London's Victorian era Crystal Palace will soon be resurrected, thanks to Chinese developer ZhongRong Group and architectural firm Arup. The light-filled glass structure will be rebuilt as a gift to the city of London, bringing back an important landmark that was destroyed by fire in 1936. Arup's design echoes the original Joseph Paxton-designed building and includes a large, lush park for South East Londoners to enjoy. The original Crystal Palace was designed for the 1851 Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, London, and moved to the south eastern neighborhood of Bromley shortly after. There it was used as a glittering public building until the fateful fire in 1936 that completely destroyed the landmark. Always regarded as an architectural masterpiece in China, the ZhongRong Group proposed the US$ 800 million project to Bromley officials as a gift to the city. Arup's design will restore not only the building, but the 73 hectares Crystal Palace landscaped park surrounding it, including a tree-lined boulevard, lushly planted grounds, and beautiful Italian style terraces. The complex will also include a cafe, visitor center and a restored concert bowl. According to the renders, the glassy light-filled structure emulates its original Victorian splendor, attracting locals and tourists alike as a contemporary cultural destination deeply rooted in history. The exciting Crystal Palace restoration project will be headed up by an advisory board led by the Mayor of London, to create a project that reflects the design's deep history while employing modern design practices.

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.

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.'

At the beginning of this year Google announced, that it has completed a US$ 1.6 billion deal to build a new UK headquarters on 10 thousand square meters of disused land behind King's Cross Station, underlining the global technology industry's commitment to London. Now Google just unveiled images of its newest campus, a 270 thousand square meters, 11-story behemoth that will be designed by award-winning architectural firm AHMM. Prior to this building's announcement, Google's London operations were split between two offices--one in Covent Garden and one in Victoria. The new headquarters, which will be located near London's prestigious King's Cross Station, will consolidate operations into a single building while attempting to blend into the neighborhood. The new office will be made from industrial materials like steel, glass, and cross-laminated timber panels, and it's designed to achieve BREEAM Outstanding certification. In decades past, the construction of a new office building in London would hardly be a newsworthy event, but the ingenuity of companies like Google, Facebook, and Apple have changed that. Everyone wants to know-what kind of building do you create when money is no object and you employ some of the most creative and technologically savvy minds in the world? If the early looks at Google's King's Cross HQ are any indication, it won't disappoint. "This building is underpinned by cutting edge design intelligence and technologies to provide a sophisticated twenty-first century working environment for Google's staff," AHMM director Simon Allford told Dezeen. The building, which many are calling a 'groundscraper' will be multi-leveled, growing from seven stories high at one end to 11 at the northern end overlooking Regent's Canal. It's been suggested by some that buildings comprised of more wood than steel are actually better for the environment, leading to far less carbon emissions during the production process. Google appears to be testing the waters of this theory. "Much of the internal structure will be constructed using steel framing with cross-laminated timber panels - a first for a contemporary building of this scale. The building has been designed to meet the highest standards of environmental sustainability, ensuring low energy usage and incorporating state-of-the-art materials," Google stated. It's said that bold primary colors will adorn the steelwork, taking inspiration from architectural elements nearby. There are also rumors that the roof will feature a garden. Ultimately, Google and its design team hope to achieve BREEAM Outstanding and LEED Platinum ratings and deliver an overall carbon reduction of 40 percent. The new building will boast around 93 thousand gross square meters new, with approximately 67 thousand square meters dedicated to office space and around 4600 square meters slated for retail space at ground level. The new site is likely to include a 1860 square meter area for bike parking (about the size of seven tennis courts), and features a climbing wall between floors, a source close to the project told Reuters. If all goes as planned, workers will break ground on the new UK headquarters early in 2014, with completion scheduled for late 2016 or early 2017. The building is expected to create 1,500 construction jobs, and while there are only about 2,000 Google employees in the UK, the new office will have room for about 4,500, which means the tech giant is likely to be hiring in the next few years.

The greenest building is the one that's already standing, and this week London officials announced that the buildings from the 2012 Olympic Village will be transformed into rental units, and many of them will be reserved for low-income housing. It has just been announced that the Olympic Village in London will be getting a face-lift to accommodate a new neighborhood, which London is calling the East Village. The East Village will have 2,818 brand new homes to be rented for this summer, and 1,379 of these homes will go to low-income Londoners. This is a great solution for London, since the city's housing shortage was intensified by the global recession in 2007. Cranes and construction crews have been busy at the Olympic Village since it was purchased by the Qatar wealth fund Qatari Diar and British developer Delancey for US$ 870 million. The Olympic Delivery Authority is currently removing all the temporary structures that were in place for the Olympics so that new kitchens can be retrofitted into the 2,818 apartments in the village. The first batch of apartments should be ready for rent by August. London Housing Association Triathlon Homes will be offering the low-income apartments, while Qatari Diar will lease the other properties at market rates. The move will add some much-needed inventory to the London housing market. The UK has traditionally been unkind to renters, and a study by the housing charity Shelter found that 55 percent of renters believed that they wouldn't ever be able to save enough to buy a home. The new East Village will offer rental apartments at reasonable rates in order to begin to change that perception. The residential housing system, Get Living London, has launched a campaign to begin to move people towards East Village. Who wouldn't want to live in an area that has a new education campus, health center, restaurants, and is close to the Olympic Park? Earlier announced, that after the 2012 Summer Olympics are over, the Olympic Park will again be transformed. In 2013, the roughly 500 thousand square meters Park in East London will reopen as Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. The 114.5-meters tall ArcelorMittal Orbit will still tower over the park, and the Olympic stadium will be downsized to a permanent stadium that will seat 25 thousand people. Now the Olympic Delivery Authority is currently removing all the temporary structures.