Construction began on world's tallest modular building, a 32-storey residential tower in Brooklyn's Atlantic Yards development by Manhattan-based firm SHoP Architects. Nearly 60 percent of the B2 tower will be prefabricated off-site. This means the complex will produce 70-90 percent less waste and will reduce energy consumption by 67 percent during the building phase. Controversy has swirled around this strategy, as it will cut union worker wages from US$ 85 an hour for on-site construction to only US$ 35 an hour in a factory setting. The development also drastically cuts the number of workers needed, leaving only 125 lucky laborers on the job. The flipside to this is that the overall cost and energy will be also being cut. B2 is the first of three new residential towers planned around the Barclays Center, the 19,000-seat indoor sports and music arena that opened this September. Both were designed by Manhattan-based firm SHoP Architects as part of the controversial Atlantic Yards development. The three buildings will provide around 1500 residential units in total, half of which will be earmarked as affordable housing. B2's 363 apartments are expected to be available for occupancy in summer 2014. While developers and city officials hail B2 as the world's tallest modular building, construction is also set to begin on a modular tower in Changsha, China, which at 838 meters, or 220 story's, would be the tallest building in the world - and construction firm Broad Sustainable Building says the tower, called Sky City, will go up in just 90 days. Recently the prefab Hotel in China's south-central Hunan province standing 30 stories was erected in an incredible 360 hours or in 15 days. The hotel built Chinese sustainable-building firm Broad Group and the building is designed to withstand up a 9.0 magnitude earthquake - and even boasts energy-efficient building techniques. In 2010 Broad Group during 6 days built another prefab building, the 15-story Ark Hotel in the Changsha Province, demonstrating fantastic speed of prefab building construction.

Polish builders have demolished an 18th Century chateau in French Bordeaux belonging to a Russian businessman, apparently by mistake, reported The BBC. Mr Stroskin, who runs an import business in Warsaw, Poland, was shocked, when he heard about mistake, as had only ordered them to knock down an adjacent outhouse. The local mayor in the nearby French village of Yvrac and residents are said to be furious. The original 13 thousand square meters chateau, which featured grand horseshoe steps and a once palatial ballroom, was previously hired out for wedding receptions and functions. "The Chateau de Bellevue was Yvrac's pride and joy, the whole village is in shock," former owner Juliette Marmie told Associated Press. "How can this construction firm make such a mistake?" The businessman said he understood the anger among local residents in the town of Yvrac, but said he will not be prosecuting the builders for their appalling mistake. "The damage has been done," he added. He has vowed to "rebuild an identical Bellevue" including the chateau's grand hall, which could host up to 200 people. A Polish architect has already drawn up plans and local masons have received a 1.5 million-euro contract to rebuild the chateau over two years.

As reported news.am, Yerevan Circus art-director Sos Petrosyan announced, that the circus building restoration will be completed in October 2014, a year later than the scheduled date. The Armenian circus restoration began in September 2011 and would be completed in October 2013. According to Mr. Petrosyan, construction delays are associated with design changes, and as a result, restoration plan changes into new construction. The new building will have two-story parking, and the "riding arena" will rise by 6 meters higher. In this regard, the circus building roof also needs to be raised to 6 meters higher. Subsequently, the building designers decided to demolish the old building and to build the new one. The new circus building differs from the old one by height, seats will be increased by 500, the underground floor and 3 arenas will be added, and so on. According to preliminary data the restoration budget was US$ 10 million, but the new construction will double the budget. The Yerevan Circus old building was built in 1962 and never has been renovated.

Construction of gas pipeline "South Stream" begins at the 'Russkaya' compressor station site near Anapa. The 900 kilometer long and maximum 2 kilometer deep "South Stream" will carry Russian gas to southern Europe through the Black Sea. South Stream begins from Russia's Anapa on the Black Sea shore, crosses the sea and comes to Bulgaria. Further transportation will be made via territories of Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia to northern Italy. From the territory of Serbia, there will be gas transporting lines to Croatia and to the Republic of Srpska. The new pipeline will be able to carry 63 billion cubic meters gas. The first gas is expected to be pumped through the pipeline in 2015, and export some 63 billion cubic meters to southern Europe. After beginning of construction, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz told reporters, that Turkey is not planning to take part in the South Stream gas pipeline project, being more interested in Nabucco-West and the Trans-Anatolian natural gas pipeline projects. However, Turkey is interested to increase Russian gas imports to satisfy its growing domestic demand, he said and added that it had not yet been decided which route to use for that, either the Blue Stream pipeline or a pipeline traversing Bulgaria.

A new indoor wooden theatre was built next to Shakespeare's Globe in London and it will be named after the Globe's founder Sam Wanamaker, reported the BBC. The 340-seat theatre, which is scheduled to stage its first public performances in January 2014, will enable the Globe to offer live theatre throughout the year. This is because the open-air Globe theatre only stages productions from April to October. Plays in the indoor venue will run from October to April, with other events over the summer, such as early chamber music and opera. The design of the theatre is based on a series of drawings found at Worcester College Oxford in the 1960s, believed to be the earliest set of designs for an English theatre in existence. The team behind the project has revealed that plays at the new theatre will be predominantly lit by candles. Entering this timber hand-crafted candle-lit intimate space will be like tripping into the 1600s. When the Globe complex opened in 1997, the indoor theatre was left as a shell and has served as workshop and rehearsal studios. Now construction is fully under way, but another US$ 1.6 million needs to be raised to meet the US$ 12 million cost of the project, which receives no government subsidy.