Elevated land-based islands are what one architect is proposing for the Tohoku region of north-east Japan, the area that was devastated by last March's magnitude 9 earthquake and the mega-tsunamis it triggered. As reported The NewScientist, Keiichiro Sako of Sako Architects in Tokyo has created a blueprint in which groups of these islands form entire towns. They are designed to protect people living in low-lying areas from future tsunamis. Tohoku Sky Village is not just an architect's flight of fancy: one municipality in the affected region is making moves towards building one in its locality and others could follow. Most islands will be used for residential purposes, with between 100 and 500 houses and apartments. Fuel stations, waste disposal and storage facilities, and car parks are on lower floors. Commercial islands, meanwhile, will house factories and processing facilities for industries such as fisheries and agriculture. As well as lifting residents high above the destructive power of the waves, the design comes with a number of safety features. A reinforced gate at the back of each island automatically closes after a tsunami warning, while steps up the sides let people climb to safety. Power is off-grid, from renewable energy sources including wind and solar, to ensure supply following a disaster. Lithium-ion batteries act as backup. The islands' oval shape is also important. Flat surfaces take the full force of a body of water, but an oval one allows water to flow around. Each three-storey island would offer 90 thousand square meters of usable space and be bolted deep into the bedrock via vast steel pillars. The exterior walls are made of 50 centimeter-thick reinforced concrete, while utility spaces on the bottom floor are compartmentalized in a radial formation for even stress distribution - rather like the spokes in a bicycle wheel. At the centre of each cluster of islands would be the administrative area, home to municipal offices, schools, businesses and leisure facilities. The ambitious plan also features the world's first indoor marina to protect the local fishing fleet. Critics point to the complex issue of how the reconstruction will be funded. Yasuaki Onoda of the Department of Architecture and Building Science at Tohoku University says that while the idea is sound, estimated costs of US$ 250 million per island are prohibitive. To mitigate these costs, Tohoku Sky Village will recycle debris from the disaster for use in some building components. Sako also believes the islands will become a tourist attraction. Previously, we wrote about another project named "Levitating Home" developed by a Japanese architectural firm Air Danshin Systems which also aimed to protect the public from the earthquake.

Azrieli Group controlling shareholder David Azrieli laid the foundation stone on March 25 for the US$ 400 million Sarona Center, a single 200-meter, 50-story building in Tel Aviv's nascent southern Kirya business district, reported The Jerusalem Post. Azrieli Sarona will become Israel's largest office tower upon its scheduled completion in 2016, offering 125 thousand square meters of working space, a three-story, 11 thousand square meters mall and a seven-story underground parking lot for 1.6 thousand vehicles. It will be the country's second-tallest building, behind Ramat Gan's 244-meter, 68-story, multipurpose Moshe Aviv Tower. Azrieli Group purchased the land from the Israel Lands Authority for US$ 140 million last year. The building will be constructed at the eastern end of the Sarona compound near Menachem Begin Road and Kaplan Street, almost diagonally opposite the three existing Azrieli towers. Architect Moshe Zur teamed up with David Azrieli Architects Firm to design the building, using simple geometry to produce the effect that the entire building is facing the sea, which lies almost 3 kilometers to the west.

Venice has approved a 60-storey tower designed and funded by fashion designer Pierre Cardin, reported British online publication BDonline. It will be the centerpiece of a vast project to build a whole new suburb on reclaimed land north of the historic city. City governor Luca Zaia described the Palais Lumiere project as Venice's Eiffel Tower and likened Cardin to Lorenzo the Magnificent, Florence's great Medici patron. Cardin, who was born near Venice 89 years ago, described the scheme as the "pinnacle" of his career. The tower will be built in the former industrial area of Porto Marghera and will be at the heart of a 1.6 million square meter project that will clean up polluted brown field areas and reclaim further land from the lagoon. Cardin's striking design involves 3 separate fins joined at a number of levels by six horizontal discs accessed by lifts. Its height and diameter will both be 244 meters. Conceived as a gateway to Venice, it will be a hub for the creative industries including a fashion and design college, exhibition space and incubators for start-up businesses. Some reports said it would also contain a hotel, restaurants, indoor and outdoor pools, a cinema, roof gardens, a heliport and even a hospital. The wider development will include 35 thousand square meter of residential, 25 thousand square meter of hotels and restaurants, 115 thousand square meter of offices, 600 thousand square meter of landscaping, 100 thousand square meter of parking, plus new infrastructure. The city authorities this week gave Cardin permission to enter a simplified planning process.

Spanish soccer super-team Real Madrid have announced plans to construct a US$ 1 billion luxury resort in the United Arab Emirates - and to ensure a truly unique location, the sports company plans to construct an archipelago of artificial islands upon which it will be located, reported The National Post. The resort, which has also been described as a theme park for the soccer obsessed, will include five-star hotels, luxury villas, a 10 thousand seat ocean-side football stadium, a marina and a hi-tech museum devoted to the history of the Team. Real Madrid has announced that the 430 thousand square meter project will be constructed in partnership with the UAE government, and they hope to open by 2015. Executives of the investment group behind the project, the RAK Marjan Island Football Investment Fund, said its location, 45 minutes from Dubai airport. In recent times due to a lack of coastal land there are more and more artificial islands designed and constructed for ambitious projects like this. Azerbaijan recently released designs for the World's Tallest Tower "Azerbaijan Tower" on an artificial archipelago located over active oil pipelines, while Qatar is at work on their own man-made island resort the "Amphibious 1000". Dubai, on the other hand recovering from the embarrassing sinking of its island resort "The World".

Chicago City officials recently unveiled the proposed concepts for the long-delayed Bloomingdale Trail, a proposed park and multiuse path of nearly three miles that would be built atop a dormant elevated railroad line on the city's Northwest Side. It also would help connect other parks throughout the area, reported the Chicago Tribune. As reported The inhabitat, the Bloomingdale rail line once served as an important transport corridor, but was then abandoned in the early 1990s. Since the late '90s, the idea has been floating around to convert the elevated rail line into a public park. The Bloomingdale Trail and Park has been in the works for many years now, but significant progress has recently been made. Designed by ARUP, with the help of Ross Barney Architects and Michael van Valkenburgh Associates, the elevated trail and park will be 4.3 kilometers long and will feature bike and pedestrian paths. The gently curving and undulating trail will allow bikers to go up to 32 kmph, and there will be separate paths available for pedestrians. What is not used by paths will be available for public art, lighting, play areas, seating, and vegetation. The landscaping will encourage new wildlife to converge in the city and will contribute to an improved environmental quality. The path would be at least 3 meters wide, with 0.6 meters of clearance on each side for a total of 4.2 meters. About 1.9 kilometers of the trial would have a separate pedestrian path that would run parallel to the multiuse path. Visitors would reach the trail, now raised about 4.6 meters above street level, from eight access points. The design team is proposing 8 access points along the path spaced at about 800 meters apart. In the beginning, the rail line was built to keep people off of it, but now the line will encourage access via sloping parks. The multiphase project is expected to cost about US$ 70 million, when it's all said and done, but the first phase should cost about US$ 46 million. To date the city has collected US$ 37 million in federal anti-congestion and air-quality funding and US$ 7 million more was just donated through private funding. The design team is still working out the details, especially with regards to privacy for neighbors of the park and safety issues, but they hope to begin construction in 2013 with parts of the park open by 2014. For Bloomingdale Trail project as a starting point served the famous suspension park High Line in New York. This band of flowers, trees, shrubs, viewing platforms and walkways were built on the basis of the long abandoned "suspension" railroad. On April 10, 2006, Mayor Bloomberg presided over a ceremony that marked the beginning of construction. The park was designed by the James Corner's New York-based landscape architecture firm Field Operations and architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with planting design from Piet Oudolf of the Netherlands and engineering design by Buro Happold. The park was so attractive, that in 2010 was decided to increase its length by half. In 2011 this idea was brought to life. On March 12, was unveiled the initial design concepts for the rail yards section of the High Line. Friends of the High Line released the initial design plans for the third and final section of the High Line at the Hudson Rail Yards. The renderings from architects James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro are available on the High Line's website (and our photo gallery!), and they show the final section of the elevated park incorporating familiar elements, as well as several brand new features. The design will be closely integrated to the massive Hudson Yards development. The newly revealed renderings show the architects' initial visions for the final section of the High Line, but the details are not finalized The third section's total cost will be about US$ 90 million (which comes from donors, not the city's pockets), and it will be open to the public by spring 2014.