This year in January Barclays Capital research reported, there is an "unhealthy correlation" between the building of skyscrapers and subsequent financial crashes. Often the world's tallest buildings are simply the edifice of a broader skyscraper building boom, reflecting a widespread misallocation of capital and an impending economic correction. Examples include the "Empire State building", built as the "Great Depression" was under way, and the current world's tallest, the "Burj Khalifa", built just before Dubai almost went bust. Besides this research world's largest companies are continuing to fund skyscrapers construction. Tomy Winata, the Artha Graha group director and Agung Prabowo, the Danayasa Arthatama Company's director, are sure, that with a fast growing Indonesian economy, by the time the planned tower is finished, the supply of office space and rooms will meet demand. According to The Financial Times, Artha Graha group director Tomy Winata plans to build a 111-storey tower, which will be the world's fifth tallest skyscraper upon completion in five years' time. The tower will build the Danayasa Arthatama, an Artha Graha subsidiary company focused on the property sector. The US$ 2 billion tower will rise 534.5 meters above ground level according to the architect's plans. As reported the newspaper the MGM Resorts International, a US-listed casino and hospitality group, will manage a luxury hotel on the top 20 floors of the building. The Signature Tower will be built in the Sudirman Central Business District, a 45 hectare development controlled by Mr. Winata's business group and home to the Indonesia Stock Exchange and many banks and international companies. Today many skyscraper projects are still on paper. UAE planned to build 1400-meters tall "Nakheel tower", but its construction was delayed. Saudi Arabia also plans to build the 1010-meters tall "Kingdom Tower" in Jeddah. In January of this year, Azerbaijan also announced, that its Avesta concern decided to build 1050 meters tall "Azerbaijan Tower" in "Caspian Island".

Instead of concrete jungles could our cities become urban forests of wooden skyscrapers? Swapping cement and steel for timber is the vision of a number of environmentally-minded architects who are planning high-rise buildings across the world. As reported CNN, Architect Michael Green, one of three principals at McFarlane Green Biggar Architecture + Design (mgb), has plans for a 30-story wooden skyscraper in Vancouver, while plans are afoot in Norway and Austria for 17 and 20-story building that use wood as the main building material, eschewing steel and concrete. The modern wood materials have been around for 20 years, but until recently they have been quite niche or used only in low-rise buildings. What has changed is the way in which architects and builders are thinking about using wood. The real change came when people started about climate change. Steel and concrete are great but not environmentally friendly. Cutting down trees to make buildings doesn't immediately sound eco-friendly either, but if sourced from sustainably managed forests (like those in Europe and North America), it can be more environmentally sensitive. Wood buildings lock in carbon dioxide for the life cycle of a structure, while the manufacture of steel and concrete produces large amounts of CO2 -- the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimate that for every 10 kilos of cement created, six to nine kilos of CO2 are produced. Green's "Tallwood" structure is designed with large panels of laminated strand lumber -- a composite made of strands of wood glued together. Other mass timber products use layers of wood fused together at right angles that making them immensely strong and able to be used as lode bearing infrastructure, walls and floors. Currently one of the highest modern wooden buildings is in London. Called the Stadthaus, Murray Grove, it's a nine-story residential building that stands at just under 30 meters (98 feet). Even the lift shafts and stairwells are made from wood. According to Craig Liddell, the commercial director of KLH UK, the company that developed the cross-laminated timber for the building, the 15 stories is possible before having to use other materials like steel. The cross-laminated timber used on the Stadthaus is classified as air-tight, making it one of London's most energy efficient buildings. As a pre-fabricated structure it also took less time to construct and was cheaper than a conventional steel and concrete building.

The US$ 2.61 billion Hermitage Plaza Towers to be built in Paris La Defense business district have received planning permission and work on the site will start imminently, Emin Iskenderov, chief executive of development company Hermitage Group, said on March 9, during his interview to Wall Street Journal. Hermitage Group, a Paris-based private company with Russian origins, will start clearing the site for the two 320-meter-tall skyscrapers this month. The project will cost a total of US$ 2 billion, with US$ 916 million in bank debt arranged with four banks at a cost of 6.5 percent, and US$ 394 million of equity coming from Hermitage Group itself. The remaining US$ 1.3 billion will be financed through sales of apartments and offices. The Paris real-estate market, which was hit by the financial crisis in 2008, still hasn't recovered completely, and overall property prices remain below their 2007 peak. But Mr. Iskenderov is confident he can raise the US$ 1.3 billion portion needed through sales of apartments and offices as Hermitage Plaza will be La Defense's first building to offer mixed-use space. Hermitage Group will start selling the apartments in a year's time and expects a minimum price of US$ 15.7 thousand per square meter. Hermitage Plaza, designed by U.K.- based architects Foster and Partners, will provide 280 thousand square meters of mixed-use space, housing a five-star hotel, 543 apartments, 35 thousand square meters of offices and 50 thousand square meters of retail and restaurants. The Hermitage Towers will be 200 meters from La Defense's main transport links and will also provide 20 thousand square meters of public space.

Every year since 2006 eVolo Magazine is announcing the winners of the annual Skyscraper Competition. Established in 2006, the annual Skyscraper Competition recognizes outstanding ideas that redefine skyscraper design through the use of new technologies, materials, programs, aesthetics, and spatial organizations, along with studies on globalization, flexibility, adaptability, and the digital revolution. This is also an investigation on the public and private space and the role of the individual and the collective in the creation of a dynamic and adaptive vertical community. The award seeks to discover young talent, whose ideas will change the way we understand architecture and its relationship with the natural and built environments. This year eVolo Magazine received 714 projects from all 5 continents and 95 different countries. The Jury of the 2012 edition, which was formed by leaders of the architecture and design, selected 3 winners and 22 honorable mentions. The first place was awarded to Zhi Zheng, Hongchuan Zhao and Dongbai Song from China for their project "Himalaya Water Tower". Housed within 55 thousand glaciers in the Himalaya Mountains sits 40 percent of the world's fresh water. The massive ice sheets are melting at a faster-than-ever pace due to climate change, posing possible dire consequences for the continent of Asia and the entire world stand, and especially for the villages and cities that sit on the seven rivers that come are fed from the Himalayas' runoff as they respond with erratic flooding or drought. The "Himalaya Water Tower" is a skyscraper located high in the mountain range that serves to store water and helps regulate its dispersal to the land below as the mountains' natural supplies dry up. The skyscraper, which can be replicated en masse, will collect water in the rainy season, purify it, freeze it into ice and store it for future use. The water distribution schedule will evolve with the needs of residents below; while it can be used to help in times of current drought, it's also meant to store plentiful water for future generations. The lower part of the Himalaya Water tower is comprised of six stem-like pipes that curve and wind together and collect and store water. Like the stem of a plant, these pipes grow strong as they absorb their maximum water capacity. In each of the six stems, a core tube is flanked by levels and levels of cells, which hold the water. The upper part of the building - the part that is visible above the snow line - is used for frozen storage. Four massive cores support steel cylindrical frames that, like the stems below, hold levels that radiate out, creating four steel tubes filled with ice. In between the two sections are mechanical systems that help freeze the water when the climatic conditions aren't able to do so, purify the water and regulate the distribution of water and ice throughout the structure. At the bottom of the structure, surrounding the six intertwined water tubes is a transport system that regulates fresh water distribution to the towns and cities below. The curving channels connect the mountains to the villages, and are also hold within them a railway for the transport of people and goods. The second place was awarded to Yiting Shen, Nanjue Wang, Ji Xia, and Zihan Wang from China for their project "Mountain Band-Aid", a design that seeks to simultaneously return the displaced Hmong mountain people to their homes and work as it restores the ecology of the Yunnan mountain range. The recipient of the third place is Lin Yu-Ta from the Taiwan for a "Vertical Landfill" to be located in the largest cities around the globe, both as a reminder of the outrageous amount of garbage that we produce and as a power plant that harvests energy from waste decomposition. Among the honorable mentions there are underwater projects for ocean research, mobile skyscrapers, floating cities, and temporal buildings that attach to existing structures. These proposals offer us an exciting view of the world to come.

A symbol of Dubai's resurgence and its growing importance at the centre of the global business crossroads will emerge later this year when the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai opens its doors to guests in Q4 this year, reported the official site of Marriott Hotel. This hotel set to be the world's tallest. As reported, the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai will open in two phases, with the first section featuring 807 rooms and numerous restaurants and lounges. At a height of 355 meters, the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai is the tallest dedicated hotel building in the world and is just 26 meters shorter than the Empire State Building in New York. In addition to serving the luxury business traveler, the hotel is targeting the lucrative and increasingly important MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) market, which currently does not have a hotel of sufficient scale to host such large groups. In addition to all the dining and entertainment options, the hotel will have two ballrooms, 24 meeting rooms and a total of 5,100 square meters of event space. Currently the tallest dedicated hotel building in the world is Rose Rayhaan in Dubai. 72 storeys, 333 meters high and certified as the World's tallest hotel by Guinness Records hotel building opened its doors in 2010. But the world's highest hotel is Ritz-Carlton housed in 484 meters high International Commerce Center in Hong-Kong. It is situated on 102-118 floors. The JW Marriott is part of Marriott International's luxury portfolio and consists of beautiful properties in gateway cities and distinctive resort locations around the world. Currently, there are 53 JW Marriott hotels in 22 countries; by 2015 the portfolio will encompass 80 properties in 29 countries.