Archaeological treasures including the temple of Delphi, the most popular site after the Acropolis, will be available as backdrops for filming and photographic shoots for as little as US 2.1 thousand (1.6 thousand euro) a day, reported The Guardian. Crisis-hit Athens has turned to the glory that was Greece to help its ruined economy. The debt-choked nation has taken the dramatic step of deciding to rent out the Acropolis and other antiquities, cultural gems until now considered too sacred to besmirch with commerce. Under a scheme revealed this week, foreign film crews, advertising agencies and other commercial enterprises will be allowed to photograph 5th century BC Periclean masterpieces, such as the Parthenon, in the hope that it will help boost the country's coffers and image abroad. Previously the country's Central Council of Archaeology, one of the nation's most powerful bodies, had steadfastly refused to grant access to the treasures for anything other than scientific research. Filming requests were either rebuffed or granted only in return for an astronomical fee. With professional photographers unable to access sites, international book publishers had stopped printing contemporary pictures. In its 2,500-year history the Acropolis has only ever been rented out for filming to Francis Ford Coppola and to Nia Vardalos, the Greek-American star of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", for her sequel "My Life in Ruins". At the time Vardalos complained that she had spent "an awful lot of energy and time" trying to convince Greece that the move would be to its benefit. Forced to survive on a mere 0.7 percent of the national budget, the culture ministry hopes the fees will help boost its ability to look after monuments that have been badly hit by Greece's economic crisis. Lack of maintenance funds have meant that workers could only start building a new staircase in Delphi this week. But the culture ministry cautioned that the opening of sites would still be strictly controlled. All the revenues will be used by the ministry, whose funds have been cut by more than 30 percent since 2010.

As a measure to save energy, the new Molecular Engineering and Sciences building at the University of Washington melts in the heat of day, reported The Tecca. The outer structure of the futuristic building is, of course, structurally sound. But to save energy in cooling costs, scientists have developed a special all-natural phase-changing gel that they've encapsulated inside the walls of the building. As the temperature rises, the gel in the walls will melt, helping to keep the building cool. The brilliance of the vegetable-oil-based gel is that it takes advantage of a basic thermodynamic principle: As a substance changes phases from solid to a liquid, it absorbs energy without changing in temperature. During the day when temperatures are high, the gel in the building's walls will melt, absorbing energy without changing in temperature. At night, the gel in the building's wall will solidify due to the colder air, readying the walls to absorb more energy the next day. The net result: Less air conditioning will be needed, reducing the building's energy needs. The phase changing material is just one of many innovative cooling techniques currently being tried by scientists to reduce energy usage. And though these gels are not widely used today, researchers believe that over the next decade, phase change material manufacturing will grow into a multi-million dollar industry.

The prefab Hotel in China's south-central Hunan province, 170 square meters hotel standing 30 stories, was erected in an incredible 360 hours or in 15 days, reported Constructiondigital. The hotel built Chinese sustainable-building firm Broad Group and the building is designed to withstand up a 9.0 earthquake - and even boasts energy-efficient building techniques. The construction firm in charge of the project was able to manage such a rapid timeline because of a smart prefab design that allowed much of the building to be manufactured off-site, and then assembled relatively rapidly once the foundations had been set. As our website reported last year the developer, Broad Group, came under the global spotlight last year when it built a 15-storey Ark Hotel in China in just 6 days. And their latest project, which is located in the south-central Chinese city of Changsha is no less impressive. The "flat pack" skyscraper was 90 percent pre-constructed in factories and then put together onsite. It uses one-sixth the materials of a comparable facility and is also an extremely energy-efficient building, combining thermal insulation, triple pane windows, external solar shading, fresh air heat recovery, and LED lighting. Having perfected their novel approach to construction the company now aims to build another 150 30-storey apartment buildings, hotels and offices in the same manner. It is hoped that the ability to build property so quickly will revolutionize areas where property is in short supply. Let's be clear what is prefab design and prefabricated building. It is a type of building or design that consists of several factory-built components or units that are assembled on-site to complete the unit. Architects are incorporating modern designs into the prefabricated houses of today. There has also been an increase in the use of "green" materials in the construction of these prefab houses. Consumers can easily select between different environmentally friendly finishes and wall systems. Since these homes are built in parts, it is easy for a home owner to add additional rooms or even solar panels to the roofs. Many prefab houses can be customized to the client's specific location and climate, making prefab homes much more flexible and modern than before. Possibly the first advertised prefab house was the Manning Portable Cottage. A London carpenter, H. Manning, constructed a house that was built in components, then shipped and assembled by British emigrants. This was published at the time (advertisement, South Australian Record, 1837) and a few still stand in Australia.

The Grand Egyptian Museum, which is situated on the Giza plateau, is to open on August 2015, announced Minister of State for Antiquities Affairs Mohamed Ibrahim during press conference in Cairo on January 10, reported mail.ru news. On January 10 in Cairo was signed a contract for third and final phase of museum construction. It will undertake one of the largest Egyptian construction companies Orascom and Belgian Besix. According to Mohamed Ibrahim, the third phase will take 40 months, during which the main building with 108 thousand square meters total area will be erected. The Grand Egyptian Museum will occupy 480 square meters area and will house more than 100 thousand artifacts and monuments of Egyptian history. The third phase of construction will cost US$ 830 million, financed primarily by a Japanese loan of US$ 300 million. The US$ 150 million will be funded by Egyptian Government and the rest by local and international grants. Apart museum's main building the complex will include a cinema, library, classrooms, conference-halls, a multimedia center, children's museum and a museum for people with disabilities, an entertainment center and exhibition halls. The museum also will be connected to Pyramids with a special way. After 5 years from its opening the museum is estimated to receive 8 million tourists annually. To overcome inrush of tourists, the government also planning to build new stores and 40 new hotels. The current museum in Cairo's central, "revolution famous", Tahrir Square can't further accommodate all artifacts of Egyptian culture. Eventually, many museum pieces from this museum will be moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum at the Pyramids. According to the minister, the Tutankhamun's tomb treasures hall in new museum will take 7 times more area than it takes now.

Construction is set to begin early this year on the European Extremely Large Telescope, a nearly US$ 1.4 billion project in Cerro Armazones, Chile, reported Constructiondigital. The instrument, which will be the world's largest ground-based optical telescope, will give sky enthusiasts and astronomers the world over an unprecedented view of the cosmos, allowing for the discovery of earth-like planets, insight into the mysteries surrounding dark matter and dark energy, and one of the deepest views into the known universe. The project, headed by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), will break ground early 2012 as crews prepare access roads to the remote site within Chile's Atacama Desert and begin preparation of the telescope's five mirrors. The primary mirror will measure a staggering 42 meters across - more than 30 meters larger than the Keck Observatory in Hawaii (10 meters). The telescope's incredible size will allow for 15 times more light collection than the biggest telescopes currently in operation. The ESO hopes to have the telescope operational within the next decade."The E-ELT is starting to become reality," said ESO Director General Tim de Zeeuw. "However, with a project of this size it is expected that approval of the extra expenditure will take time. Council at the same time recognizes that preparatory work must start now in order for the project to be ready for a full start of construction in 2012."