David Macaulay wrote a series of illustrated books about the construction of various types of historical buildings such as a castle, a cathedral, the pyramids and a few others. The first, Castle was made into a PBS documentary but I'm not sure if any others made the jump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGbPShUpjpg
Edit: Looks like Cathedral, Pyramid, Roman City and Mill were also made into documentaries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZpOd2pHiI0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnHcG9oE9Ec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9K7Yds8bWz4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toV9uIDIJMs
I'd be more worried about zinc oxide.