Munich, Germany now boasts the greenest office building in the world. NuOffice is off the charts in all sustainability metrics, easily achieving LEED Platinum status. European research project DIRECTION and scientists from Fraunhofer Institute for Building Physics banded together to help design the uber-green building, hoping it will serve as a model for future new construction across the globe. In order to raise the bar on the building's energy efficiency, the science and research team sought to maximize the building's passive energy use, driving down energy consumption and introducing renewable energy sources as main suppliers to the building. NuOffice's roof alternates between lush, insulating greenery and a powerful photovoltaic array that adds to the building's power needs. Radiant heating and cooling systems, which are connected to a complex district heating system in the basement that also employs well water to cool in the summer, help to keep energy usage low and the interior comfortable. The building's inner courtyard design fosters not only an additional green space, but also creates natural cross breezes and an influx of daylight on both the inside and outside perimeters of NuOffice. Thickly insulated exterior walls and triple-glazed windows also keep the interior climate comfortable. The newly opened building's energy usage is being closely monitored and recorded. The team hopes that by the end of the year the energy consumption will consume just 30 killowatt hours per square meter per year, compared to the average of 100 to 150 killowatt hours in a standard office space.

In recent years China has witnessed lots of phenomenal constructions. The world's longest high-speed rail line (2.298-kilometer-long), which spans over half of China, began operating at the end of last year. In April, 2012 the world's highest and longest tunnel-to-tunnel bridge was commissioned in China, which linked together two tunnels 1176 meters apart, and 355 meters above Hunan's Dehang Canyon. Again in 2012 Chinese mass media reports, that Changsha, China's Hunan province will be home to world's tallest building, which will be built in just 7 months. 220-store building will be 838 meters high. Today China put into operation world's largest building - New Century Global Center . The superlatives in China continue -- the latest symbol of China's "bigger is much, much better" ethos is open for business. Located in Chengdu (population 14 million), capital of Sichuan province in southwestern China, the New Century Global Center is the "largest freestanding building in the world," Chinese officials say. Though the words "world's largest" usually bring to mind an image of a towering skyscraper, this project actually isn't all that tall. But it's certainly big. At 500 meters long, 400 meters wide and 100 meters high, the 1.7-million-square-meter mega-structure is capable of housing 20 Sydney Opera Houses and almost three times the size of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The Global Center, which opened June 28, is home to business offices, hotels, movie theaters, shopping malls, a faux Mediterranean village and family-themed attractions such as a water park called Paradise Island.

Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal says he is looking at the world's largest cities, including Shanghai, Moscow, London and New York, as possible locations to build a 1.6-kilometer - high skyscraper that would be the world's tallest building by far. The prince is inviting Dubai's biggest real estate developer Emaar Properties, chaired by Mohammed Alabbar, to team up with his investment firm Kingdom Holding on the project. Alwaleed did not say how the project would be financed if it went ahead, or when it might be completed. He said the cost had yet to be decided. But his ambition reflects the growing confidence of many Gulf companies as they expand overseas, aided by booming economies and rising asset prices in their home countries. He also added countries interested in hosting the world's tallest tower would have to offer attractive financing terms, tax breaks and other government support. Alabbar could not immediately be reached for comment. Over the past year, Emaar has committed itself to several other huge projects in Dubai and nearby countries. Industry experts have said building a 1.6 kilometer skyscraper would involve technical and design challenges, such as how to supply water economically at that height, but would not be impossible. If it is built, the 1.6 kilometer-high tower would surpass the world's current tallest skyscraper, the 828-meter Burj Khalifa in Dubai, as well as the 1 kilometer-high Kingdom Tower now being built by Kingdom Holding in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah. The Kingdom Tower is expected to cost around US$ 1.2 billion and will form part of a hotel, retail and luxury residential project. The structure is expected to reach ground level by the end of this year and to be completed in 2017, said Talal Al Maiman, executive director at Kingdom Holding. About 30 percent of useable land in the overall project, which will have an area of about 5.3 million square meters, will be allocated to hotels. The remainder will be divided equally between retail and premium residential space, Al Maiman added. Kingdom Holding, which went public in 2007, has a market value of about $18.5 billion, making it one of the largest listed investment firms in the Middle East. Its assets include stakes in top Western firms such as Citigroup, News Corp and Twitter as well as luxury hotels around the world.

Dubai is home to yet another record breaking tower. The US$ 270 billion Infinity Tower in Dubai Marina, the world's tallest tower featuring a 90-degree twist, has been completed during 7 year and inaugurated on June 10. The 75-storey tower is approximately 307 meters high, which makes it the highest twisted tower in the entire world. Dubai is already home to the world's tallest tower Burj Khalifa (828 meters), the world's highest residential tower Princess Tower (414 meters) and the world's highest hotel building JW Marriott Marquis (355 meters). Infinity Tower has been designed by Skidmore Owings and Merrill, the firm behind Burj Khalifa. Thanks to its 90 degree curve from top to bottom, residents will have panoramic views of the Palm Jumeirah or Dubai Marina. Although the tower will twist similar to the Turning Torso in Malmo, Sweden, which is series of cantilevered plates rotates about a straight structure; Infinity Tower's has much larger floor plates that require the structure to be twisted as it rose from level to level. Each floor is rotated by 1.2 degrees to achieve the full 90-degree spiral, creating the shape of a helix. The tower will have studios to penthouses, conference rooms, tennis courts, pools, gymnasiums, a nursery and a spa. A total of 68 units are listed for sale with prices ranging between US$ 4000-5800 per square meter.

As soon as 2014, the Burj Khalifa may no longer be the tallest building in the world. Sky City, a planned 220-story prefab tower in Changsha, China, will soon claim that title. According to Lloyd Alter at Treehugger, Broad Sustainable Building, the company behind the tower, will begin construction on the prefab behemoth this June. The energy-efficient skyscraper will literally house an entire city using just 10 percent of the site area, and it could serve as a model for sustainable urban development of the future. Sky City will be prefabricated off site in three months, and it will then be assembled in just seven months. Reaching up 838 meters, the 220-floor tower will feature residential, office space, organic farms, recreation spaces, schools, a hospital retail and much more. The tower will house 4,450 families in apartments ranging from 60 square meters to 465 square meters with 92 elevators at your disposal to reach them. As its name suggest, Sky City will be a vertical city that will accommodate 100 thousand people and offer everything that is needed - water, electricity, sewage, open space, schools, health care and more. Using just a portion of its site, Sky City will be home to the most extreme urban density we've ever seen. But the difference between Sky City and say, Hong Kong, is that the tower will be surrounded by parks, meaning that every resident will have access to open space. The prefabricated tower will include many energy efficient strategies like 20 centimeter thick insulated walls, triple glazing, exterior shading that cuts down on cooling by 30 percent, and a co-generation plant that will use waste heat from power generation for heating and cooling. Transportation will be provided by low-energy elevators and for those who want to walk (or get exercise) there is a 9650 meters long ramp running from the first to the 170th floor. According to Treehugger, construction is set to begin this June and is expected to be complete within seven months (210 days). The rapid pace of construction and the overall design for such a massive skyscraper could be a cause of concern, but if Broad Sustainable Building pulls it off, it may show the world how sustainable density can be achieved on a massive scale. The company assures that the building will be able to withstand a Magnitude 9 earthquake and will have a three-hour fire resistance rating. Lloyd Alter at Treehugger sums it up well: "This is going to be a controversial vision of sustainability; putting 30 thousand people in a single building is a hard sell. It is not the bucolic version of green living that most people think of. It certainly is a lot higher than what I have called the Goldilocks Density. But it is the logical extension of the Edward Glaeser / David Owen thesis that the way to go green is to go up, reducing the amount of land used per person and the distances people travel." A resident of Sky City will use 1/100th the average land per person as a regular global resident and will use only 2 tons of CO2 compared to 5.5 per capita. Probability that the Broad Sustainable Building Company can afford this unbelievable task is very high. Recall that this is a company which built the 30-story building just in 15 days and a 15-story The ark Hotel - just in 6 days!