Paper and cardbo's toolbox for drawings and models of buildings, but for Japanese architect Shigeru Ban they are good enough to make the real thing. The 56-year-old, who has built a reputation over the past 30 years for crafting improbable structures around the world - from housing to art galleries and cathedrals - many from humble cardboard tubes, has been named as the winner of the 2014 Pritzker prize, the highest accolade in the industry. "When you finish a roll of tracing paper or fax paper, there are always paper tubes left over," he said. "They were so strong and so nice, so I kept them. Then I went to the factory where they made them, and I saw they could make any length and any diameter." Beginning with temporary exhibition designs, his experiments with cardboard engineering soon expanded in scope, from undulating grid-shell pavilions to the geodesic frame of his temporary office in Paris. Strapped limpet-like to the roof of the Pompidou Centre, this cardboard-framed tunnel was his base for designing the gallery's outpost in Metz, completed in 2010, itself conceived as a rippling rattan hat of bamboo and oiled paper. But it is for his humanitarian work, as much as for his houses and museums, that Ban caught the Pritzker jury's eye. "He is a force of nature," said the jury chairman, Lord Palumbo, "which is entirely appropriate in the light of his voluntary work for the homeless and dispossessed in areas devastated by natural disasters." In 1994, prompted by the displacement of millions by the Rwandan civil war, Ban proposed paper-tube shelters to the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, followed a year later by paper log cabins after the Kobe earthquake, with foundations made of sand-filled beer crates and walls of vertical cardboard tubes. After founding the Voluntary Architects' Network in 1995, he has tackled disaster relief in Turkey, India, China and Haiti, most recently erecting a magnificent cardboard cathedral after the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand , rising in an elegant A-frame next to the ruins of George Gilbert Scott's stone building. Outside Ban's humanitarian work, his projects include the Centre Pompidou-Metz, a modern art museum in France featuring a curved roof made of timber which is inspired by a Chinese hat. He also designed Swiss media firm Tamedia's seven-store headquarters, built with an interlocking wooden frame that has no metal joints. Ban is the seventh Japanese architect to receive the prize since it was established in 1979, following Kenzo Tange in 1987, Fumihiko Maki in 1993, Tadao Ando in 1995, the team of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa in 2010, and Toyo Ito last year.

Plans for a very luxurious yacht named "The Streets of Monaco" by UK-based ship designers at Yacht Island Design have been revived, promising to create a floating replica of the actual location. The ambitious project is estimated to cost a whopping US$ 402 million and will mimic important landmarks of the city-state, such as the Prince's Palace, Port Hercule, Hotel de Paris, Loews Hotel and the famous La Rascasse. It will also have a go kart replica of the actual legendary Formula 1 circuit, along with a helipad, jacuzzis, jet skis, a mini submarine and swimming pools. "The Streets of Monaco" super yacht will be 155 meters long and will be able to accommodate 16 guests and 70 members of the crew which will all be travelling at a top speed of 15 knots. Plans for the yacht were originally disclosed in January 2011 but so far developers weren't able to find potential clients willing to pay the exorbitant price tag. Rob McPherson, one of the project's founders, told Daily Mail they are "looking for clients either private or commercial with the vision to realize this new and interesting design direction." He also said a lot of people have expressed their desire to take a cruise with the yacht and they also received "a number of enquiries for potential commercial applications."

The Dancing House, designed by Croatian-born Czech architect Vlado Milunic and American Frank Gehry, one of the most original and highly acclaimed post-communist buildings in Prague, has been sold for US$ 18 million. Its new owner is the Prague Real Estate Administration company of businessman Vaclav Skala. Some ten investors, mostly from the Czech Republic, were interested in this iconic building. The Dancing House, dubbed also Ginger and Fred (after the famous dancers Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers) as it is shaped like a dancing couple, was completed on the embankment in the city center in 1996. It was awarded the Design of the year 1996 prize of the American Time magazine. The previous owner was the CBRE Global Investors Company, which acquired the building in 2011 after taking over the European and Asian assets of the ING Real Estate Investment Management firm. The modern house was built on an empty plot after a block of flats that was damaged by the U.S bombing of Prague at the end of World War II. The interiors of the offices in the nine-stores Dancing House were partially designed by Czech architect Eva Jiricna, living in Britain. Each floor is different thanks to the irregular shape of the building. The Dancing House offers 2965 square meters of offices on six floors, a restaurant (679 square meters) on the top floor and a conference center (400 square meters) on the ground floor and in the basement.

Officials in a Beijing suburb have sidestepped President Xi Jinping's crackdown on government waste by building themselves a lavish office complex reminiscent of the Kremlin. Mentougou, a largely rural district in western Beijing with some 270,000 residents, is now home to a group of government buildings with onion-shaped golden crowns, arched windows and white walls similar to the Cathedral of Annunciation, the five-century-old Russian Orthodox Church located inside the Kremlin in Moscow. The meteorological bureau was the first tenant in the new compound. The three other buildings will house the district's seismological bureau, water bureau, and the bureau of landscape and forestry. The district's meteorological office refused to comment. One of the buildings in the compound cost US$ 3.5 million, and another more than US$ 1.5 million. This was not the first mainland government building to imitate or be inspired by an overseas landmark. One of the most notorious examples was the government headquarters in Fuyang, an impoverished city in Anhui province, which was built a decade ago at a cost of at least US$ 5 million. It has since become a tourist attraction for its purported resemblance to Washington State Capitol.

The world's first floating city is soon to become a reality. The US$ 10 billion Freedom Ship will be big enough to fit 50,000 residents, 30,000 visitors, schools, a hospital, parks and even an airport. Since the vessel will be too large to enter any port, it will simply sail from country to country in two-year cycles. The mile-long floating city is nearing start of construction, according to Florida-based Freedom Ship International Inc. It will boast 25 floors of activities, schools, hospitals, art galleries, shops, parks, casinos, an aquarium and a small airport on the roof with a runway for smaller private and commercial aircrafts. The company is currently trying to raise the US$10 billion needed to make this huge project a reality. The company's vice-president said that they are just US$1 billion short of the amount necessary for construction to start. Once completed, the ship will be 1370 meters long-four times longer than the famous Queen Mary II. The large floating structure would be powered by solar panels and Aeolic energy while navigating international waters. The city would spend most of the year-around 70 percent of the time-anchored off major cities.