The United Arab Emirates government has announced plans to build the world's biggest gate in its capital, following the tradition established by the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, and the world's tallest residential building, Princess Tower. The Khalifa in World Languages project, carried out by the Sultan Bin Zayed's Culture and Media Centre, will be launched on December 2 and dedicated to the President, Sheikh Khalifa. Featuring the 25-metre-tall gate, it will also include a printed encyclopedia, a specially commissioned operetta and a website. Work started months ago but was only confirmed on September 3 by the state news agency Wam, which reported the project had been approved by Guinness World Records. The encyclopaedia will include every world flag and more than 250 translations of the President's name. The website will include a biography of Sheikh Khalifa in various languages and a history of the UAE. But Abu Dhabi might have a challenger. A gate-shaped tower is under construction in Suzhou, China. The Oriental Gate is 301.8 meters high and has 69 stories. The construction started in September 2004 and was designed by British RMJM based on the ancient city gate of Suzhou for hotel, office, retail and accommodation space. After opening the Oriental Gate will be the largest gate-shaped building and also dubbed "the No 1 Gate in the world". But more and more critics finding that the new Chinese Gate much more likes "long underpants", therefore the Abu Dhabi's is a really Gate shaped.

Construction of Gazprom's 463-meter tall "Lakhta Center" in St. Petersburg will begin in October, the head of the Gazprom subsidiary in charge of the project said to information agency RIA Novosti. Gazprom received permission from the city to build the skyscraper complex on the shore of the Gulf of Finland earlier in August. The site is ten kilometers from the city center. An earlier proposal to build in downtown St. Petersburg, at Okhta Cape, had to be scrapped in the face of stiff public opposition. "Construction will proceed in phases," said Alexander Bobkov, the head of ZAO Okhta Public and Business Center, which is overseeing construction of the complex. "The tower itself will take the longest to build. I think we will break ground in October, since there are no legal or technical issues," Bobkov said. The 334 thousand square meter complex will serve as the headquarters for Gazprom's oil arm, Gazprom Neft, and other Gazprom subsidiaries. Construction is scheduled for completion in the spring of 2018. Bobkov did not specify the overall price tag for the project, but said one square meter is expected to cost US$ 2,5 - 3,5 thousand, much less than the estimated US$ 1.9 billion to build at the Okhta site.

The government of Dubai has green-lit the Emirates' first sustainable building and construction is now well underway. The building, which is dedicated to the water and civil division of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), is designed to significantly cut down energy consumption and generate 600kW of electricity using solar power. The project is scheduled to be finished within the next few months. The building project, which is coming together on Shaikh Zayed Road in Al Quoz, is a massive undertaking and will have a total space of around 31.6 thousand square meters. The Dubai government claims it will be the first of their buildings to be constructed according to the highest green building standards. Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, CEO and MD of Dewa has said that the entire construction process is being done in accordance with the highest green building standards and features in the emirate, specifically the Green Economy for Sustainable Development Initiative announced by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is also the Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and the Ruler of Dubai. Using the city's ever-growing public transport system, the building is situated near First Gulf Bank Metro station and enjoys high connectivity. This building will implement "building management system", which will help save efforts and conserve electricity consumption, and automate all monitoring operations. The management system will manage HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) units in the facility in a way to allow electricity savings and automated control operations. The building also follows the standards of saving electricity and water, and has the ability to generate 600kW of electricity using solar power. The facility is also equipped with high efficiency insulatives and smart building systems. It also uses LED technology in lighting, which allows saving 50 % of the energy used to protect environment as part of the commitment and responsibility towards society. The building offers bicycle parking places with 5% of its parking places designated for environmentally-friendly vehicles.

Mark Zuckerberg wired together nearly 1 billion people on the Web. Now the ambitious young entrepreneur is building another kind of community, this one out of bricks and mortar. Construction is booming along a bustling stretch that cuts through the center of Facebook Inc.'s campus in Silicon Valley, which construction started in 2011. Here the social networking giant is designing its own Main Street, putting in storefronts that will cater only to Facebook employees, whether they're in the mood for a straight-razor shave or nigiri rolls. As reported The Los Angeles Times it will be called "Zucker Burg". Unlike the days of Henry Ford and George Pullman, when industrialists built towns surrounding manufacturing operations, Facebook is bringing retail shops onto its sprawling private campus on the outskirts of Menlo Park where there are few commercial establishments other than fast-food joints. The company is subsidizing the construction; handpicked merchants will offer discounted prices to employees. High-tech superpowers such as Google Inc. and Facebook are engaged in an escalating race to pamper employees with free food and luxuries such as complimentary laundry and dry-cleaning services. But Facebook had to come up with new carrots when it moved its headquarters a few months ago to a suburban outpost at the edge of tidal mud flats and salt marshes cut off from the rest of Menlo Park by a six-lane highway.

London's Blackfriars Tube station is on its way to becoming the world's largest solar bridge. Stretching across South Bank a stone's throw from the Tate Modern, the busy station, built by Solarcentury, has already reached the halfway point to completion. Construction on the world's largest solar bridge began on October 2011. Blackfriars Tube station is still fully functioning, ferrying Londoners and tourists from the popular South Bank promenade to areas all over the city. Yet construction is still underway across the bridge's rooftop. Heavy scaffolding is slowly being removed to reveal the 4,400 solar panels that will serve the station, pumping 900 thousand kWh of solar energy back into the grid each year. The solar powerhouse will also reduce CO2 emissions by 511 tons per year, all while promptly serving commuters with uninterrupted service around the city. The gorgeous Victorian bridge is the only bearing solar panels along the River Thames. With stellar city views, boats pass under the bridge's arches throughout the day, while the station serves 24 trains per hour. Pedestrians strolling along the South Bank walk way pass under the historic bridge, check out the progress of its solar modernization. The idyllic scene could be just a glimpse of London's future. With over 100 bridges crossing the River Thames throughout the city, adding additional solar arrays on any of them could drastically reduce the city's consumption of fossil fuels, and ensure a source of clean energy for generations to come, reducing emissions and overall carbon footprint.