Channel 4 is having a mini architecture week, with a nightly slot, Why Do Architects Care So Much? at 7.55pm, and a documentary on October 8 following a couple as their plan to build their own home turns into a nightmare.

More visually exciting, though, is this two-parter on big buildings in the United States that considers the practical and political motives that encouraged the US to build skyscrapers. Aerial photography, archive film and computer graphics allow us to visualise the Empire State Building and the Kennedy Space Center being rebuilt, and the giant presidential portraits being carved on Mount Rushmore.

We learn how an engineer’s vision becomes real, and what can go wrong. Useful for history, design and technology.