Short answers, pulled from the story.
A building is an enclosed structure with a roof, walls, and often windows that stands more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. In the broadest interpretation, even a fence or wall counts as a building, though the word structure is used more broadly to include human-made and natural formations without walls.
According to Sturgis' Dictionary, a building differs from architecture in excluding all idea of artistic treatment, and it differs from construction in excluding scientific or highly skillful treatment. A building is the basic structure with a roof and walls, while architecture adds art and construction adds science and skill.
There is clear evidence of homebuilding from around 18,000 BC. Buildings became common during the Neolithic period.
Buildings are sorted by purpose into residential, commercial, industrial, and agricultural types. Residential buildings include houses and apartment buildings, commercial buildings house at least one business where nobody lives, industrial buildings include warehouses and factories, and agricultural buildings include barns on farms.
Buildings are defined as substantial, permanent structures, so forms such as yurts and motorhomes are considered dwellings but not buildings. The distinction rests on permanence and substance rather than function.
Creating a building is a collective effort that may include a real estate developer, financial institutions or investors, planning and code authorities, a surveyor, construction managers, licensed architects and engineers, landscape architects, interior designers, contractors, marketing or leasing agents, and facility managers. The principal design engineering disciplines normally include civil, structural, and mechanical engineers, plus building services such as HVAC, plumbing, and drainage.
Buildings may be damaged during construction or maintenance, or by accidents involving storms, explosions, subsidence from mining or water withdrawal, poor foundations, and landslides. They may also suffer fire damage and flooding, or become dilapidated through lack of proper maintenance or improperly carried out alteration work.