CDL's Tree House in Singapore just set a new Guinness World Record with the world's largest vertical garden. The building's green wall measures 2289 square meters and is expected to save more than US$ 500 thousand in energy and water costs annually. Located in a quiet corner of Singapore's District 23, Tree House is a 24-storey condo building that boasts the world's largest vertical garden and features state-of-the-art sustainable technologies and elements such as heat-reducing windows and motion sensors that automatically activate lights. The vertical garden will reduce the estate's carbon footprint by filtering pollutants and carbon dioxide out of the air. The green exterior wall will reduce heat absorption, which could result in energy savings of between 15 and 30 percent. The developer, City Developments Limited (CDL) won the tender for the site in August 2009 and the project was completed in 2013.

Margaret Thatcher's former home is to go on the market for up to US$ 59.5 million after wealthy foreign buyers have been attracted by its "blue plaque effect". The house in Belgravia, London, will go up for sale after its current owners complete a major refurbishment project which will include two basement floors and a connection to a mews property behind. The new owners are thought to have arranged an extension of the lease and after initial renovation work. However, workmen are now expected to convert the house into a far larger "iceberg home" with a number of subterranean rooms totaling around 650 square meters. The extensive work being carried out by developers Leconfield Property Group is not expected to be finished until next year, but already potential buyers are interested in acquiring the property because of its historic association with the former Prime Minister. Estate agents in Belgravia say the connection with Lady Thatcher, who was Prime Minister between 1979 and 1990, will add to the property's value. It is expected a figure of around US$ 59.5 million could well be realized as trophy-hunter buyers from the US or Middle East bid against each other to own the home of such a famous figure. Lady Thatcher stayed at the five-storey house until December 2012 when she was unable to use the stairs. Blue plaques commemorate the link between notable figures of the past and the buildings in which they lived and worked. London's blue plaques scheme, which is run by English Heritage, was founded in 1866 and is believed to be the oldest of its kind in the world.

UK-based Chetwood Architects just unveiled plans for the Phoenix Towers in Wuhan, China, which will be the world's tallest pair of skyscrapers upon completion. The supertall structures are the centerpiece of the firm's four master plans slated for construction in China. The Phoenix Towers are outfitted with wind turbines, solar panels, thermal chimneys and rainwater harvesting systems and they will act as an "environmental catalyst" to re-invigorate the city of Wuhan. The Phoenix Towers, designed in cooperation between Chetwood Architects and HuaYan Group, are expected to be built on a 47-hectare site on an island within a lake in the city of Wuhan in China. They are expected to reach the height of 1km, catching up with Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture-designed Kingdom Tower in Jeddah; they would be the tallest pair of towers in the world. Inspired by the symbol of the Chinese Phoenix, which combines male and female principles in perfect balance, the architects designed two interdependent towers. The "male" one (Feng) feeds the "female" (Huang) with renewable energy and together they act as a beacon of sustainability in the area.

The awards ceremony for the 14th International Architecture Exhibition is known and the results are in! The Golden Lion for Best National Participation went to South Korea for "Crow's Eye View: The Korean Peninsula". The jury cited Korea's "extraordinary achievement of presenting a new and rich body of knowledge of architecture and urbanism in a highly charged political situation." Chile received the Silver Lion for a National Participation for "Monolith Controversies". The jury said, "Focusing on one essential element of modern architecture - a prefabricated concrete wall- it critically highlights the role of elements of architecture in different ideological and political contexts." The three Special Mentions to National Participations went to Canada - Arctic Adaptations, France - Modernity, Russia - Fair Enough. Armenian delegation also is presented in XIV international Architecture Venice Biennale. Our pavilion is dedicated to Yerevan and called "The Capital of Desires". National Coordinator of Armenian delegation Arev Samuelyan reported that Armenia participates in exhibition for 6 years. This year Armenian side invited well-known international curators Ruben Arevshatyan and George Shellhammer. According to Ruben Arevshatyan there are presented three key Armenian modernist architecture schools of XX century. First, it is "Tamanyan School", second is "Constructivists School" and the third is "Rafael Israelyan School". XIV Venice Architectural Biennale under the slogan "Fundamentals" opened for visitors on June 7. This year it doesn't present any new architectural solutions or projects, instead, architectural experts of different countries tries to present their vision how architecture has evolved in the last century and what we can do with it now. Curator of the Biennale, which takes place every two year, became famous Dutch architect, Pritzker Price winner Rem Koolhaas. Exhibition theme "Absorbing Modernity 1914-2014" he announced early enough to invite national pavilions to discuss a single theme. In the contest Biennale attended 65 national teams.

It sounds like an April Fool's joke, but from what we can tell, the Chinese government is completely serious about their latest high speed rail project. According to multiple news outlets, China plans to build an 12870 kilometers railroad (sounds plausible) connecting China, Russia, Canada, and the U.S. that includes a 200 kilometers undersea tunnel spanning the Bering Strait! The plan was announced in China's state-run newspaper, the Beijing Times, and apparently Russia is already on-board with the plan. While it would be nice to travel from China to America in two days without setting foot in a single airport, engineers around the globe are skeptical. According to the report, which cites a single expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Chinese officials "are considering a route that would start in the country's northeast, thread through eastern Siberia and cross the Bering Strait via a 200-kilometers long underwater tunnel into Alaska." This sounds fine, until you realize the proposed undersea route is longer than the Chunnel and the Seikan Tunnel in Japan (currently the world's longest and deepest) combined. Both were amazing feats of engineering in their own right, and that was without four major world governments (two of which don't play very nicely together) in the mix. Unsurprisingly, "no other Chinese railway experts have come out in support of the proposed project. Whether the government has consulted Russia, the US or Canada is also unclear," reports the Guardian. It's worth pointing out that Russia did green light a similar project in 2011. While we're inclined to file this one under 'strange and unusual news' for the time being, it's interesting to note that if anyone could create something as preposterous as an undersea railway around the world, it's China. "In the last half decade or so, China has embarked on an astonishing rail construction spree, laying down tens of thousands of miles tracks and launching myriad high-speed lines," explains the Washington Post.