French president Francois Hollande inaugurated the Foundation Louis Vuitton contemporary art museum on October 20. The private contemporary art museum was financed by Bernard Arnault, who heads up the LVMH luxury goods empire and whose net worth is estimated at almost US$ 30 billion by Forbes. The foundation was designed by 85-year-old architect Frank Gehry who wanted to "design, in Paris, a magnificent vessel symbolizing the cultural calling of France". Gehry is best known for designing the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum building in Bilbao, Spain. Spain Museum of Modern Art Guggenheim Foundation aroused the admiration of the French billionaire who wished to have the building constructed in a similar aesthetic. Anchored by imposing iron and wood girders that evoke Belle Epoque steelwork, and relying on aerospace technology for its construction, Gehry's masterstroke is the building's 12 undulating sails covering an area of 13,500 square meters. The rectangular panels of glass made in specially created ovens in Italy reflect the light in different ways as they appear to twist this way and that. They float over the body of the building, "the iceberg," constructed of fiber-reinforced concrete known as Ductal. Construction and designing of the private museum has taken more than 12 years and Mr. Gehry had to design almost 60 different layouts. The ambitious project took 100 engineers assembled by Gehry and a total of 3,000 workers. The museum is as ambitious as anything Gehry has ever produced but also, surprisingly, as refined. Covering 11.700 square meters and holding 11 separate galleries on four levels as well as a sizable auditorium, space for concerts and so on. At the moment they are exposed not more than a dozen contemporary installations, specially created for the opening, and 60 architectural layouts of Gehry. The main collection will be placed in the halls only at the beginning of next year. The center formally opens on Octtober 27. Admission will be free for a few days and then rise to nearly US$ 18 for an adult. In 2062 the building will revert to public ownership, becoming property of the city of Paris.

Higher than a bird, almost as high as some planes. It's Super Tower. And it's coming to Bangkok. Real estate developer Grand Canal Land unveiled plans for a 125-storey office and hotel tower that would make Bangkok home to the tallest skyscraper in Southeast Asia. The 320 thousand square-meter "Super Tower" - the name is not final and a naming competition will be held later - is being designed by Architects 49. The mixed-use project will offer 90 thousand square meters of office space and house a "six-star" hotel with 260 rooms. Other amenities include an observation tower for tourists and garden on the rooftop of a lower floor. According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, which maintains a database of the tallest skyscrapers, the Bangkok "Super Tower" will be the world's ninth tallest if it is built on schedule. It would be the third tallest if built today. The developer intends the tower as the center of a new business, shopping and residential district in Bangkok costing US$ 3.1 billion. If completed, the tower would dwarf the tallest building currently in Thailand, the "Baiyoke II tower", which tops out at 304 meters (328.4 m to tip) on its 85th floors. The second-tallest structure, to be completed in 2016, is Mahanakhon condominium at 314 meters. If built today, the tower would be the third-tallest in the world and the highest in the Southeast Asia region, planners said. Southeast Asia's current tallest building is the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur at 452 meters.

Visitors to the Eiffel Tower in Paris will now be able to look down through a vertigo-inducing glass floor that forms part of a US $38 million refit of France's most-visited tourist attraction. The transparent floor is on the first level of the tower, at 57 meters, where operators hope that visitors will linger before heading to the highest viewing platform at 276 meters above ground. Traditionally, tourists to the Eiffel Tower spend little time here before moving on to catch the better views from the two higher levels. To add more excitement to the view down to the ground, the old wire safety fence has been replaced by floor-to-ceiling glass barriers that tilt outwards. This project represented a technical exploit. Saint-Gobain had to develop a special product for the glass floor (128 square meters) and carry out very detailed studies bearing on the characteristics of the glass and the type of anti-skid coating to use. The floor had to remain as transparent as possible and the slip potential had to be minimized, which is why a pattern of dots (enamel and abrasive particles) was screen-printed on the upper surface of the glass. It took 18 months of R&D to conceive a high-quality screen printing process that would deliver excellent mechanical resistance and allow the product to keep looking attractive during use. Glassolutions, a Saint-Gobain subsidiary, developed and manufactured the 64 LITE-FLOOR XTRA GRIP glass tiles used for the floor. The tiles were made by laminating three sheets of glass with two high-strength films. The total thickness of this composite is 32 millimeters, giving it a load-bearing capacity of 500 kilogram/square meters. The refit of the half-hectare first floor, which began in May 2012 and was unveiled to the public Oct. 7, also includes shops, restaurants, and a museum telling the story of the 125-year-old construction. The tower's eco-friendliness has also improved, with the installation of four solar panels that will provide about half of the tower's hot-water requirements. Some of the toilets will also be operated using rainwater. About seven million people visit the Eiffel Tower each year - 85 percent of them foreigners - making it the world's busiest paid-for tourist attraction. The tower's management also hopes that the renovation will attract more Parisians to the "Dame en Fer" (The Iron Lady), as it is sometimes referred to in French. The tower opened in 1889 and was named after Gustave Eiffel, whose company engineered the project.

The Burj Khalifa has claimed the record for the world's highest observation deck with the unveiling of a new viewing level on the 148th floor. With its floor at a staggering 555.7 meters, it smashes the previous record held by Canton Tower, in Guangzhou, China, at 488 meters. The new "At the Top", Burj Khalifa Sky venue adds to the existing viewing experience on the 124th floor. The new attraction will be opened to the public on October 15. A third viewing deck on the 125th floor also adds to the experience, allowing those who choose to go to the 148th floor to have a second stop overlooking the public viewing deck on the 124th floor on the return journey. The 125th floor, decorated with a Mashrabiya motif, allows visitors to look through viewfinders to go on a virtual tour of the city through Dubai. People who buy tickets to the new floor can sit in an exclusive lounge as they wait for the lift. They are then taken in batches, led by guest ambassadors, avoiding waiting queues. The lift journey up features a projected video inside that marks the heights of various world-famous buildings as it surpasses them. There is an outdoor viewing deck, an interactive large screen that takes viewers on a computer-generated trip down the Burj and around Dubai, as well as a boutique shop. Last year 1.87 million people visited the attraction, and that figure is set to be surpassed this year.

One of Tokyo's most famous buildings the Nakagin Capsule Tower threatened with demolition. Designed by Kisho Kurokawa in 1972, it caught the world's attention with its minuscule living spaces for the country's single office workers. The striking tower, in Tokyo's Shimbashi district, even appeared as a Japanese love hotel in the 2013 blockbuster "The Wolverine" starring Hugh Jackman. But over the years, much of the once-modern building has fallen into disrepair. Around half of the 140 units are used as offices, art studios, and second homes, but just 20 are lived in full-time. Each of the 140 units in the tower contains a bed, a fold-out desk and a tiny bathroom; all squeezed in just 10 square meters. Rent for a capsule is around 60,000 yen (US $539) per month. The rooms feature a large round window and retro features such as clocks and sound systems, giving them the appearance of being suspended in a 1970s vision of the future. The building's dilapidated state does not make for an easy life. The capsules' asbestos insulation is deteriorating, so winters are cold, and summers can get very hot. Corroding pipes, water damage, and an uncertain future mean half the capsules have been left to rot by their owners, who would rather see the tower demolished and reap the profits of a brand new apartment building. The individual capsules were originally designed to be removed and replaced every 25 years, except that failed to happen. This isn't the first time that the building has faced the threat of demolition. Back in 2007, CTBUH reported similar findings, where the building's management actually approved plans to raze the tower. These plans eventually fell through and the building still stands today. While some owners are keen to restore the building, others feel demolition is the best route. Eighty percent of them need to agree on any changes, before a decision is made. Meanwhile, a crowd-funding project hopes to safeguard the future of the 13-story tower - that some see as a monument to Japanese architectural history. The campaign, known as the "Save The Nakagin Capsule Tower Campaign" aims to collect donations from people all over the world who love this capsule tower and use that money to buy the capsules one by one. But Japan, like many countries in Asia, often prefers the new to the old. Christian Dimmer, Professor of Urbanism at Tokyo University, told AFP news agency: "It is hard to raise public awareness about the preservation of historic buildings in Japan, where buildings are usually torn down and replaced after 30 years."