The race for high rise buildings began in the nineteenth century in New York and Chicago, as demand for land far outstripped supply. As engineers continued to make breakthroughs in construction methods and technology, the race for making taller buildings never stopped. The science of tall building design is evolving rapidly, using widely the power of computers to design and to model the most audacious and complex buildings coming from the fertile imagination and creativity of architects.
The motivation to build tall has changed over time, as has the definition of ‘tall’, the materials we use and the designs that are possible. While the high-rise buildings that we know today became possible with the inventions of elevators, newer building materials and structural engineering systems, multi-storey construction dates back to the Roman Empire and vertical cities have been around for centuries. The vast majority of high rise buildings are made of reinforced concrete. 
Some very early buildings used brick and concrete combinations and most modern buildings have a higher proportion of steelwork, but concrete remains the standard material. other elements include brick, glass, plastics etc.
A high rise building is a tall building as opposed to a low ride building and is defined differently in terms of height. A very high tall rise building is referred to as a skyscraper. 
The materials use for the structural system of high rise buildings are reinforced concrete and steel. skyscrapers have a steel frame, while residential blocks are usually constructed of concrete. High rise structures pose particular challenges for structural and geotechnical engineers. 
High-rise buildings became possible to construct with the invention of the elevator (lift) and with less expensive, more abundant building materials. The materials used for the structural system of high-rise buildings are mostly reinforced concrete and steel. Most North American-style skyscrapers have a steel frame, while residential blocks are usually constructed of concrete. There is no clear difference between a tower block and a skyscraper, although a building with forty or more stories and taller than 150 metres (490 ft) is generally considered a skyscraper.
CONCRETE 
Composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement that hardens over time. It is a widely used material in building construction. It is very hard and can withstand high compression loads but it cannot resist tension loads, thus making it good pillars but poor for beams.  Steel reinforcing wire or bars are thus being imbedded within the concrete slab.
The widespread use of concrete bears a number of environmental impacts, [producing large volumes of greenhouse emissions. Significant research and development is being done to try and reduce the emissions or increase recycled and secondary raw material content into the mix.  
Concrete is a key material for structures resilient to climate disasters.
Concrete floors were found in the royal palace of Tiryns, Greece. The Assyrian jerwan aqueduct 688 BC made use of waterproof concrete. Concrete was used for construction in many ancient structures. 

During the roman empire (300 BC – 476 AD) concrete made from quicklime, pozzolana and pumice were extensively used.
The colosseum in Rome was built largely of concrete and the pantheon has the world’s large unreinforced concrete dome

Modern structural concrete is more fluid and homogenous than the one used in roman empire. 

BRICK 
A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. It is a block composed of dried clay. Bricks can be joined using mortar, adhesive or by interlocking them.
Bricks are produced in numerous types, materials and sizes. it is one of the rarest material to be used as a construction material for high rise building due to relatively limited strength under load .in general load bearing walls made of brick seldom extends to floor. brickwork walls that are load bearing are much thicker than concrete walls and provide better fire resistance than the latter. 
Brickwork walls that are load bearing are (pro-rata) much thicker than concrete walls and this thickness also provides for better behaviour in fire.
Dry Brickwork does not suffer from spalling in the same way as concrete but failure, although uncommon is hard to predict.

Arc by Crown Group in Sydney, designed by Koichi Takada Architects // Working within a heritage precinct in the Sydney CBD, the Arc by Crown Group strikes a balance between seamlessly enhancing the existing streetscape, and providing a fresh and recognizable addition to Sydney’s skyline.

STEEL
A primary raw material for skyscraper construction, an alloy of iron and carbon. it the world’s most important engineering construction material. It typically has 2?rbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance. Steel is more likely to bend or deform when exposed to extreme pressures rather than suddenly crack and break. Because of this, steel buildings rarely collapse as they can flex in extreme wind or an earthquake.

Steel buildings can be designed to withstand a 160 mph sustained wind and are often recommended for places even with the highest seismic rankings. Steel is a fire-resistant material so, fire spreads slowly through a steel building. While you can burn a conventional building down with one match, steel is virtually flame retardant. This is especially important if the building is a medical facility, office, retail space, workshop or any other public space. It is the most recycled material in the world with more than 80 million tons reused per year making it environmentally safer. 

Building a high rise or any multi-level building demands the use of light-weight yet strong materials. Steel, by virtue of its high strength to weight ratio enables large spans and light weight construction. Steel structures can have a variety of structural forms like braced frames and moment resistant frames suitable to meet the specific requirements of higher buildings. Building tall with steel also allows more floors per total height of the building. This is due to the fact that the building structure in steel is lighter and more efficient, and has beams and that are not required to be as deep as those of concrete to support the floors.

REINFORCED CONCRETE
Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and Ferro concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ductility. The reinforcement is usually, though not necessarily, steel bars (rebar) and is usually embedded passively in the concrete before the concrete sets.
In reinforced concrete, the tensile strength of steel and the compressive strength of concrete work together to allow the member to sustain these stresses over considerable spans. The invention of reinforced concrete in the 19th century revolutionized the construction industry, and concrete became one of the world’s most common building materials.
Reinforced concrete can be precast or cast-in-place (in situ) concrete, and is used in a wide range of applications such as; slab, wall, beam, column, foundation, and frame construction. Reinforcement is generally placed in areas of the concrete that are likely to be subject to tension, such as the lower portion of beams. It is usual for there to be a minimum of 50 mm cover, both above and below the steel reinforcement, to resist spalling and corrosion which can lead to structural instability. Reinforced concrete is extremely durable and requires little maintenance. It has good thermal mass, and is inherently fire resistant.