Google has completed a US$ 1.6 billion deal to build a new UK headquarters on 10 thousand square meters of disused land behind King's Cross Station, underlining the global technology industry's commitment to London, reported The Financial Times. The internet search group confirmed that it would start building a new 11 storey office block on the site, which it would use to consolidate operations from its existing offices in London. The land was acquired from the Kings Cross Central Partnership. As reported Reuters Google was investing US$ 1 million to buy and develop the site. The office building will be worth up to US$ 1.6 when it is finished in 2016. The deal, one of the most valuable property transactions in the UK since the start of the financial crisis, follows a string of high-profile moves by technology groups, including Skype, Oracle and Amazon, to take up office space in the UK capital. Matt Brittin, vice-president for northern and central Europe at Google, said: "This is a big investment by Google, we're committing further to the UK - where computing and the web were invented. It's good news for Google, for London and for the UK." Google's London staff are currently split between two offices in Victoria and one in Holborn. The move will allow the company to house all London staff under one roof. The company plans to keep its office in Manchester. Google also operates Campus, a seven-storey centre in Shoreditch that offers work spaces to technology and media start-ups as part of London's Tech City project. Google has traditionally leased its overseas offices but in the past two years has purchased premises in Paris, Dublin, and now London, its filings show.

Abu Dhabi staked its claim as the cultural capital of the Middle East on January 8 with the final go-ahead for its most eagerly anticipated landmark project. The main contract for the Louvre Abu Dhabi was awarded to the Dubai builder Arabtec. Construction of the US$ 653 million development will begin immediately and the new museum is expected to open in 2015. The Louvre Abu Dhabi, which arose out of a 2007 cultural partnership between France and the United Arab Emirates, won't look anything like the lavish 12th century building where Louis XIV once lived. The mushroom-shaped building designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, the Pritzker Prize winner, is slated to be part of a cultural district planned for Saadiyat Island. The architecturally stunning complex will consist of 64,000 square meters of pavilions, plazas and canals, two-thirds of it shaded by a 180-meter wide cupola that appears to float in mid air. The new museum will form the heart of the Saadiyat Island cultural district alongside the Zayed National Museum planned to open in 2016 and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi the following year. The construction challenges are considerable. A 180-metre wide cupola supported at just four points around its perimeter will shade two-thirds of the museum campus. Perforated to cast an intricate "rain of light" below, the dome will be made of more than 100,000 individual elements in 10 layers that will overlap to form a pattern inspired by Islamic geometry and the palm fronds of traditional Arish dwellings. The Louvre Abu Dhabi will be housed in 9,200 square meters of gallery space spread across almost 30 separate buildings. Planned like a town, these range from one to three storey in height and are linked by a network of gardens, plazas and watercourses inspired by traditional Arabian falaj. The scope of the architecture and public areas may sound prodigious, but these pale in comparison to the design, engineering and infrastructure challenges that have been overcome to get the project to this stage. The museum requires a 10-metre deep waterproof basement for emergency access and plant rooms that measure 31,500 square meters. In 2009, walls were buried in the sand 40 meters deep to ensure the construction site stays watertight. Once works are complete, these will be removed to allow seawater to flow between the museum precincts in a series of canals. In 2010 alone, contractors drove 4,536 piles into the ground - 2,958 steel and 1,578 concrete - the length of which, if put end to end, is the distance from Abu Dhabi to Dubai. Most of this work has gone unnoticed. The only visible sign of progress thus far has been a curious, wedge-shaped chamber on Saadiyat in which a 1:33 scaled model of the museum's canopy, made of 15,000 aluminum and steel parts, has been light-tested to ensure its performance. But behind the scenes an international team of architects and engineers has been working for almost five years, testing the dome for factors including its ability to cast the right type of shade, and its resistance to wind, explosions and fire. Most of the preparatory work associated with the Louvre Abu Dhabi is already complete. All that remains is the small matter of delivering the more tangible parts of what will be one of the early 21st century's most anticipated architectural projects.

In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, countries around the world questioned the value of nuclear power - and Japan, reeling from the impact, vowed to become nuclear-free by 2040. Japan became completely nuclear free for the first time since 1970 as it shut down the Tomari nuclear reactor on the island of Hokkaido in May of last year. But now, with the tragedy seemingly fading from memory, the newly elected Japanese government has decided to reverse this decision and once again invest in that same energy that is still damaging the Japanese environment. Prior to the Fukushima disaster, which occurred in March 2011, the Japanese government had pledged to increase nuclear energy in Japan from 30-percent to 50-percent. The disaster sent dangerously high levels of radioactive material into the surrounding air, water and soil and the effects of the radioactivity will be felt for decades. Last month the elected conservative Liberal Democratic Party took control of the government and with it, killed any hope of a nuclear free Japan for the foreseeable future. The government has pledged to re-open dormant reactors if they pass safety tests and has not ruled out the possibility of building new reactors. Toshimitsu Motegi, Japan's trade minister says that he will not risk reviving Japan's economy at the cost of nuclear freedom. Since all but two of Japan's reactors have been shut down, it will likely take months or years to get things up and running again. Only time will tell if the people of Japan will support or reject nuclear energy.

When a few years ago, Italian architect Stefano Boeri announced about his plan to build world's first vertical forest in Milan, nobody believes, that the structure is certainly more than just a fantasy. In fact it's well on its way to being completed this year. The project's two towers have already reached full height, and since April of 2012 teams have been installing trees on the structure and late in 2013 we will meet its opening. Milan is one of the most polluted cities in the world, and the Bosco Verticale project aims to mitigate some of the environmental damage that has been inflicted upon the city by urbanization. The design is made up of two high-density tower blocks with trees and vegetation planted on the facade. The Bosco Verticale is a system that optimizes, recuperates, and produces energy. Covered in plant life, the building aids in balancing the microclimate and in filtering the dust particles contained in the urban environment. The diversity of the plants and their characteristics produce humidity, absorb CO2 and dust particles, producing oxygen and protect the building from radiation and acoustic pollution. This not only improves the quality of living spaces, but gives way to dramatic energy savings year round. Each apartment in the building will have a balcony planted with trees that are able to respond to the city's weather - shade will be provided within the summer, while also filtering city pollution; and in the winter the bare trees will allow sunlight to permeate through the spaces. Plant irrigation will be supported through the filtering and reuse of the grey water produced by the building. Additionally, Aeolian and photovoltaic energy systems will further promote the tower's self-sufficiency. The two towers measure 80 meters and 110 meters tall respectively, and together they have the capacity to hold 480 big and medium size trees, 250 small size trees, 11 thousand ground-cover plants and 5 thousand shrubs (that's the equivalent of 10 thousand square meters forest). The types of trees were chosen based on where they would be positioned on the buildings' facades and it took over two years of working with botanists to decide which trees would be most appropriate for the buildings and the climate. The plants used in the project were grown specifically for the building, pre-cultivated so that they would gradually acclimate to the conditions they would experience once placed on the building. Milan's environment does not promote biodiversity. The new plantings will provide an urban eco-system able to support the presence of birds and insects. Bosco Verticale has the potential to balance out the city's environmental damage and to create a self-sufficient ecosystem. Even more impressive is the fact that the construction of the towers cost just five percent more than an average skyscraper, and the project's vertical design provides space that is equal to an area of sprawl measuring 50 thousand square meters.

A Florida home has sold for US$ 47 million, a record for a single-family house in Miami-Dade County, as the high-end real-estate market shows signs of resurgence. The home was originally listed for US$ 60 million and had been on the market since early 2011, when construction was still being completed. The asking price for the Indian Creek Village home was reduced to US$ 52 million this year. The identity of the buyer, a Russian who bought the home in the name of a U.S.-based limited-liability company, couldn't be learned. The Indian Creek estate is on a small gated island, with a private golf course, that is home to a number of celebrity residents, including Julio Iglesias. The 2790 square meters home has glass walls overlooking Biscayne Bay and was designed to feel like a private resort. It was constructed across a series of limestone pavilions divided by waterways with koi ponds, in a style that architect Rene Gonzalez described as "conceptual." There is a central courtyard with landscaped walls, as well as a beach with several tons of sand imported from the Bahamas, chosen over local sand for its pinkish color. The home also has a hidden art vault, a projection 3-D movie theater and a wine cellar accessed with fingerprint identification. The furnishings were custom-designed for the space. The sellers of the 10-bedroom estate are developers and longtime friends, Shlomi Alexander and Felix Cohen, who built the home on speculation, expressly to sell. Construction began in May 2008.