Pavement lights first appeared in London in the late 1880s in the form of cast iron frames glazed with cut squares of glass.

Facade retention – the removal and renewal of a building's innards, walls, columns and floors while retaining its original front or outer walls – plays an important role in preserving the architectural character and historic fabric of many city centres. It can, however, be a complex and expensive exercise. This programme takes a look at some of the technical aspects of facade retention through the outline design sequence.

This programme will look at the general processes of façade design, issues to consider when designing as well as some glazing types.

An understanding of how sound behaves in modern offices, and how to control excessive airborne sound, or noise as it then becomes known, is essential. Through the use of computer modelling, noise mapping and a knowledge of processes including flanking and noise masking, this programme looks at how acoustic engineers tailor to achieve that control.

If you're called upon to undertake a structural survey or inspection, how exactly should you go about approaching the task? How do you analyse the assortment of information you collate?

Given that dry rot is one type of rot - Serpula lacrymans - and all the others are white rots, our contributors explain why increasingly fungal rots are being classified as either brown or white.

Significant uses of nanotechnology have surfaced in the last few years with applications for architectural design and the construction of built environments. The programme contains several interviews with experts.

Austin Williams explores the difference between fixings and fastenings with a focus on nails and screws.

Filmed entirely on location, this programme looks at the increasingly common phenomenon of vertical gardens, or living walls as they have become known.

We explore the hazards of moisture penetration in external walls and ways to avoid problems.

The London Development Agency (LDA) and the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) have launched a new, mapped database of London's brownfield land called The London Brownfield Sites Database (LBSD).

Whether the ground floor of a house is suspended or filled, it will include either a solid slab or an oversite layer of concrete laid on compacted hardcore directly on the ground. Both hardcore and soil are potential sources of sulfates and other chemicals harmful to concrete. This programme investigates the hardcore components and soil conditions likely to contain sulfates, explains how concrete is affected by sulfate attack and looks at methods used to prevent such damage.