Tits proved that (sufficiently high rank) spherical buildings arise from an algebraic group and a field, so any building is some $\Delta(G, F)$. He also showed that a building isomorphism $\Delta(G,F)\simeq\Delta(G',F')$ induces a field isomorphism $F\to F'$.
This shows that the field is somehow coded up in the isomorphism type of the building. I'm wondering whether a construction is floating around anywhere that shows how to construct the field from the combinatorics of the building.
To help clarify what I'm after: I've seen a construction of the real field from the incidence structure or geometry of the real projective plane (pick a pair of lines, prove they're bijective, define addition via some more lines and unique intersection points which must exist, etc.). In the end you have parametrized a projective line by matching up points on it with the underlying field. The construction requires a choice of a few points in general position and so is given sort of "up to collineation". I'm under the impression that I should view those results on spherical buildings as generalizations of results in projective geometry, and I'm looking for an analogous construction. That is, a construction of a field in terms of the apartments, relations between them, etc. In the end presumably some collection of objects is parametrized by the underlying field. Or is this not the case?