The builder of The Shard skyscraper in London will be the project manager for the planned US$ 1.2 billion, 1000 meters-tall Kingdom Tower skyscraper in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Mace will manage the development in a joint venture with construction consultant EC Harris, part of Dutch group Arcadis, and the tower will be built by Saudi construction firm Bin Laden Group. The project was unveiled by American firm Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture. The tower's height is planned at almost three times the height of the Shard (at 310 meters), although by precisely how much is a secret. The structure will take over from Dubai's 828-metre Burj Khalifa as the world's tallest skyscraper. Plans were unveiled 18 months ago by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal as the centerpiece to the Kingdom City development in Jeddah, a major Red Sea port. With a total construction area of more than 500 thousand square meters, the Kingdom tower will include a five-star hotel, luxury flats, office space and the world's highest observatory, with breathtaking views of the Red Sea and the al-Sawarat mountains to the east. The Saudi Bin Laden group will begin construction later this year and the project should be completed in winter 2018. The proposals for the 1050 meters tall Azerbaijan Tower, for the 838-meter Sky City in Changsha , and Karachi Tower have also claimed the distinction of the world's next tallest building.

Although there is still no official word on when construction will start on Kingdom Tower, there are signs of progress. Saudi BAUER Foundation Contractors Ltd. This week announced it had signed a deal for the enabling works for Kingdom, the one-kilometer-tall tower planned for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. "The enabling works include 270 bored piles of 1.5 and 1.8 meter diameters, which have to be installed into the difficult ground conditions down to depths of 110 meters in order to provide the building's foundations," the company said in a press release. Bauer also did the piling work for Burj Khalifa, currently the world's tallest building. The foundation work on Kingdom is scheduled to begin before the end of December and take about 10 months, the company said. The contract for the work is worth approximately US$ 32 million, the company said. Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has given the go ahead for the construction of the world's tallest tower in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah by signing a US$ 1.2 billion contract with Bin Laden Group on August 2, 2011. On January 2012, local mass media reported, that Azerbaijan plans to build the world's tallest tower within the framework of Caspian Island project. Initially, the height of Azerbaijan Tower planned to be 560 meters, but parameters were changed. The developer of Caspian Island Avesta concern decided that the high of 185 floors tower to be 1050 meters, and it will be commissioned in 2018-2019. In this August Chinese Broad Sustainable Building Company made sensational announcement, that Changsha, China's Hunan province will be home to world's tallest building , which will be built in just 7 months. 220-store building will be 838 meters high. It is also reported, that construction will begin in this November.

The world's largest solar thermal system for water heating recently opened in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The new one is almost double the size of what was previously the largest solar water heating facility (located in Denmark), and it will generate enough power to heat water for a university of 40 thousand students. The Millennium Energy company was responsible for the design and build of the solar thermal plant and the GREENTecONE, an Austrian solar design company, supplied the solar panels for the project. The 36 thousand square meter rooftop system is the size of five soccer fields and was built at a cost of US$ 14 million. The solar technology is just one of the many features that will make the new US$ 11.5 billion Princess Nora bint Abdul Rahman University for Women in Riyadh a showcase for environmental innovation. The project is also a signal that countries in the Middle East, which have become wealthy thanks to fossil fuels, are now planning for post-oil future. Plentiful sun shines down on Saudi Arabia, and the solar panels that allow this project to run are massive. Each one covers 10 square meters and weighs 170 kilograms. The panels have a transparent coating to enhance their performance, and they also require a special mounting system to keep them bolted to the roofs when Saudi Arabia's notoriously vicious sandstorms hit Riyadh. Watch for similar projects to appear in Saudi Arabia the coming decade. The Kingdom has set a goal for 10 percent of its energy to come from solar power by 2020. Currently oil is plentiful, and over half of Saudi Arabia's electricity comes from the country's black gold. But with oil pricing at over US$ 100 a barrel, it makes economic sense for Saudi Arabia to reduce their dependency at home and export more of it abroad. With the country expected to grow even more in the coming years, Saudi Arabia could become a global leader in solar power generation. The $14 million renewable solar energy development includes a 36,000 square metre rooftop solar energy system that will cater to the hot water needs of the 40,000 students at the city's Princess Noura Bint Abdulrahman University for Women. The 10 square metre solar panels have been provided by Austrian firm GREENTecOne. After a six month trial period, each one of the six solar fields has been uncovered and six tanks of 150m3 have been built to store excess solar heat at 110 C.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt have renewed an agreement on constructing a causeway between Tabuk and Egypt through Aqaba Bay at an initial cost of US$ 3 billion, Arab News reported, quoting an official source at the Saudi Ministry of Transport. Both sides agreed to name the new project, which will extend 50 kilometer over the Red Sea waters, "King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Causeway". Meanwhile, officials of the transport ministries of both countries plan to conduct talks during the next few weeks to work out guidelines and technical details of the project, scheduled to begin in the middle of 2013. The project will facilitate flow of trade, tourists, and Egyptian manpower to and from the Gulf region, particularly during Haj and Umrah seasons. The causeway will also save time and effort, as it will take about 20 minutes to cross the causeway, linking North African countries with the Gulf countries, Syria, Iraq, and Jordan, the source pointed out. The project will flourish trade movement between Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as it will act as an international passage between the Gulf and North African countries. It will also contribute to an overall economic and business development in the northern parts of the Kingdom, especially in Tabuk, and boost the tourist resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, a major tourist destination for the Gulf citizens. As reported our website earlier, the project was under discussion since 1988 and has finally been approved on July, 2011. It would provide the first direct road link between Arab North Africa and the Middle East - but the project could upset Israel and Jordan. This area of the Red Sea is highly important to Israel and Jordan as it provides them with access to the Indian Ocean.

Kingdom Tower, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's project to erect the world's tallest building in Jeddah, is designed to imitate the contours of a sprouting desert plant. Adrian Smith's task is to make sure it doesn't sway in the wind like one. The American architect has the right resume for the job. He already grappled with effects like horizontal wind divergence and negative pressure high above the Persian Gulf desert when he designed Dubai's "Burj Khalifa", today's highest tower. As explained Adrian Smith during telephone interview to news agency Bloomberg, Kingdom Tower will rise from three separate bases in continuous slopes that end at different heights, helping to balance the building's weight and stabilize it against winds that can reach 190 kilometer per hour at the top. The tower is designed to move about 1 meter side-to-side at 500 meters in the most severe storms that occur once every 50 years or so, he said. The movement will be much less in more typical weather conditions. Designing the world's tallest buildings presents numerous challenges beyond high winds. The observation deck will stick out from the building in an 24 meter-wide disc that was originally designed as a helicopter-landing platform, Smith said. The idea was abandoned after several pilots judged that landing there would be too risky. Water must be pumped up the 163-floor Kingdom Tower in stages, using holding tanks at various levels, to avoid too much pressure building up in the pipes and causing them to burst, Smith said. Evacuation also requires special planning. The Jeddah tower will have emergency refuge rooms every 20 floors, where people can stop to get water and protection as well as emergency instructions while descending to the ground. Smith said he's looking at ways to use the elevators in emergencies rather than following the common practice of banning their use. Smith's design includes a system that collects moisture out of the air and from mechanical systems within the tower, producing enough fresh water each year to fill 14 Olympic-size pools. Summer temperatures in Jeddah, the gateway to Islam's holiest sites in Mecca and Medina, can soar to 40 degrees Celsius with 80 percent humidity. The Kingdom Tower's exterior walls will be made of glass with insulation behind it to help the structure control the heat, Smith said. "We use glass because it's easy to maintain and has longevity," Smith said. "It also reflects the sky and helps the tower feel lighter and more elegant." Apartment prices in Kingdom Tower will probably be comparable to luxury homes in Dubai and a two-bedroom apartment will probably sell for around US$ 800 thousand.