Work on the US$ 1.37 billion "Doha Festival City" project in Qatar is due to start in the next few days, reported Arabian Business. The project is one of the first mega projects to get underway as a result of Qatar's successful bid to host the FIFA World Cup 2022 tournament. Ibrahim Mohamed Jaidah, managing director of Arab Engineering Bureau (AEB), the project architects on the Doha Festival City project, said it had seen a big surge in opportunities as a result of Qatar's successful bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The project is located 15 kilometers north of downtown Doha on Al Shamal Road, one of the main arterial routes to the city centre and connecting Doha with Bahrain. The 434 thousand square meter entertainment, retail, hospitality and commercial facility project is being developed by Dubai's "Al-Futtaim Group", which has also developed the Festival City construction brand in the UAE and Egypt. Due to be completed in 2014, some of the main retail tenants already announced include the Swedish furnishing giant "IKEA", Toys "R" Us, "Marks & Spencer" and "Inter sport".

Work on the world's largest solar bridge formally begins, as the first of more than 4.400 solar panels are installed above the new "Blackfriars" station platform, reported The Guardian. When complete in 2012, the "Victorian" bridge will play host to some 6 thousand square meters of photovoltaic (PV) panels, making it London's largest solar array. The historic London site is undergoing a multi-million pound refit, which includes extending the platform along "Blackfriars Bridge", a structure built in 1886. "Solarcentury", the UK company, managing the installation, expects the panels to generate around 900,000kWh of electricity a year, providing half of the station's energy and reducing annual CO2 emissions by an estimated 511 tons. "Station buildings and bridges are fixed parts of our urban landscape and it is great to see that this one will be generating renewable energy every day into the future. For people to see that solar power is working is a vital step towards a clean energy future," said "Solarcentury" chief executive Derry Newman in a statement. Other energy saving measures, such as rain harvesting systems and sun pipes for natural lighting, are also being fitted at "Blackfriars", as part of Network Rail's plans to reduce carbon emissions by 25 percent per passenger kilometer by 2020. One other solar bridge is known to exist, "The Kurilpa" footbridge in Brisbane, Australia, although 16 thousand solar panels were laid on the top of a train tunnel in Belgium earlier this year.

According to vice-premier of the Republic of Tatarstan, Minister of Information and Communications Nikolay Nikiforov, construction of IT-Village, where assumed to live and work 20 thousand experts of IT tecnologies, will begin in spring of 2012, reported digit.ru. The decision to build innovation center IT-Village with total area 12 million square meters in Verkhneuslonsky region of Tatarstan was adopted in 2010. Tatarstan has signed an agreement with leading Singapore company RSP Architects&Engineers PTE Ltd to develope a master-plan for this undertaking. In this IT-Village, situated in 35 kilometers from capital Kazan, will be developed all necessary modern infrastructures to live and work. Singapore company has identified the main concept of this project as "Live, learn, work and play". The project will be implemented as a public-private partnership. According to preliminary estimates, the total cost of project could range from 90-120 billion rubles. However, according to Minister it will depend on investors and developers. As reported in article, the construction of IT-Village will start at spring 2012 and complete after 5-7 years.

Several new skyscrapers will appear in the Warsaw cityscape over the next few years. One of them may become the tallest building in Europe, reported The Warsaw Voice. A company owned by Jan Kulczyk, one of the richest men in Poland, plans to build a more than 282-meter skyscraper in the center of the city, near Zawiszy Square. Originally, the project was scheduled to get under way in 2009, but air traffic safety restrictions stood in the way. However, the regulations changed recently, and today there are no formal obstacles to issuing a permit for a skyscraper to be constructed there. "The Kulczyk Tower" is expected to be 282.4 meters tall, almost 52 meters taller than Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Science and nearly 24 meters taller than the "Commerzbank Tower" in Frankfurt, Germany, which is currently the tallest high-rise in Europe. "The Kulczyk Tower" will be almost 81 thousand square meter in area and host a service complex, hotel rooms, apartments and garages. The area where "the Kulczyk Tower" will be built will become the "Warsaw Manhattan" in the future. Many developers are interested in constructing tall buildings in this area. One ongoing project is the "Warsaw Spire" skyscraper, which is being built on Towarowa Street. The office complex will comprise three buildings: a 220-meter tower and two side buildings, each with a height of 55 meters. In all, the project will offer about 100 thousand square meters of office, service and retail space. The developer is the "Ghelamco Poland" company, which also plans to construct a tall building on Zawiszy Square, one rising to 130 meters. It unveiled the idea at a real estate fair in Cannes earlier this year. A few years ago, Spanish developer "Torca" bought a large plot on Towarowa Street, hoping to build 200-meter skyscrapers. The plot currently hosts the "Jupiter" shopping center and several other buildings. Local officials recently permitted the development of two towers there, one with a height of 170 meters and the other rising to130 meters. The area around the "Marriott Hotel" and the "Warszawa Centralna" train station will host another cluster of tall buildings in the future. A 260-meter skyscraper, designed by acclaimed architect Zaha Hadid and called "Lilium", is expected to be built there. However, the project, which has already been approved by the Warsaw authorities, has been put on hold due to the crisis. In the immediate vicinity, on Emilii Plater and Nowogrodzka streets, two 218-meter towers will be built in a project that will be in harmony with the skyscraper designed by Hadid. The "Twarda Tower", being developed by the "Hines" company, will be 160 meters tall. Located in the very heart of Warsaw on Twarda Street, it will hold a hotel on the lower floors and apartments on the upper floors. Nearby, on ONZ traffic circle, a 150-meter "Dipservice" skyscraper will be constructed. "Dipservice" is part of the "Grupa Polski Holding Nieruchomo?ci" real estate corporation. At the beginning of the previous decade, developers worldwide started constructing many tall buildings with luxury apartments. The global fashion for residential towers also reached Poland. Several such projects were started and a number of others were on the drawing board. However, many of these projects were later discontinued due to the crisis. Some of them have been completely abandoned, others have stalled and still others have been redesigned to suit new market needs. After an almost two-year hiatus, construction work has resumed on Warsaw's most luxurious building, the "Z?ota 44" skyscraper in the city center. The tower, being developed by the "Orco Property Group", is expected to open in 2012. The luxurious apartment tower will rise to 192 meters and 54 stories above the ground on Z?ota Street in the very heart of Warsaw. The building was designed by Daniel Libeskind, an internationally acclaimed American architect of Polish extraction. The tower, nicknamed the "Glass Sail" for its light form, and bright, almost transparent facade, will house a total of 251 apartments of various sizes. Located higher than any other apartments in Warsaw, they will be the most luxurious ones in the city, according to the developer. The lower part of the tower will house retail space with general access. The building will offer a swimming pool, a sauna, a spa center, a sun deck, a fitness club with a yoga studio and concierge service. It will also have space for celebrations, complete with house catering services.

Barcelona's emblematic "Sagrada Familia" church finally has a completion date - 2026 or 2028, more than 140 years after it was started, reported The Guardian. Joan Rigol, president of the committee charged with finishing the building by Antoni Gaudi, said it should be finished in time for the centenary for the architect's death - or, if not, two years later. Five huge towers are being added to the eccentric building, which is among Spain's most-visited tourist attractions. Originally paid for by subscription, the church was always set to take a long time to build. "My client is in no hurry," Gaudi once said, referring to God. The building was at one stage popularly known as "the cathedral of the poor" and Gaudi himself was known to go begging for contributions - which currently amount to around 500 thousand euro a year. With a roof finally in place, Pope Benedict was able to consecrate it as a basilica last year. But a setback came when a man set fire to the basilica's sacristy in April, with repair work still under way. "The damage is worse than we had thought," said the building's chief architect, Jordi Bonet. Authorities are now considering installing metal detectors at the entrance. "Our new objective is to complete the six central towers, of which five have already been started," said Rigol. The sixth tower will measure 170 meters and contain a lift to carry tourists to the top. "Sagrada Familia", is a large Roman Catholic church in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926). Although incomplete, the church is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in November 2010 was consecrated and proclaimed a minor basilica by Pope Benedict XVI. The construction of "Sagrada Familia" had already commenced in 1882, when Gaudi subsequently took over the project in 1883 he transformed it with his architectural and engineering style-combining Gothic and curvilinear, modernism forms with ambitious structural columns and arches, and including a rich variety of Christian symbols in the design. Gaudi devoted his last years to the project and at the time of his death, less than a quarter of the project was complete. Gaudi died in 1926 after being run over by the city's No 30 tram. He had been living on the "Sagrada Familia" building site and looked so impoverished that it took several hours for doctors to realize who he was. The tram driver thought he had hit a drunken tramp.