A huge new city for pilgrims covering an area of 1.6 million square meters with a capacity to handle 200 thousand visitors is being planned for Saudi Arabia's holy city in Madinah. The new city will be aimed at accommodating the large number of visitors who flock to the city to make Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages. The project will be based close to the Al Masjid Al Nabawi - the Prophet's Mosque and will include a number of hotels and furnished apartments, a railway and bus station, offices of government agencies and a 400-bed hospital. The project has been welcomed by Muslim organizations and state-owned Public Investment Fund will finance the project. Construction is expected to start during several months.

A mosque set to be built in the western province of Bursa will use solar and wind power to produce electricity. Nilufer Trade Center Mosque, which is set to be completed in 2015, may be the first mosque in Turkey that produces and uses renewable energy. Celik Erengezgin, the architect of the mosque project, believes that the project will be an example for other mosques. Solar panels will be placed on top of the mosque. A wind turbine will be installed on the minaret. Also snow and rain water will be collected for the worshippers' water needs. The mosque will produce its own energy and sell what it does not use. The mosque will produce 120 kilowatt of electricity but consumes only 50 kilowatt. The remaining amount can be sold to the state. Erengezgin said Turkey's Religious Affairs Department had responded positively to his project. He also wanted to produce electricity from the pressure exerted on the floor by the worshippers during prayers. This is not part of the current project but he hopes to implement it also. "We will tell the worshippers, you can charge your cell phones here, because you have produced this energy, while praying on the floor of the mosque".

Christchurch New Zealand will be the home of one of the world's most bizarre building projects of 2012, a Cathedral made from cardboard. According to Church official website, work will start next week on a US$ 4.1 million temporary "Cardboard Cathedral" in Christchurch city center to replace the cathedral which was irreversibly damaged in last year's earthquake. The Cathedral will be fashioned from cardboard tubes, as well as timber beams and structural steel, and is expected to last 20 years. It is the largest "emergency structure" to be designed by Shigeru Ban who, with the support of associate architect Yoshie Narimatsu, has contributed his time free of charge and gifted the building's design to the cathedral, Anglican Diocese and city. Ban, known as "an emergency architect" who has built temporary houses in post-disaster centers, including Japan, Turkey, China, Italy, and Haiti said cardboard was the ideal building product for the new cathedral. "The strength of the building has nothing to do with the strength of the material," he said. Even concrete buildings can be destroyed by earthquakes very easily. But paper buildings cannot be destroyed by earthquakes. It's also consistently low-cost. Normally after disasters the price of building materials goes higher, but since this is not a traditional building material, it's very easy to get. Holmes Consulting structural engineer Jamie McGregor is pleased to be taking part in the construction. "It's not hard to motivate yourself. It's very exciting too to be involved in something like this, it's a great building it's going to be really cool. This thing's 25 meter high and it's very light so there are a lot of issues to work through, in terms of the construction method," Mr McGregor says. "It's going to take everything we've got I think." As for the old cathedral, it's still sitting half torn down in the city center. The High Court's due to make a decision on its fate next month. The Christchurch cardboard Cathedral is in inventive and inspirational project which has the potential to become an iconic landmark for Christchurch's imminent recovery.

A bizarre new tourist attraction has opened its doors to the public in Dordrecht, the Netherlands - a life-sized Noah's Ark, reported The Inhabitat. The project first began in 1992 when contractor Johan Huibers dreamed that waves from the ocean washed over the Netherlands during a storm. Then he claimed that his dream was followed by even more signs, prompting him to build the Ark. Firstly, while it does float, Huibers has stressed that the Ark is not designed to save people from a global flood. Instead, he built it as a symbol of his faith. Huibers built the Ark exactly to the specifications noted in the Bible resulting in a structure that is approximately 23 meters wide, 13.7 meters high and 137 meters long. That's 50 cubits wide, 30 cubits high and 300 cubits long according to the Bible. Despite planning the Ark's construction since 1992, construction on the full-size Ark only started in 2009. Huibers had previously built a smaller model with volunteers, but sold it to focus on the life-size version. Every detail was taken into account, in order to make the Ark as accurate as possible. There were however deviations in Huibers contemporary construction; according to the Bible, Noah used "gopher wood" when he built the Ark, but this has been disputed so the hull was built by welding the metal hulls of several old barges together and then using Scandinavian pine for the skin. The Ark cost US$ 1.6 million, stands four stories tall, is as long as a football field and even comes complete with animals-although they are not real. However no expense has been spared in that department either, with Huiber's wife Shamlian claiming it cost $US 11 thousand for just one elephant! There were rumors that the Ark could have been sailed to London in time for the Olympics, though this turned out not to be the case. Deborah Venema-Huibers, manager of the Ark, said that they had to abandon plans to sail the ark to the London Olympics, after they were asked to make the wooden boat safer for visitors. Earlier this year, Armenian media reported, that a life-sized Noah's Ark to be built on the rise, next to the "Victory" park. However, then the information was refuted. Press Service of the Public Council announced, that the idea of project was accepted, but the construction site not. Noah's Ark construction at the suggested site architects considered impossible for three reasons. First, the project needs additional space for needed infrastructures. Second, it may push Victory Memorial in the background, and the third Noah's Ark will have a vast impact on the nearby historical and cultural monuments. According to the project, the length of the ark is planned to be 133.5 meters, width - 22.25 meters, and height - 13.35 meters. The building will have three floors. On the ground floor will be a museum, the first floor will accommodate a conference hall, cinema and offices, and the second floor is a hotel. Construction of US$ 20 million building is planned to be completed by 2015, to the 100th anniversary of Armenian Genocide. The project's funding will not be public; the project will be realized solely by benefactors' donations.

Suhail Mohammed Suleiman's proposal for a sustainable mosque to be built in Abu Dhabi has been given the green light, reported The inhabitat. While construction is not confirmed, the eco-mosque would be a symbol of the region's commitment to sustainable development. Powered with solar panels and planted with a green roof, the proposed structure would boast many green features, including a system that captures and recycles the run off from ritual washing in order to help irrigate the landscaped surroundings. The 23-year-old ALHOSN University graduate began working on the project while undertaking internships, and since completing the proposal it has been awarded a Five Pearl Rating from the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council. This, says Alhosn University's website, is acknowledged under the Estidama sustainability framework. The structure is crowned with a set of two crescent-topped spires that point towards Mecca, and is accompanied by an adjacent Islamic Center. Suleiman hopes the mosque will be constructed on Saadiyat Island, where the green design would join the Abu Dhabi Guggenheim and Louvre museums that are set to open by 2017.