As reported by worldconstructionnetwork.com, construction work is set to begin on a US$ 500 million semi-submerged resort named Amphibious 1000, on the Qatar coast. Designed by Italy-based company Giancarlo Zema Design Group, the resort will be situated in the centre of a marine reserve and will extend for one kilometre in a horizontal position. Divided into two sections of land and sea, the project includes residential buildings, offices, a central marine park, floating walkways and underwater marina galleries that all form a semi circle around the central tower, which hosts a panoramic restaurant. Sea part will house 4 giant hotels comprising underwater rooms replicating the look of super-yachts. The resort's land portion will be equipped with a museum, exhibitions and aquariums. Other features of the facility include floating walkways as well as a restaurant allowing glimpses of the surrounding landscape. The facility will also incorporate 80 self-contained floating suites known as Jellyfish. Every suite will encompass four stories while featuring an underwater aquarium lounge. The hotels will surround a central public welcome area comprising an interactive museum on water life, water exhibition galleries as well as a glass tunnel leading to the underwater observatory in the marine park's centre. The welcome area is linked via long arm-like structures to fitness centres, gardens and a special outdoor theatre adorned with a moving stage which opens out to the sea. The transportation of guests across the resort will be facilitated by hydrogen-powered aluminium yachts called Trilobis measuring 20 metres. The vessels will sport a steel hull complemented by a superstructure in aluminium and will possess underwater observatory zones.

As reported by constructionweekonline.com, Taiwan's Taipei 101 has become the tallest building in the world to receive LEED Platinum status, the top level in the green building rating system. Previously the world's tallest building at 509 meters, Taipei 101 is now the second tallest building in the world after the 828-meter Burj Khalifa. The tower was retrofitted with green technology and processes to achieve LEED EBOM, the accreditation for existing buildings. The retrofit was carried out through a partnership between electronics giant Siemens, interior designers Steven Leach Associates and Eco Tech International. According to another source focustaiwan.tw, Taipei 101's certification has set three records: The tallest green building (509 meters), the largest green building (about 150 thousand square meters), and the highest-use green building (90 tenants). The building has achieved annual savings of 14.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity- equivalent to US$ 1.24 million, or an 18 percent energy-saving, over three years. The design specification for the CO2 (carbon dioxide) level in Taipei 101 is 600 parts per million, tenants of Taipei 101 are able to enjoy fresher air in the building because of the lower CO2 level. Recall that the Taipei Financial Center Corporation announced plans on 2009 November to make Taipei 101 "the world's tallest green building" by summer 2011 as measured by LEED standards ( Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design - an internationally recognized green building certification system, providing third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies intended to improve performance in metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts).

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has given the go ahead for the construction of the world's tallest tower in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah by signing a US$ 1.2 billion contract with Bin Laden Group on August 2. As reported by ctbuh.org, at over thousand meters and a total construction area of 530 thousand square meters, Kingdom Tower will be the centerpiece and first construction phase of the Kingdom City development on a 5.3 million square meter site in north Jeddah. The tower's height will be at least 172 meters taller than the world's current tallest building, Dubai's 828 meter-tall Burj Khalifa, which was designed by Adrian Smith. Kingdom Tower will feature a Four Seasons hotel, Four Seasons serviced apartments, Class A office space, luxury condominiums and the world's highest observatory. Design development of the tower is under way, with construction to begin imminently. Foundation drawings are complete and the piling for the tower is currently being tendered. Kingdom Tower will cost approximately US$ 1.2 billion to construct, while the cost of the entire Kingdom City project is anticipated to be US$ 20 billion. AS+GG is leading an interdisciplinary design team. The great height of Kingdom Tower necessitates one of the world's most sophisticated elevator systems. The Kingdom Tower complex will contain 59 elevators, including 54 single-deck and five double-deck elevators, along with 12 escalators. Elevators serving the observatory will travel at a rate of 10 meters per second in both directions. Another unique feature of the design is a sky terrace, roughly 30 meters in diameter, at level 157. It is an outdoor amenity space intended for use by the penthouse floor. AS+GG also designed the master plan for the 230 thousand square meters Kingdom Tower Waterfront District, which surrounds the tower and which will include residential and commercial buildings, a shopping mall, high-quality outdoor spaces and other amenities. The Waterfront District provides a cohesive and pedestrian-friendly setting for Kingdom Tower while creating a pleasant neighborhood experience along the Kingdom City lakefront.

Barcelona, one of the most beautiful cities in the world where lived and worked a great Catalonian architect Gaudi, won another prize for building's architecture. Prestigious architectural award Emporis Skyscraper Award 2010 won the Hotel Porta Fira in Barcelona. The building is a creative concept of two architecture companies, the Japanese Toyo Ito & Associates and b720 Fermin Vazquez Arquitectos, conceptualised the surreal structure. The second award went to the highest building in the world Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the third presented to the Tower Tour CMA CGM in the south of France, in Marseille. The jury, which includes experts from around the world, valued the building's aesthetics and integration into its urban environment over humankind's fascination with building the tallest structure. The winner was chosen from over 300 competing skyscrapers around the world. A committee annually presents this award to an exceptional building at least 100 meters tall completed within the award year. Five star Porta Fira Hotel contorts to a height of 113 meters, with 26 floors, on the outskirts of Barcelona in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. The facade of red aluminium tubes form continuous lines enclosing the complex geometry of the building, which twists and increases in size as it rises. By results of another 2010 award conducted by the CTBUH (Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat) the first prize for 2010 best skyscraper was awarded to Broadcasting Place, Leeds, or as it is called "Rusty High rise", and the Dubai's giant Burj Khalifa won another prize from the CTBUH-2010 Global Icon Award.

With exactly a year to go until the start of London's third summer Games, the Olympic Park in working class Stratford, one of Britain's most ambitious and costly urban renewal projects, now boasts all its main structures that will stage next year's sporting drama, reported news agency reuters.com. The Aquatics Center, which officially opened its doors on July 27, joins the towering Olympic Stadium, the sleek-looking Velodrome, the multi-use handball arena and the enormous International Broadcast Center (IBC) which have changed the skyline of London's eastern approaches. Basketball's gleaming white 12,000-seat rectangular venue is also ready for use, although despite its imposing size it will be dismantled after the Games. More than 160,000 tons of soil, much of it contaminated, were dug out to build the Aquatics Center - an operation that uncovered several Iron Age skeletons as well an assortment of rusting relics from the area's former uses. Even a two-month delay in completing the US$ 1.67 billion Aquatics Center, it seems, has its advantages. The iconic Aquatics Center, which houses two 50 meters pools and a diving pool and can seat 17,500 spectators during the Games, came in over budget and also missed its completion date because of complications over its roof design and heating systems. The cosmetics are still to be applied, such as the greening of the park with thousands of trees and plants, temporary venues constructed, and the athletes Village to be fitted out, but London 2012 chief Sebastian Coe said the handover of the sixth main building project on the Park with a year still remaining was a cause for pride.