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.

We have all heard about buildings powered by solar or wind energy, but an algae-powered building? Splitterwerk Architects have designed just such a structure, dubbed BIQ, which will be the very first of its kind. Covered with bio-adaptive facade of microalgae, the distinctive building has been designed for the International Building Exhibition in Hamburg and is slated to open this month! To create the algae facade, the building is covered in bio-reactive louvers that enclose the algae. These louvers allow the algae to survive and grow faster than they would otherwise while also providing shade for the interior of the building. Additionally, the reactors trap the heat energy created by the algae, which can then be harvested and used to power the building. Once the building is completed, it will be evaluated by scientists and engineers to allow for future research and adaptation for future building projects. The project is collaboration between Spitterwerk Architects, Strategic Science Consult of Germany, ARUP and Colt International, who are responsible for the louver design. According to Simon O'Hea, Director at Colt, "It's been a very rewarding scheme to be involved in. We have put a lot of work into meeting the technical challenges and we now have a commercial-scale, effective solution that uses live algae as a smart material to deliver renewable energy. You can't get greener than that".

In Germany, in the area of Frankfurt's RhineMain Airport, was completed the construction of the Germany's largest building and one of the world's largest commercial properties - The Squaire (a new word that combines "square" and "air"). The Squaire has a length of 660 meters, 9 floors and the area of 140.000 square meters. The construction cost has already exceeded one billion Euros, despite the initial estimated cost of € 660 million and planned building commission in 2009. The spectacular building designed by star architect Helmut Joos, who made the appearance of the building similar to the glazed whale. The Squaire stands on 240 pillars such that nowhere does the structure touch the ground. Inside the huge building are located 2 Hilton hotels with 580 rooms, a large medical center, supermarket, shops, boutiques, restaurants and numerous offices, and also three atriums flooded in natural daylight and with lot of leisure space. The Squaire is a trailblazing business concept and a New Work City offering work, mobility, healh care and life under a single roof. According to the developer of the project, IVG (Immobilienkonzern IVG) Bonn real estate concern, about 66% of the space is already leased. Office rental space prices in this building are up to € 30 per 1 square meter, while a maximum price of rent in Frankfurt is € 35 and the average in the city is about € 20. The principal tenant of the office space has become the KPMG accountancy, which rented 33 thousand square meters of office space and planning to move its European headquarters to Frankfurt. The international airport of Frankfurt-am-Main is one of the largest in Europe. It takes the third place in passenger traffic, after Heathrow of London and Charles de Gaulle of Paris, and is the second largest cargo, after Charles de Gaulle.

This wonderful aquarium built at the end of 2003 in Berlin, in the atrium of "Radisson SAS Hotel" around transparent, panoramic elevator. This is made possible through the combined efforts of designers and builders of "International Concept Management, Inc.", who did design and common construction work and "Reynolds Polymer Technology", who realized the more complicated part of the project - cylindrical acrylic glass aquarium with 11m diameter and 25m height. Inner tube of the aquarium, where the elevator move, was manufactured and installed in a single piece and outdoor roller tank was collected on the site from the separate 4 pieces. The AquaDom built on a 9 meters tall concrete foundation which can bear a load of 900 000 liters of see water. A pair of divers undertakes daily cleaning and fish feeding activities for 2600 fishes of 56 different species. This gigantic aquarium is the largest acrylic glass cylinder in the world and one of the most visited sights of Berlin.