Fashion TV signs agreement with the Al Habtoor Group to build in Dubai the world's first Fashion Hotel. Fashion TV, this week at the Cannes Film Festival, announced plans, in collaboration with the Al Habtoor Group, to launch the world's first ever Fashion Hotel, in Dubai. The hotel, to be located in the heart of Dubai, will be owned and operated by the Al Habtoor Group. No specific details on location or opening dates were given. It will be 30-storey high and the exterior will display a projection using a 100 meter LED screen, broadcasting the latest Fashion TV highlights, around the clock. Its 200 rooms will be equipped with the latest lighting and audio-video technologies and will make extensive use of the latest 3D equipment. They will also have access to Fashion TV's 30 channels, as well as the biggest Fashion DVD library in the world, offering 50,000 DVDs on the history of fashion. The hotel will also have a wide variety of restaurants, bars, lounges, nightclubs, spas and cinemas, as well as fashion-themed rooms. Mohammed Al Habtoor said, "It's an exceptional project and one which is likely to have a massive impact on Dubai, making it the future fashion capital of the world. The city will certainly never be the same again." This won't be the only Fashion Hotel. Al Habtoor Group and Fashion TV said in an interview that plans are to open other Fashion Hotels in high-style locations around the world. We have our bets on Paris, Shanghai, New York, and Milan. The Al Habtoor Group has grown with the UAE, and while best known for construction, it is globally recognised through its involvement in the hotel, automotive, real estate, education, insurance and publishing sectors. It constructed Dubai International Airport, Dubai Hospital. Al Habtoor Group also built 321 meter high 7 star hotel Burj Al Arab and 600 room, 26 storey high Jumeirah Beach hotel.
Paris unveiled the latest giant to grace its famous skyline, with the formal inauguration of France's tallest skyscraper, known as the "First Tower". At 21,000 tonnes, the First is more than twice as heavy as the French capital's tallest and most famous landmark, the Eiffel Tower, which nevertheless beats it for sheer height at 324 meters. The spire was born when developers stripped down and rebuilt the mighty Axa block in La Defense business quarter on the western edge of the city, adding 69 metres to send it soaring to 231 metres. Now, the tower tops the city's previous famously unloved tallest office block, the slab-like Tour de Montparnasse, which looms over the Left Bank at 210 metres tall. But, despite the triumph of its architecture, First has so far not proved a hit with tenants: Only half of its office space, 80,000 square metres spread over 52 floors, has so far been allocated. Building on the 300 million euro ($ 440 million) tower began in 2008. The first tenant, accountancy giant Ernst and Young, will move in during the second half of the year. But the highest tower title The First can lose in 2016. Government has issued a permit for construction of the Phare Tower (Lighthouse Tower) with 300 meters high also in region La Defense, which is scheduled to open in 2016.
After thirteen years as the world's premier Internet Search Engine, Google has finally decided to get its own address. The company has hired a German architecture firm to undertake construction of its own office. With plans to add over 6,000 new employees just in 2011 alone, Google is in massive need of some new space. For over a decade, Google has leased its offices in Northern California, spread out between 65 different buildings in the Mountain View area. That number is more than double what it was in 2005, and the company expects to grow even more in the coming years as it makes dramatic staff increases. According to Mercury News, Google announced this week it plans to build its brand new headquarters on a property in Mountain View, California south of Palo Alto near the Moffett Federal Airfield. The Mountain View City Council approved the deal in late March, and Google is expected to make the $30 million upfront payment in June for a lease that will run for 53 years on half of the 18.6-acre city-owned site. Mountain View and Google had reached an agreement in 2007 to lease the other 9.2 acres, with Google paying an initial rent of $1.1 million a year. The two deals collectively allow Google to develop up to 595,000 square feet of office and research and development space. German firm Ingenhoven Architects, renowned for their large-scale environmentally-friendly projects and unique aesthetics, will reportedly design Google's new structure. Ingenhoven has designed buildings in Europe, Asia and Australia, including a tubular glass and steel structure for the new European Investment Bank headquarters in Luxembourg and a new zero-emission railway station in Stuttgart, Germany, that will require no heating, cooling or mechanical ventilation. "We've asked them to build the most green, sustainable building possible," a spokesman for Google told Mercury News. Google is not sharing any details, but city officials said preliminary plans could be filed later this month, with construction starting as early as 2012.
After 20 years of thorough stabilization efforts the scaffolding has been removed from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, meaning that the throngs of tourists that flock to the bell tower every day can now appreciate the column in all its glory. The €27m project has lessened the tilt of the 14th century tower, which prior to reconstruction efforts was leaning an extra millimeter each year. Now 50cm straighter than it was, the famous column now sports a 3.99m lean, corrected from the 4.5m tilt it had several years previously. The tourist attraction and architectural masterpiece now stands at 56m tall at its highest point Over the last two decades, restoration experts have been hard at work painstakingly scrubbing the tower free of the graffiti and dirt that has accumulated over the past centuries and restoring numerous blocks of marble that have fallen from its crown. Gisella Capponi, an architect at the conservation and restoration institute of Italy's culture ministry explains: "Despite the monument's surface area (7,000 sq m), we worked across it centimeter by centimeter." Interest in engineering work to prevent the tower from toppling began in 1964 when the Italian government requested aid in reducing the tilt, however it was considered that a certain angle should be retained to preserve the characteristic feature of this classic monument. As a result, 800tonnes of lead counterweights were applied to the raised base in an effort to counteract the softer foundations on the column's lower side. After the Leaning Tower was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, serious stabilization plans were put in place and the area was closed to the public. The heavy bells were removed from the tower, cables roped around the third level and anchored to the ground, and 38 cub m of soil removed from the base of the raised edge to 'correct' the tilt to its 1838 position. Originally constructed over several centuries from 1173 to 1372, recent stabilization efforts are thought to have secured the lifetime of the bell tower by another 300 years.
As Inhabitat.com reported, the world's first floating golf course is planned to be built in the Maldives. "If you build it - they will come" is credo for developers. Located five minutes from the Maldives airport, the 18-hole golf course will include luxurious accommodations, which overlook the green fairways and the surrounding reef. The golf course is doubly groundbreaking as it will be built on floating platforms, making it the first floating golf course, and it is also designed to minimize its impact on the surrounding ecosystem. The artificial floating islands will incorporate technologies such as water cooling, water desalination, and the use of floating solar blanket fields. Underwater tunnels will connect the holes and facilities together, while allowing golfers to experience the reef. Koen Olthuis-led Waterstudio.NL is in charge of the conceptual design of the golf course, while the developer Dutch Docklands is working on the engineering to make the floating golf course possible. Troon Golf, leading developer of golf courses, is working as a technical adviser to the project, which is expected to cost $500 million. The state-of-the-art golf courses are expected to bring new wealth, investment and tourism to the country. Building such a novel tourist attraction will also likely help spur on new floating developments, which they country will likely need as sea levels rise.
