A new green-glass skyscraper will soon transform the Taipei city skyline, reported The Dezeen. Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel (ACPV) unveiled designs for the Taipei Sky Tower, a 280-meter-tall building that, like Taiwan’s tallest tower, draws design inspiration from bamboo shoots. The mixed-use development will house two Hyatt-branded luxury hotels—Park Hyatt Taipei and Andaz Taipei. Commissioned by Riant Capital Limited, ACPV’s Taipei Sky Tower design was selected from a shortlist of seven international firms. Billed as “Taiwan’s first large-scale lifestyle-driven development,” the sleek 54-story tower will be set in Xinyi, the city’s financial district flush with new modern construction projects, including the carbon-absorbing Agora Garden. In addition to Taipei Sky Tower’s two hotels, the mixed-use building will also feature a luxury retail podium. Taipei Sky Tower will feature curved edges, a segmented facade, and an angled roofline to mimic a bamboo shoot with notched sections. The design also draws inspiration from the pleats of Greek columns. “ACPV aims to create an ultra-modern 280 -meter tall skyscraper by blending some of the oldest elements from the East and West in modern harmony,” reads a press release. ACPV will lead the design for Park Hyatt Taipei, while the design for Andaz will be given over to Neri&Hu. The project is slated for completion in 2020.

A ceremony has taken place to mark the beginning of construction on a massive 137 meters tall guitar shaped hotel in Hollywood, Florida. The 36-story giant glass tower is being built as part of a US$1.5 billion expansion of Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, which will nearly double its current size. The iconic guitar hotel structure is the vision of James F. Allen, longtime CEO of Seminole Gaming and Chairman of Hard Rock International. ‘It will be the first building in the world that’s truly to scale designed as an authentic guitar. So it’s not just an exterior facade, the curving of the building will be identical to an authentic guitar. We think the building itself will be must-see attraction,’ he told reporters. The tower is due to open in 2019 and will add 638 rooms and suites to pushing the room total to 1,270 and will also contain a 3900 square meters spa as well as several restaurants and lounges. The casino will have 3,267 slot machines and 178 table games such as blackjack and baccarat, plus a new 1670 square meters poker room. As well as wondering at the tower’s avant-garde shape, guests will access a 40.5 thousand square meters complex at its base that will offer private cabanas with plunge pools, multiple waterfalls, beach club dining and watersports.

Volcano shaped hotel complex with erupting lava effect is being built in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. The project developer is «New House» LLC, reported the Ministry for Development of the Russian Far East. The project estimated investment is US$ 22 million. The hotel’s total floor area will reach 280 thousand square meters and will include 180 rooms, a 25 meters swimming pool, a spa, a Korean bathhouse, a bar and a 600-seat concert hall. Now hotel main tower construction is underway. The opening ceremony is scheduled in 2019.

North Korea's famous pyramid-shaped hotel Ryugyong has been renovated, despite never having welcomed a single guest, reported The Daily Mail. The 105-story Ryugyong Hotel - the world's tallest unoccupied building - in the capital Pyongyang has been spruced up and awarded two new walkways. The renovations may be a sign that Dictator Kim Jong-Un could be about to finish the project started by his grandfather in 1987, branded 'the Hotel of Doom'. From a distance, the glassy, greenish-blue Ryugyong looks like it's ready for business. But it is believed to be far from complete inside and possibly even structurally unsound. Work on the building started in 1987 while Kim's grandfather Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder and 'eternal president,' was still alive. It was supposed to open in 1989 and would have been the world's tallest hotel - surpassing another in Singapore that was built by a South Korean company. But a severe economic crash and famines in the 1990s left North Korea in no position to pump funds into the hotel's construction, and it stayed little more than an embarrassing concrete shell for well over a decade before Egypt's Orascom Group - which was also key in establishing the North's cellphone system - helped pay for work to complete the building's shiny exterior in 2011.

Having trouble deciding between a luxury yacht and a waterfront resort for your next vacation? Then this floating hotel, created by Serbian yacht designers Salt & Water, is your answer. The hotel design, which recently won the 2015 Millennium Yacht Design Awards, allows visitors to check into their own personal Catamaran apartment units, which can be detached from the floating hotel and sailed away. The Catamaran apartments each feature a living room, kitchen, bathroom, and upstairs sleeping area, floor-to-ceiling windows as well as an open-air front deck. The oddly shaped yacht rooms are designed to move slowly through the inland waters of landlocked Serbia, allowing visitors to enjoy uninterrupted views of the natural beauty around them. According to the designers, the apartments "can be considered as frames of the nature, connecting the guests with the water and the sky and isolating them from everyday stresses." When guests tire of the solitude of their private yacht pods, they can return to the central structure of the floating hotel, which contains the reception area, a restaurant, an events hall, offices and a cafe. There is also a "flying bridge" and a beach platform for swimming, sunbathing, and enjoying a cocktail by the water. Though it's just a concept at the moment, Salt & Water describe the hotel as "a perfect solution for tourism without any violation of the natural harmony of the place itself."