The Dutch have been fighting the rising and falling tides for centuries, building dikes and pumping water out of areas that are below sea level. Now, rather than fight the water infiltrating their land, the Dutch will use it as part of a new development called "New Water", which will feature the world's first floating apartment complex, The Citadel. Netherlands-based firm Waterstudio just announced plans to construct the world's first floating apartment complex in 2014! The Citadel will offer 60 luxury apartments made from 180 modular units that will be arranged around a central courtyard and topped with green roofs. The Netherlands is home to over 3,500 polders, or patches of low-lying land that are protected by dykes. Since they are below sea level, water needs to be pumped out of these areas around the clock. The Citadel apartments will be one of six projects comprising the New Water development, which is located in one of these polders. After completion, the land will be flooded to allow the Citadel to float atop the water. The main deck will consist of a floating, heavy concrete base measuring 73 x 128 x 2.8 meters that will support the lightweight apartments and a parking lot. Each unit will be wrapped in aluminum and topped with a green roof. A bridge will connect the Citadel to the mainland and allow access for emergency and maintenance vehicles. Once water is reintroduced to the polder, the entire complex will float atop six feet of water. Inside the Citadel, each unit boasts a private outdoor space, a berth for a small boat, and greenhouses will be scattered among the units. Water will be pumped through submerged pipes to cool the structures. The overall design is estimated to make the apartments 25% more energy efficient than developments on land. Due to its size, residents will not be able to detect the motion of the water. Waterstudio is planning to begin building early next year.

The construction of Hyatt hotel in Jermuk, Armenia, will be completed in fall 2014. The hotel will include 80 rooms, spa-center, water treatment facilities, restaurants, swimming pools, gyms. In line with preliminary estimates, US$ 15 million are expected to be invested for the construction which began in 2009. The author of this project is current head of the State Committee for Architecture at Government Narek Sargsyan. Jermuk City Municipality building is planned to be built next to new hotel.

At the beginning of last year GDS Architects official site reported that they were in the early planning stage of building what will be known as the world's first invisible tower named Tower Infinity. Today GDS Architects was just granted the green light to begin construction on a sparkling new super-tall skyscraper in Seoul, South Korea. Tower Infinity will reach a height of 450 meters, placing it among the top 10 tallest buildings in the world. Designed for a location near the Incheon International Airport, Tower Infinity will also have the distinction of being 'invisible'. Using optical illusions and lighting, the tower will appear to disappear into the sky, making it a less obtrusive anti-tower. Tower Infinity will be located at the heart of the Yongsan International Business District, whose master plan was originally designed by Samoo. The "superscraper" will be a landmark project for the area, and it will serve as an iconic landmark for visitors coming from the international airport. GDS Architects won the competition to design the tower back in 2008 and just this summer they were granted permission to begin construction. The observation tower will largely be used for entertainment purposes - it will feature observation decks, wedding venues, a theater, a roller coaster, lots of restaurants, a water park, and a variety of landscaped gardens in the surrounding area. The crystalline tower is not just a vanity skyscraper though - as GDS has proposed a sort of anti-tower that blends into the sky and seems to disappear with the help of optical illusions, and lighting.

Google Inc., owner of the world's largest search engine, won local government approval to build its new U.K. headquarters next to King's Cross train station in London, reported Bloomberg. The Camden borough council unanimously approved the 85,8 thousand square meters building at a meeting on September 5. The project on 2.4 acres (1 hectare) will have a swimming pool and a running track on the roof and space for as many as 5 thousand workers, according to a filing to the borough. Google expects to move into the building, which will be seven to 11 stories, in 2015 after it agreed in January to buy the land from King's Cross Central LP , the Mountain View, California-based company said at the time. In July of this year Google unveiled images of its newest campus, a 270 thousand square meters, 11-story behemoth that will be designed by award-winning architectural firm AHMM. Construction is due to start at the end of this year and completed in 2015. About 16 stores will also be built on the ground floor of the new building. Kings Cross Central will own the shops as part of the deal with Google, according to the filing.

Saudi Arabia will build a new city for 600 thousand people near Makkah. Named Makkah Gate, the residential and administrative city will be developed under a publi-private partnership on the Makkah-Jeddah Highway with 45 districts. Spanning an area of 83 million square meters, the project will include educational institutions, government offices, shopping centers, housing units and a national park. Saudi Arabia is creating several new cities across the kingdom, particularly near the religious cities of Makkah and Medinah, as its population rapidly grows. In June, it was announced a "Pilgrim City" would be built for 200 thousand Muslims who travel to Madinah for Haj and Umrah. The state-of-the-art city would cover 1.6 million square meters and include hotels, furnished apartments, a railway and bus station, government offices and a 400-bed hospital. Construction of a new "mega city" in Rabigh, 150 kilometers north of Jeddah, was due to begin after Ramadan. The Indian developer in charge of the project, Gammon Group, said was worth US$ 2.9 billion and would include an advanced hospital, a petrochemical plant, other industrial areas, schools, mosques and residential villas and cover 20 million square meters of land formerly owned by a former Rabigh governor.