robinson Palmer of the London Dock Company patented corrugated metal sheets, whose ridges let thin iron span roofs unsupported.
• Jesuit Mission Roof Tiles of South AmericaFired clay roof tiles made at the Jesuit missions of Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia from the 17th century, replacing straw roofs.
• Jomon Pit DwellingsSemi-sunken houses of Japan's Jomon period, with post-supported roofs of thatch or packed earth, best known from Sannai-Maruyama and Goshono.
• Jørn UtzonDanish architect (1918-2008) who designed the Sydney Opera House, with its tiled shell roofs, and won the Pritzker Prize in 2003.
• Joseph PaxtonEnglish gardener, glasshouse designer and MP (1803-1865) who designed the Crystal Palace and its ridge-and-furrow glass roof.
• Joya de CerénMaya farming village in El Salvador buried by a volcanic eruption around 600 CE, preserving earthen buildings and their thatched roofs.
• Kalambo Falls Wooden StructureTwo notched, joined logs from Kalambo Falls, Zambia, dated to at least 476,000 years ago: the oldest known structural use of wood.
• Khmer Corbel VaultThe stepped stone and brick vaulting, without a true arch, used to roof the temples and galleries of Angkor in Cambodia from the 9th century.
• Lazaret Cave ShelterA cave in Nice, France, where a line of stones has been interpreted as the base of a skin tent pitched against the wall about 186,000-127,000 years ago.
• Lepenski Vir HousesTrapezoidal Mesolithic-Neolithic houses on the Danube in Serbia with plastered floors and stone hearths; how they were roofed is still debated.
• Linear Pottery LonghouseThe long timber houses of Europe's first farmers, the Linear Pottery (LBK) culture, with thatched roofs carried on three internal rows of posts.
• Ludwig HatschekAustrian industrialist (1855-1914) who patented the asbestos cement sheet process in 1900 and named the product Eternit in 1903.
• Medieval Lead RoofsSheet lead was the prestige covering for medieval cathedrals, abbeys and halls in Europe, valued for its watertightness and ease of shaping.
• Mezhyrich Mammoth-Bone DwellingsIce Age shelters in central Ukraine built around a base of mammoth skulls and long bones, probably covered with hides or bark and weighted with tusks.
• Millennium DomeLondon's fabric-roofed dome, 365 m (1,200 ft) across with 12 masts, opened for the year 2000 and now housing the O2 entertainment complex.
• Munich Olympic Stadium RoofThe cable-net tent roof of acrylic glass over Munich's Olympic Park, designed by Behnisch & Partner with Frei Otto and completed in 1972.
• Must FarmA Bronze Age stilt village in Cambridgeshire, England, that burned about 850 BCE, preserving roundhouse roofs of straw, turf and clay in the river silt.
• Natufian Round HousesRound, semi-sunken houses with dry-stone footings built by the Natufian culture of the Levant about 15,000-11,500 years ago, before farming.
• Notre-Dame de Paris Roof Fire (2019)The fire of 15 April 2019 destroyed Notre-Dame's 13th-century oak roof 'forest', its lead covering and spire; both were rebuilt in oak and lead by 2024.
• Nyakatsi (Rwandan Thatched House)Nyakatsi is the Kinyarwanda term for a grass-thatched house; Rwanda's 2009-2011 'Bye Bye Nyakatsi' campaign replaced them with metal-roofed homes.
• Ohalo IIA submerged camp on the Sea of Galilee, Israel, about 23,000 years old, with six oval brush huts: among the oldest well-preserved built shelters.
• Ottoman Domes in the BalkansDomed mosques built under Ottoman rule across the Balkans, usually brick domes covered with tiles at first and with lead sheet by the 16th century.
• Pantheon DomeThe concrete dome of the Pantheon in Rome, completed around 126 CE, still the largest unreinforced concrete dome in the world at 43.3 m (142 ft).
• Penrhyn QuarryA slate quarry near Bethesda, Gwynedd, which at the end of the 19th century was the largest slate quarry in the world and is still worked.
• Penrhyn Strike (1900-1903)A three-year strike and lock-out at Penrhyn slate quarry in Wales, often called the longest dispute in British industrial history.
• Pit HouseA dwelling built over a pit dug into the ground, with a roof springing from at or near ground level; found worldwide from the Palaeolithic to the 20th century.
• Prehistoric Shelters and Early ThatchWhat archaeology can and cannot say about the first roofs: brushwood huts, mammoth-bone dwellings and the likely Neolithic origin of straw thatch.
• Prehistory of RoofingHow archaeologists reconstruct the earliest roofs and shelters, from Lower Palaeolithic woodworking to Neolithic longhouses and Bronze Age roundhouses.
• Ramesseum Granary VaultsMud-brick barrel-vaulted storerooms at the Ramesseum in Luxor, built under Ramesses II in the 13th century BC; among Egypt's oldest standing true arches.
• Raupo Houses OrdinanceNew Zealand’s first building law (1842), which taxed raupō and thatched buildings in towns to reduce fire risk.
• Roman Brick and Tile StampsMarks pressed into Roman bricks and roof tiles before firing, naming makers, owners, legions or consuls; archaeologists use them to date buildings.
• Roofs of the Forbidden CityThe yellow-glazed tiled roofs of Beijing's imperial palace, built 1406-1420, whose colours, forms and ridge figures encode imperial rank.
• Scandinavian Sod RoofsTurf laid over layers of birch bark, the traditional roof of rural Norway and much of Scandinavia from prehistory until the 18th-19th centuries.
• Skara Brae and Neolithic Orkney RoofsThe debate over how the stone houses of Skara Brae, Orkney, were roofed, and the sandstone roof slabs found at the nearby Ness of Brodgar.
• Slate Landscape of Northwest WalesA UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 2021, recognising the Gwynedd slate quarries that roofed much of the world from 1780 to 1940.
• St Paul's Cathedral DomeChristopher Wren's triple-layered dome over St Paul's Cathedral, London, completed in 1708-1711 and rising 111 m (365 ft) to the cross.
• Sydney Opera House RoofThe shell roofs of the Sydney Opera House, built of precast concrete ribs and panels and clad in 1,056,006 Swedish-made ceramic tiles.
• Taq KasraThe great Sasanian brick vault at Ctesiphon, Iraq, about 37 m high and 26 m wide, built without centring.
• Terne PlateTerne plate is iron or steel sheet coated with a dull lead-tin alloy, historically used for painted roofs; it is no longer produced.
• Terra AmataA Lower Palaeolithic beach site in Nice, France, interpreted as a camp of pole-and-hide huts about 400,000 years old; the interpretation is disputed.
• Tin Roof"Tin roof" historically meant iron sheet coated with tin (tinplate); today it is a colloquial name for almost any sheet-metal roof.
• Viking Age LonghouseThe long, often curved-walled farmhouse of Viking Age Scandinavia, roofed with reed, straw, turf or wooden shingles depending on region and status.
• Welsh Slate IndustryThe slate quarries of north-west Wales, which by the late 19th century produced about a third of the world's roofing slate.
• Westminster Hall RoofThe oak hammerbeam roof of Westminster Hall, London, commissioned by Richard II in 1393 and the largest medieval timber roof in northern Europe.
• YakhchālA Persian ice house: a tall domed earth structure over a deep pit, used to store ice through the desert summer.
• Yingzao FashiThe Yingzao Fashi is a Chinese building manual by Li Jie, published in 1103, that standardised timber framing, bracketing, tiling and glazes.
• Zinc Roofs of ParisThe grey zinc roofscape of Paris, established in the mid-19th century under Napoleon III and Haussmann and proposed for UNESCO listing since 2014.