HOSPITALITY DESIGN INSIGHTS

How the Portuguese spice trade moved pepper, cloves and cinnamon through Lisbon's Casa da Índia and carried chilli from Brazil to Africa and Goa.

The American barn explained: Dutch and English barns, Pennsylvania bank barns, the Shaker round barn, gambrel roofs and Mail Pouch signs.

How world's fair pavilions tested new architecture, from the Crystal Palace of 1851 to Barcelona, the Atomium, Habitat 67, Osaka and Expo 2010 Shanghai.

Chinese bird-and-flower painting from Huang Quan and Xu Xi to Huizong's Song academy, Ming court painters, Yun Shouping and the Lingnan school.

How the 1830s gin palace, with its plate glass, gas lighting and mahogany bar, shaped the Victorian pub interior and British pub history.

The cabinet of curiosities, or wunderkammer, from Renaissance princes and Ole Worm to the Tradescants and Hans Sloane, whose collections founded major museums.

How linen is made from flax, from 30,000-year-old fibres in Georgia and Egyptian royal linen to Flemish retting, Belfast mills and Europe's flax belt.

Spanish wrought iron explained: the Catalan forge, the rejeros and the cathedral rejas of Seville, Granada and Valladolid, through to Gaudí's Casa Vicens.

Amman limestone explained: the Cretaceous and Eocene stone quarried from Ma'an to Ajlun, its tubzeh and musamsam finishes and the rules behind its façades.

Yakusha-e kabuki actor prints, from Torii school theatre signboards and Edo playbills to Sharaku, Kunisada, Osaka kamigata-e and the 20th-century poster.

Post-and-beam framing explained: medieval crucks and box frames, half-timbering, Horyu-ji, New England houses, balloon framing and mass timber.

Mason jar history, from Nicolas Appert and John Landis Mason's 1858 patent to Ball, Kerr, USDA canning guidance and the jar's use as a drinking glass.

The open kitchen, from Escoffier's hidden Savoy brigade and the diner counter to Spago in 1982, plus how designers plan it and what research shows.

How restaurant wine walls store and display wine, from storage temperature and light to Champagne's chalk cellars, Bordeaux chais and Aureole's wine tower.

A history of the sky bar, from New York's 1890s roof gardens and the 1934 Rainbow Room to revolving restaurants and Asia's hotel sky bars.

The history of the hotel bar, from New York’s Waldorf and the Savoy’s American Bar to the Raffles Long Bar, the King Cole Bar and Bemelmans Bar.

Wellness tourism traced from Roman Bath and the Great Spa Towns of Europe to Japan's onsen, Rancho La Puerta and the modern hotel spa.

Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong history, from The Mandarin's 1963 opening on Connaught Road to the Oriental Bangkok stake and the 2006 reopening.

How sand dunes form, from saltation and ripples to barchan, linear and star dunes, and the types of sand dunes found in Arabia's Rub' al Khali.

Hengqin Island history: Portuguese claims, oyster farms and villages, the 2009 new area plan and the Guangdong-Macao cooperation zone beside Macao.

Singapore's Garden City vision explained: Lee Kuan Yew's 1967 plan, roadside planting, park connectors and the City in Nature goals of the Green Plan 2030.

Frankincense in Oman: how Dhofar's Boswellia resin was harvested, carried along the incense trade routes and shipped from ports now listed by UNESCO.

How Burj Khalifa was engineered: SOM's buttressed core and Y-shaped plan, wind tunnel testing, deep pile foundations and the 828-metre tower's 2010 opening.

The London and Greenwich Railway opened in 1836 on a viaduct of 878 brick arches. Its engineer, its history and how the arches became shops and bars.