Required reading: The skyscraper

Western Europe's tallest building is open to the public at last. So why do skyscrapers continue to fascinate and infuriate in equal measure?

The Shard, London’s new 95-storey skyscraper, opened its doors to the public last week. Tickets to the viewing deck – with views all the way to the North Sea on the Essex coast – are selling out weeks in advance.

At 306 metres, the tower is the tallest building in Western Europe. But the Italian architect Renzo Piano’s construction has divided Londoners: for some, it is both an eyesore and a reminder of the UK capital’s reliance on overseas money (it was funded by a consortium of Qatari investors); for others, it’s a contemporary symbol of London’s ambition.

• It's commonly accepted that the first skyscraper was built in Chicago in 1884. Read Judith Dupree's Skyscrapers: A History of the World's Most Extraordinary Buildings to learn about the 10-storey Home Insurance Building and its use of a steel frame structure – an innovation that fueled the age of the skyscraper.

• It was in New York in the 1920s, though, that skyscrapers came of age. Lewis W Hine: The Empire State Building collects Hine's iconic photographs of the building's construction: at 432m, it was the world's tallest for 40 years. Meanwhile, Manhattan Skyscrapers by Eric Peter Nash paints a portrait of the world's most famous skyline.

• After a long reign, New York City is no longer home to the world's tallest buildings. Read about Taipei 101 and the Shanghai World Financial Centre – both were at one time over the last few years the world's tallest building – in The World's Most Amazing Skyscrapers. Then move your attention to the current holder of that title: Dubai's Burj Khalifa, which stands (as if you didn't know) at an incredible 829m, but you can build your own version if you follow the instructions in Burj Khalifa: Cut and Assemble (Dover Publications, Dh63).