It is known that the appealing interiors add impact of human labor. For the success of employees and the company's benefit it is necessary to create the most comfortable work conditions. A perfect example of how to turn work into pleasure, are offices of technology companies. In IT companies, employees can play at any time. The is no fixed working hours, no matter where and in what way you work, what you do during working hours; you can come at any time, you can leave office and work at home, play and sit in a cafe even all day long. Of course, to work in a such conditions every day is a great joy. All these contribute to the creative and productive work, help to attract new employees from among the most talented people. Below, some examples of some IT company offices where every employee will dream to work. There is a really Russian spirit in the Google's Moscow Office... Designers used well-known Russian folk tales, cartoons and films to create an interior design. You can start the morning in the dining room "Samobranka" (magic tablecloth that serves meals when told so) and taste the Russian blintz or sit in "Hut on chicken legs". Here you can negotiate on "12 chairs", in "Snake Gorynych" (firedrake), or at "Frog-Princess ". Here you can sit under green oak or in the small library "Lukomorie" (curved seashore) on the soft sofa and read book with a cup of hot coffee. In other words- choose your own fairy tale! There is slightly different approach in the Milan's Google office interior design; everything is made perfectly, but without any hint to luxury. Designers from AMA (Albera Monti & Associati) managed to convey the philosophy of Google and at the same time save national features. AMA designers main focus was to provide good natural lighting and a wonderful view from the windows. Like most IT companies, Google's office in Milan includes restaurant, game room, gymnasium, massage room, showers, and much more! In short, there are all conditions for turning the workplace into something more than an ordinary one. Our next example is Yandex Office. Here is the whole list of the attributes for comfortable "living" at work as well. All the prime work conditions are available here, but without sofas... This is done for only one purpose; to make employees go home to sleep. There are many green plants in the office, which watering is provided by automatic irrigation and drainage systems. There are many grass imitations on the walls, where natural plants could not reach. Architects of this office even gave fabulous names for rooms. For example on the seventh floor all rooms for negotiation begins at 7- the Seven Dwarfs, the Seventh Heaven, the Forty-Second Cousin (in Russian this phrase starts with seven). ABBYY employs both programmers and linguists. The room, where staff works with Asian countries, is always Asian way holiday decorated. There is shortage of working places by the window and some employees have to stick artificial windows on the walls. In general, there are many places where people can work, communicate, and also relax as long as they want. It seems, that the only missing things are house slippers, but it turned out that they have it too! The office of the Pionen White Mountain, where the database of quarrelsome WikiLeaks is stored, is located in a former bomb shelter. This "shelter" is in Stockholm, at a depth of 30 meters underground, in a solid granite monolith. The bunker was built during the Cold War and was a central part of the defense system of Stockholm. For the needs of the office it was necessary to blow up and output 4,000 additional cubic meters of rock. The interior design was developed by the architectural bureau Albert France-Lanorda and as basis was taken the idea from one of the Bond films - "Moonraker" (1979). Therefore, a lot indeed strongly reminds asylum of madman billionaire Hugo Drax. The walls of the bunker are covered with a lot of plants, there's even an artificial waterfall. The office has a great aquarium with 2600 liters capacity and a huge conference hall, "descended" from the screen of the Star Wars movies.

As reported by Azerbaijan Statistic Board, the growth in construction sector for 9 months from the beginning of 2010 totaled 31.9%! At the same time, the research of Azerbaijan Property Market Participants Public Union shows an average 18 per cent growth for construction materials prices for the same 9 months period. It means that real construction work increase is not so impressive taking into account the sharp rise in prices of basic construction materials. Oil Republic is clearly, and little by little evolving in Dutch disease, which sooner or later the Government must fight. But the construction market of Azerbaijan still really shows some significant growth. Ambitious construction projects feed by oil dollars likens Baku with many Arab world "oil cities". One of the largest construction companies in Azerbaijan is Pasha Construction, which is a part of Pasha group and according to recent publications of WikiLeaks, belongs to one of the most powerful families of Azerbaijan - Pashayev family, with head of the First Lady of Azerbaijan Mehriban Aliyeva (nee Pashayeva). The power and richness of any State somehow equates with the construction of skyscrapers. About twenty years ago the United States held apparent superiority in the competition of the highest skyscrapers in the World. But today China, the Middle East and Asian countries entered into this competition and left United States behind new high rise construction records. Azerbaijan also entered into this competition and is trying to live its own sign in the list of world architecture masterpieces. In photos below you can see several just completed and under construction projects in Baku. Photo Sources: www.skyscrapercity.com; www.azerb.com; www.mehriban-aliyeva.com Baku. SOCAR Tower (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan). Height 200 m, 40 up ground and 2 underground floors. Construction began in mid-2010. Heerim Architects & Planners Co. Ltd. Port Baku Complex with residential, public and commercial premises. Tower with 33 floors. General contractor Pasha Construction. Construction start 2010. Planned completion date 2012. Flagpole in Baku With height of 162 m currently (2010) the tallest in the world. Previous tallest record holder was Ashgabat flagpole with height of 133 m. However already in 2011 a 165m high Dushanbe flagpole will bit Baku record. Kazakhstan built its flagpole in Astana earlier what is the main reason of only 111m height. Which will be the next higher!? Baku. Flame Towers Three towers with heights 235 m, 220 m and 208 m, podium with 78 m height. Developer Diaholding Group. Construction starts in 2008. Planned completion date 2011. Baku. Crescent Tower Height 203 m with 43 floors. Construction start 2009. is planned for late 2009. Planned completion date 2013. Project operator Aecom. Baku.XI Park Plaza 2 towers with 55 and 35 floors. Design by Korean Changjo Architects Inc. . Construction starts in 2007

It seems that eco-towns will soon become the most sought developments in new town planning. Computer giant Apple Inc., which became the most valuable technology company in the world in 2010, purchased land in the small town of Cupertino that claims to be the "heart" of Silicon Valley, as many technology companies were founded here and in the surrounding areas. Apple needed an additional land for expansion of current headquarter premises in Cupertino and bought 40 acre area from HP last month for about $300M to build "green" Apple City. Apple's new headquarters will include a network of tunnels that joins the buildings together while maintaining green surface, and the most important- project will feature a strong focus on creating a sustainable environment, and much of the development's infrastructure will be built around renewable energy. The project will be implemented by the leading British architectural bureau Foster+Partners. Lord Norman Foster is one of the most famous contemporary architects. He is the author of "cucumber" skyscraper and the Millennium Bridge in London, Hearst Tower in New York, renovation of Reichstag dome in Berlin and many other projects. In Russia Foster is known as the author of the redevelopment projects of hotel complex "Russia", the Pushkin Museum, the transformation of the complex "New Holland" in St. Petersburg into cultural and entertainment facilities. Foster is the recipient of hundreds of international prizes and awards. Apple City will be similar to another outstanding project of Foster - Masdar city, the construction of which started in 2008 in Abu Dhabi, UAE and will cost about $ 22 billion. Masdar, currently is the biggest eco-town project in the World.

Recently Government approved the concept represented by the Ministry of Economy on the establishment of international highland sports center on Lake Sevan shore, near the village Tsovagyuh, which, by the ministry's assumption, will be a unique in the world, and will be equipped with ultramodern sports equipment. The complex is going to occupy 3 km long shore area and will consist of both indoor and outdoor sports facilities, including water sports. It is planned to build a golf course with 18 holes, 4 tennis courts, covered football field, basketball and volleyball courts, a swimming pool ... In general, the list includes almost all summer sports, including even such as Geocaching (a treasure hunting game where you use a GPS navigation). The feature of the complex will be its total power supply by solar energy. In the concept was noted an agreement with German 'Ersam & Gottwald GbR' company on writing a preliminary business plan, which has requested 32.75 million drams($91000) for this, of which 19.2 million drams ($53300) will be paid immediately, regardless of the fate of the project, and the residue, 13.47 million drams($37400), will be paid only after finding an investor for the next stage of the project. The project will be implemented by the National Competitiveness Fund, which recently successfully completed Tatev monastery restoration project, including the longest Ropeway in the World. Maybe we can find investments for this ambitious project, but however, it will be very hard to achieve the status of the unique international high-end sports center.

As reported by Hurriyetdailynews on December 8 in Istanbul opened an exhibition of photos of more than 100 buildings built by Armenian architects living and creating in Istanbul in XIX and in the beginning of XX century. The exhibition is called "Armenian architects of Istanbul in the Era of Westernization" and will continue until January 2. Istanbul is deservedly considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world, with beautiful monuments of architecture built since the Byzantine Empire. As noted by the Turkish daily Radical, Istanbul never would have been so beautiful without architects of the Armenian origin. Especially remarkable mark was left by famous Balyan family architects, who designed and built the most beautiful palaces, mosques and barracks for more than 100 years. To slightly understand the Balyan's contribution to the whole Istanbul architecture, here are only some photos of perfect Palaces. Also we want to drive our gratitude to the curator of the exhibition, Hasan Kuruyazici, who carried out a 15-year study about the works of Armenian architects in Istanbul and the photography took one year.