Originally posted by RasaNova:

Stone structures can absolutely collapse from the top... In the game and in real life.

If your foundation is solid, and you build from the ground up keeping structural integrity, your buildings won't collapse. If you're having trouble perhaps post some screenshots that show what you're trying to do and perhaps somebody could give advice.

If under shear stress also if the top is the most unsupported the top would fall aside but under gravitational force of a fixed width structure ,the most pressure will be applied on the most bottom part. that is why in buildings the thickest part is the lowest floor or the most supported by steel. also this is why you need a base foundation.