The Dancing House, designed by Croatian-born Czech architect Vlado Milunic and American Frank Gehry, one of the most original and highly acclaimed post-communist buildings in Prague, has been sold for US$ 18 million. Its new owner is the Prague Real Estate Administration company of businessman Vaclav Skala. Some ten investors, mostly from the Czech Republic, were interested in this iconic building. The Dancing House, dubbed also Ginger and Fred (after the famous dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) as it is shaped like a dancing couple, was completed on the embankment in the city center in 1996. It was awarded the Design of the year 1996 prize of the American Time magazine. The previous owner was the CBRE Global Investors Company, which acquired the building in 2011 after taking over the European and Asian assets of the ING Real Estate Investment Management firm. The modern house was built on an empty plot after a block of flats that was damaged by the U.S bombing of Prague at the end of World War II. The interiors of the offices in the nine-stores Dancing House were partially designed by Czech architect Eva Jiricna, living in Britain. Each floor is different thanks to the irregular shape of the building. The Dancing House offers 2965 square meters of offices on six floors, a restaurant (679 square meters) on the top floor and a conference center (400 square meters) on the ground floor and in the basement.

Blundering Chinese officials were forced to cut a motorway in half to go around a block of flats after they accidentally erected the building in its proposed path then realized it would cost too much to relocate the tenants. In Xi'an, Shaanxi province in western China construction workers had to squeeze the eight-lane highway into four and subsequently left furious residents stuck in the middle of a busy road. They had just been moved from their previous homes to make way for a park so refused to move again unless they were heavily compensated. So the council decided to save a small fortune by leaving the flats in place. The council then started negotiations with the tenants, but with their new, modern flats they wanted even more compensation, and after several months of failed negotiations, the council simply gave up and built around the problem. But the road has been branded a waste of time and money as it has done little to solve the problem of rush-hour congestion that it was designed to solve. It is not the first time a blunder or a dispute has led to bizarre construction projects in China. In December, an ancestral grave was left standing in the middle of a building site because the family of the deceased refuse to let it be moved. The single gravestone was left on top of a ten meter high mound while workers erected a high-end block of flats around it in Taiyuan, capital of northern China's Shanxi Province. The tomb is the ancestral grave of a villager from nearby Longbao whose family is unhappy with the level of relocation compensation that has been offered. Last year, Chinese workers famously had to build a motorway around a single house when the owners refused to relocate. Luo Baogen and his wife insisted on living in the half-demolished building in the city of Wenling, in Zhejiang province, because they believe that the compensation offered by the government to move was not enough. However, the house was finally pulled down after the couple reportedly accepted an increased offer of compensation from US$ 35,3 to 41,8 thousand. Such curious things happen all over the world. Recently construction firm builds 47-storey skyscraper in Spain but forget to fit a lift .

Sculptor Anish Kapoor and architect Arata Isozaki have teamed up to design and build the world's first large-scale inflatable concert hall in Tohoku, Japan. The mobile structure, called Ark Nova, was designed not only as a venue for concerts and events, but also to spread hope throughout the northeastern part of Honshu, which has been ravaged by earthquakes and tsunamis. The concert hall opens to the public on October 14, reported the Inhabitat. The giant structure is made from a translucent purple membrane that can fully inflate in two hours and seat 500 people. Built in the northeast of Japan using repurposed tsunami-damaged cedar trees as material for the seating, the concert hall is easily transported around the region. The organizers of the Swiss Lucerne Festival commissioned the temporary structure as a way of helping the Ark Nova Music Festival in Matsushima City, Miyagi Prefecture, an area devastated by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The organizers see the Ark Nova Project as "a symbiosis of architecture, design, traditional kabuki theatre performances and classical music as well as music education."

A new London skyscraper 20 Fenchurch Street dubbed the "Walkie-Talkie" has been blamed for reflecting light which melted parts of a car parked on a nearby street. Martin Lindsay parked his Jaguar on East cheap, in the City of London. When he returned about two hours later, he found parts of his car - including the wing mirror and badge - had melted. Mr Lindsay said he "could not believe" the damage. The developers have apologized and paid for repairs. The wing mirror, panels and Jaguar badge had all melted, Mr Lindsay said. "You can't believe something like this would happen," he added. "They've got to do something about it. It could be dangerous. Imagine if the sun reflected on the wrong part of the body. Mr Lindsay said the developers had apologized and agreed to sort out the US$ 1470 repair costs. In a joint statement, developers Land Securities and Canary Wharf said: "We are aware of concerns regarding the light reflecting from 20 Fenchurch Street and are looking into the matter." As a precautionary measure, the City of London has agreed to suspend three parking bays in the area which may be affected while we investigate the situation further." Other owners whose vehicles have been damaged by the unusual phenomenon, believed to be caused by the building's concave design, have also come forward. Eddie Cannon, a heating and air conditioning engineer, said his Vauxhall Vevaro suffered a similar fate the day before. He said: 'The van looks a total mess - every bit of plastic on the left hand side and everything on the dashboard has melted, including a bottle of Lucozade that looks like it has been baked.'

Authorities in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, recently discovered an illegal structure on the roof of a luxury high-rise, China Daily reported. The temple like structure was built on the roof of a 19-story residential building in the city's Nanshan district years ago. A thick metal door with a fingerprint lock separates the 19-th story from the roof. Liu Minxing, deputy head of the law enforcement team of the Shahe sub district office, said that after receiving the report of the illegal structure, his team went to the building several times, but couldn't check out the rooftop structure because they could not gain access to it. The structure's owner refused to open the door and did not meet the team, Liu said. But Liu said that the on roof structure is illegal because the law bans such structures from being built on roofs. Some people in the building said that the owner of the structure often held sacrifices in it, and ash of burned paper fell to the windows of their apartments. The owner of the rooftop structure is the owner of the apartments on the 19 floor, but the residential management office declined to provide any information about the owner, citing privacy concerns. According to a broker with a real estate agency nearby, the price of the building's apartments averages US$ 4,900 per square meter, and the total price of the 19 floor apartments was over US$ 2.5 million. "The owner of the apartments on the 19 floor who built the rooftop structure must be rich or a high-ranking official who had a lot of connections to avoid punishment," the broker said. Liu said his team will continue their investigation into the structure and try to get information about the owner from the residential management office. "If the owner refuses to co-operate with our investigation, we will connect with police, firefighters and the local safety supervision department to form a working group and find a way to open the door," Liu said. The owner could be punished under the law concerned if the structure is deemed to be illegal, Liu said. Earlier a Chinese man is believed to have illegally built an astonishing rooftop palace on the top of a residential building in Beijing . The bizarre two-story edifice - which looks like it has been carved from a mountainside - was constructed by a man known only as Professor Zhang on the top of a suburban apartment block. The professor is said to have spent over six years building his home, after knocking down the penthouse he bought on the 26th floor in 2007.