Once a year, the whole world looks to the Nobel Center in Stockholm, Sweden to announce the Nobel Prizes. The center recently announced plans to relocate to a new building, and out of 140 architects, 12 have been selected to compete to design the new home of the Nobel Foundation and its related cultural and educational activities. Notable designers include OMA, Herzog & de Meuron, BIG, and David Chipperfield Architects. The majority of the selected applicants were from Europe and Scandinavia, with only SANAA's Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa chosen from outside the region. The Nobel Foundation's new building will incorporate areas for digital media, museum exhibitions, meetings, scientific conferences, a library, a cafe, and a shop. The architects have been asked to consider both the site's historical content and the natural environment in their plans. Each of the twelve firms will be expected to establish a close working relationship in cooperation with the client over the course of a very lengthy planning process. "The competition will begin once the majority of the project's financing has been secured. Encouraging discussions are currently on-going with several donors, and we are confident that we will secure the necessary financing to begin the architectural competition and carry out the project during the current calendar year." says Lars Heikensten, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation. On December 1, 2011, the Nobel Foundation and the City of Stockholm signed a declaration of intent to work jointly towards the creation of a permanent Nobel Prize Center, to be located on Nybroviken, an inlet of the Baltic Sea in the heart of Stockholm, Sweden. They have agreed on a site on the Blasieholmen peninsula that is owned by the City of Stockholm.

Japanese architect Toyo Ito, whose buildings have been praised for their fluid beauty and balance between the physical and virtual worlds, has won the 2013 Pritzker Architecture Prize. Along with Tadao Ando, the 1995 Pritzker laureate, the 71-year-old Ito is the dean of Japanese architecture, though with his mop of black hair he looks many years younger. He is best known for his 2001 Sendai Mediatheque, a seven-story glass box of a building that was dramatically shaken, though only lightly damaged, by the Tohoku earthquake two years ago. Some of Ito's notable creations include the curvaceous Municipal Funeral Hall in Gifu, Japan; the arch-filled Tama Art University Library in suburban Tokyo; the spiral White O residence in Marbella, Chile; his stadium for the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung, Taiwan; and the angular 2002 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London. Like much of his work, it distills a series of complex technical breakthroughs into a spare, even-keeled finished product. The Mediatheque's structural and electrical systems are bundled inside 13 vertical tubes, leaving library and exhibition spaces open and accessible from all sides and visible from the street through floor-to-ceiling glass. Ito has designed museums, stadiums, houses and commercial buildings across Japan. His largest and most ambitious project to date, the 58 thousand square meters Taichung Metropolitan Opera House, is under construction in Taiwan and due to open next year. Ito began his career at Kiyonori Kikutake & Associates after he graduated from Tokyo University in 1965. He founded his own architecture firm in 1971. He has also been a teacher and mentor to many Japanese architects. Two former associates in his office, Ryue Nishizawa and Kazuyo Sejima, who run the firm SANAA, were the joint Pritzker winners in 2010. Ito will receive a US$ 100 thousand grant and a bronze medallion at the formal Pritzker ceremony May 29 at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston. The 71-year-old architect joins such masters as Frank Gehry, I.M. Pei, Tadao Ando, Renzo Piano and Wang Su, the first Chinese architect who wins the Pritzker Prize , in receiving the honor that's been called architecture's Nobel Prize. Ito, the sixth Japanese architect to receive the prize, was recognized for the libraries, houses, theaters, offices and other buildings he has designed in Japan and beyond.

When a few years ago, different architects spoke about vertical forests, nobody believes, that this structures is certainly more than just a fantasy. But in fact the world's first vertical forest construction nears completion this year, in Milan. In addition, Agora Garden, an inhabited and cultivated vertical garden in the Xinyin District of Taipei, is currently under construction. A competition for the project was won by Vincent Callebaut Architectures in 2010 with a design inspired by two encircling hands clasped together and the helical structure of DNA. Once completed the 42,335 square meter luxury residential building will incorporate nanotechnologies and vertical gardening into the residents' everyday life to make this one of the most eco-friendly structures in the city. One of the more visually arresting aspects of this ambitious project is the 90 degree twist of the tower, the sinuosity of which, the practice explains, "corresponds to the universal musical symbol of harmonic revealing the notion of ultimate balance praised by the project". The result is such that the shape of the structure morphs depending on where the onlooker is standing, for example its east/west elevations draw a rhomboidal pyramid whereas the north/south elevation is a reverse pyramid. These suspended gardens not only bring an aesthetic appeal to the Agora Garden project but will provide the building's residents with orchards, organic vegetable gardens, aromatic gardens and medicinal plants. The vertically-wide planted balconies will be accessible for all residents and will also include rain water tanks for the irrigation of the suspended gardens, nests for birdlife, composting facilities for converting waste into fertilizer and garden furniture for their own enjoyment. The planting beds are to be covered by a layer of white natural stone to protect the foliage from excess heat. To enter the Agora Garden property, users will pass through a cluster of mature trees and cross a mineral moat which will be installed to enhance the privacy of residents. In the Conceptual Design Proposal, the architects explain: "In the heart of the vegetable lung, the pedestrian square opens itself on a mineral and aquatic glade." Plants that cascade into the lower basements are provided with sunlight which penetrates through a circular light well that also illuminates the car parks, swimming pool and fitness centre. The location of these luxury 'sky houses' means that residents will have exquisite views of the C. Y. Lee & Partners and Thornton Tomasetti - designed 101 Taipei tower and the city's Central Business District. Once the project is completed in 2016, the residential units on offer will give much flexibility to potential inhabitants. The fixed central core separates the vertical circulations with the towers rotated storey by storey at 4.5 degrees. Each 540 square meter apartment is entirely free of columns as the levels are connected at both ends by two spiralling mega-columns coated in green walls, ensuring optimum living conditions for residents.

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.

Chengdu's New Century Global Centre is latest symbol of China's economic might and massive ambition. New Century Global Centre, located in Chengdu (population 14 million), capital of Sichuan province in southwestern China, is nearly completed. At 500 meters long, 400 meters wide and 100 meters high, Chinese officials are calling the 1.7 million square meter mega structure the largest freestanding building in the world, capable of housing 20 Sydney Opera houses and almost three times the size of the Pentagon in Washington. The Global Centre will house offices, conference rooms, a university complex, two commercial centers, two five star hotels, an IMAX cinema, a "Mediterranean village", a skating rink and a pirate ship, among other attractions. About 400 thousand square meters will be devoted to shopping, most of the outlets high-end luxury brands. Despite Chengdu being around a thousand kilometers from the sea the complex has a marine theme, with fountains, a huge water park and an artificial beach, accented by the undulating roof, meant to resemble a wave. This is an ocean city built by man. There will be 1000 rooms (in the hotel) and all will have seaside views. The thick smog that normally blankets Chengdu risks making it a sunless sea, but visitors will not need to worry about that, as designers borrowed a Japanese technique. There will be an artificial sun that will shine 24 hours a day and allow for a comfortable temperature. The system uses specialized lighting technology that heats as well as illuminates. A giant screen 150 meters long and 40 meters high will form the horizon and offer sunrises and sunsets, accompanied by nautical breezes. The centerpiece will be a 5 thousand square meters artificial beach, to include a rafting course and a "seafront" promenade, complete with parasols and seafood outlets that can accommodate 6 thousand people. Ground was broken for the New Century Global Centre in 2010 and (the building) is estimated to open to the public this April. In recent years China has witnessed lots of phenomenal constructions. The world's longest high-speed rail line (2.298-kilometer-long), which spans over half of China, began operating at the end of last year. In April, 2012 the world's highest and longest tunnel-to-tunnel bridge has been completed in China, which linked together two tunnels 1176 meters apart, and 355 meters above Hunan's Dehang Canyon. Again in 2012 Chinese mass media reports, 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.