Construction of new eco-district will begin in the center of Strasbourg this month. The new Danube project, which designed by KCAP Zurich architecture studio, features the construction of a new urban district along the waterfront bordering a former port and industrial brown field area. The first project of its kind in Strasbourg is an experiment in sustainable development. The Danube project will consist of eight buildings, supermarkets, library, commercial galleries and public spaces. All buildings will be equipped with green roofs, solar panels, data collection and re-use of rain water. The complex is expected to be heated by means of the solar panels. Many people already bought their apartments in Danube new eco-district development.

Polish builders have demolished an 18th Century chateau in French Bordeaux belonging to a Russian businessman, apparently by mistake, reported The BBC. Mr Stroskin, who runs an import business in Warsaw, Poland, was shocked, when he heard about mistake, as had only ordered them to knock down an adjacent outhouse. The local mayor in the nearby French village of Yvrac and residents are said to be furious. The original 13 thousand square meters chateau, which featured grand horseshoe steps and a once palatial ballroom, was previously hired out for wedding receptions and functions. "The Chateau de Bellevue was Yvrac's pride and joy, the whole village is in shock," former owner Juliette Marmie told Associated Press. "How can this construction firm make such a mistake?" The businessman said he understood the anger among local residents in the town of Yvrac, but said he will not be prosecuting the builders for their appalling mistake. "The damage has been done," he added. He has vowed to "rebuild an identical Bellevue" including the chateau's grand hall, which could host up to 200 people. A Polish architect has already drawn up plans and local masons have received a 1.5 million-euro contract to rebuild the chateau over two years.

When I. M. Pei's glass pyramid opened at the Louvre more than 20 years ago, many argued that this 21.3 meters tall structure had destroyed the classical beauty of one of the world's great museums. But today, as crowds wait on long lines outside the pyramid, which serves as the Louvre's main entrance, what once seemed audacious has become as accepted a part of the city's visual landscape as the Eiffel Tower or the Arc de Triomphe. Now the museum is again risking the public's wrath as it introduces the most radical architectural intervention since the pyramid in 1989. Designed to house new galleries for Islamic art, it consists of ground- and lower-ground-level interior spaces topped by a golden, undulating roof that seems to float within the neo-Classical Visconti Courtyard in the middle of the Louvre's south wing, right below the museum's most popular galleries, where the Mona Lisa and Veronese's "Wedding Feast of Cana" are hung. This deftly engineered design is the work of two architects, the Italian Mario Bellini and the Frenchman Rudy Ricciotti, who won an international competition to create the new wing in 2005. Seven years in the making, the US$ 125 million project, which opened on September 22. When the plans were first unveiled, the architects said, the roof resembled "a scarf floating within the space" - a somewhat loaded description, perhaps, considering that last year the French officially banned full veils in public places. The museum's "luminous veil," or "flying carpet" as it has also been called, covers some 2790 square meters of gallery space on the ground and lower floors. The new galleries, roughly four times as large as the space previously devoted to Islamic art at the Louvre, house a collection spanning 1,200 years of history, from the 7th through the 19th centuries, and includes glass works, ceramics, metalwork, books, manuscripts, textiles and carpets. The roof is actually constructed of a free-form lattice composed of 8,000 steel tubes and glass covered by gilded metal. The undulating canopy contains the open floor plan gallery space where objects are displayed in glass cabinets. A large staircase descends to the lower level where natural daylight seeps in around the edges. A significant amount of work for the project required the team to excavate down 12 meters without disturbing the palace's original foundation. The result is a cavernous space reminiscent of a tent illuminated with a soft golden light.

The Eiffel Tower has been named as the most valuable monument of Europe in a new survey. It is difficult to believe now that the Eiffel Tower was originally built to last for only two decades. But thankfully it stayed on and became a permanent fixture on the Parisian landscape. The iconic 324-metre high structure has been named as the most valuable monument in Europe worth a staggering US$ 545 billion, according to a new study. Research commissioned by Italy's Monza and Brianza Chamber of Commerce considered monuments' image, branding and aesthetic qualities to determine a monetary value. Built in 1889 as the entrance arch to the World Trade Fair, the Eiffel Tower is the most visited paid for tourist attraction in the world which last year saw 7.1 million people climb to one of its three viewing platforms. A whopping 200 million visitors have now visited the landmark since it opened and the tower is still the tenth tallest lattice style building on the planet. Construction of the tower had been the subject of some controversy; attracting criticism from both those who doubted it was feasible and those were against the idea on artistic grounds. Their objections were a continuation of the longstanding debate about the relationship between architecture and engineering. Part of the original design rules were that it could be easily demolished but as the tower proved valuable for communication purposes, it was allowed to remain after the permit granted by the city expired. Eiffel Tower's value is five times more than its nearest rival the Coliseum in Rome, which is valued at US$ 114 billion. The gladiatorial Amphitheatre which was completed in 80AD draws about 4 million tourists a year to its crumbling interior. On the third place is the Sagrada Familia. Although it is still not finished Gaudi's famous cathedral in Barcelona is worth US$ 112 billion and is the continent's third most valuable monument. The UK's most valuable monument is deemed to be the 1,000-year-old Tower of London, which is worth an estimated US$ 88.7 billion to the British economy. In excess of 2 million visitors enter the tower, which is now looked after by the Historic Royal Palaces charity, every year. Other famous European landmarks on the list included the Duomo cathedral in Milan worth US$ 102.9 billion, Madrid's Prado Museum worth US$ 72.8 billion and Britain's Stonehenge worth US$ 13 billion. Stonehenge in Wiltshire dates from prehistoric times Wiltshire and is one of the most famous sites in the world. Composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks its attraction lies not just in its age, but also the mystery that surrounds its construction - before the age of mechanical lifting equipment. It is at the center of the most dense complex of Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred burial mounds. The gothic Duomo cathedral in Milan took nearly six centuries to complete and is the fourth largest cathedral in the world and the largest in Italy. The survey also put a price of US$ 101.4 billion on the White House in Washington DC. Home to the President of the United States the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aqua sandstone in the neoclassical style. It has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams.

The beautiful Windshape pavilion by nARCHITECTS stretched across the limestone walls of Lacoste, France like a luminous billowing spider's web, reported The Inhabitat. Perched at the top of Lacoste on the castle of the Marquis de Sade, the Windshape pavilion was composed of thread-like walls made from a simple assortment of materials - including white plastic pipes, aluminum braces, and threaded string. Woven from gauzy nets, the pavilion was designed to move and morph in the local wind, creating a spectacular art installation for the locals to enjoy. The surfaces of the pavilion would ripple, move, and even make noise, depending on the speed of the winds that blew through it. Over the course of five weeks, SCAD students worked closely with nARCHITECTS to install Windshape. The netted arcs took shape through bending and tension, and they were held in place by steel structural collars that ensured the structure's sturdiness. The strings were woven to provide enclosed spaces as well as more open areas to vary the usage of the different parts of the temporary pavilion. The resulting pavilion was a translucent web that elegantly embellished the Medieval architecture of the historic town. Taking advantage of these new meeting points, the town used the space was used to host concerts, exhibitions and ceremonies. At night, Windshape was illuminated and visible to neighboring towns miles away.