Could you ever imagine working in a small city? A new massive office building by Morphogenesis is being built to accommodate over 45,000 people for the Surat Diamond Bourse office in Surat, Gujarat, India. At 603.9 thousand square meter, and housing over 4,000 offices, it will be the second largest office building in the world, placing only behind the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Although its physical footprint may be large, the office building was designed in a manner to minimize its ecological footprint. Passive design strategies such as day-lit workspaces, natural ventilation, and indoor/outdoor spaces not only make the Surat Diamond office an efficient climate-responsive design, but also a key player for achieving aesthetic and comfortable working spaces. Perhaps the largest challenge with a design of this size is how to navigate the large volume of people which would inhabit it. Morphogenesis approached this by designating the ground plane for vehicular movement and podium levels exclusively pedestrian circulation. On this podium level, transportation routes are optimized to create no walking time greater than 4 minutes from an entrance to office module—a design strategy similar to that of airport terminals. The Surat Diamond Office wanted to foster an environment of social interaction and recreation. Over 40% of the building spaces are naturally ventilated, and a dense vegetation fills both the outside and inside of the building. These decisions not only blur the line between interior and exterior but also creating psychological advantages and improving indoor air quality. Additional climate-responsive design techniques are utilized to combat the hot and humid climate of Surat. All offices have been designed to face a pure north-south orientation, and a robust building envelope with less than 30% window area, lightweight concrete block construction and using the advantages of thermal mass by natural brick cladding helps bring down the external heat gains. The efficiency of the building also extends into its construction design. The project represents an innovative approach to low-cost architecture designed with maximum spatial efficiency. Design optimization and simplicity through design modularity diminished project costs to as low as US$ 555.6 for square meter while still maintaining high standards of environmental sustainability.

Work has completed on Tribunal de Paris – a tiered skyscraper, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano to become the largest law complex in Europe, reported The Dezeen. Comprising a series of stacked glass volumes, the building will bring together the various activities of the French capital's judiciary system, which had previously been scattered about the city. According to publication, the building is not set to open until April 2018. Renzo Piano Building Workshop won a competition to design Tribunal de Paris in 2010. The long and low ground building is designed as a pedestal for the other three levels to rest upon, with the main entrance located on a 6,000-square-meter plaza on the Avenue de la Porte-de-Clichy. Inside, the 5,500 square-meter space is divided into three atria with room for 50 reception desks to ensure visitors are seen as quickly as possible. Each atrium extends up through the full height of the building, with galleries providing access to rooms above and skylights in the roof to allow natural light to filter through. A total of 90 law courts are housed in the pedestal building, most of which benefit from natural light and are all accessible within minutes from the offices in the volumes above. The buildings above each contain 10 stores of meeting rooms and offices for different departments. The first volume will house the magistrates, the second the public prosecutors, and at the top the presiding judges will occupy the third volume. Each building is separated by landscaped roof terraces planted with trees and vegetation. Solar panels have been attached to the exterior and rainwater is collected. Natural ventilation and the building's thermal inertia contribute to regulating the building's temperature. The Tribunal de Paris will unite the regional court, police court, public prosecution courts and the district courts of each arrondissement. Its location on Paris' northern edge, places it at the intersection between the city's administrative zones and the suburbs. The area is well served by public transport, including a new tramway.

Book lovers, we’ve found your dream destination – the world’s largest bookstore just opened in Tehran, Iran. The Book Garden is a gigantic green-roofed building measuring 14.300 square meters that has 19.300 meters of shelves packed with millions of books. The project is part of a larger 65.000 square meters complex that features several movie theaters, science halls, classrooms, a prayer room and a restaurant. The Book Garden aims to encourage Iranian children to be “active and creative through modern methods and equipment,” said Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani. “The opening of the Book Garden is a big cultural event in the country, so that our children can make better use of this cultural and academic opportunity,” added Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf. Mehr News reports that the Book Garden was first pitched in 2004 to cater to fans of the city’s annual International Book Fair. After construction was completed last spring, organizers spent the past few months stocking the facility with books. According to Real Iran, there are more than 400,000 titles available for kids alone. One of the centers even has shorter shelves to ensure younger kids can reach the educational resources. The Book Garden is now the biggest bookstore in the world, according to the Guinness World Records. Until now, Barnes & Noble along Fifth Avenue in New York City held the record.

A nearly 500 meters bridge for hikers built as the longest hanging pedestrian bridge in the world opened near the Swiss town of Zermatt. The 494 meters long and 65 centimeters wide bridge named the Europe Bridge, hangs up to 85 meters above Grabengufer ravine. It replaces a previous bridge that had been damaged by rock falls. The Zermatt Tourist Board says it is the world’s longest, although a 405 meter bridge in Reutte in Austria hangs 110 meters higher above the ground. Built by local company swissrope/Lauber Seilbahnen during 10 weeks, the bridge completes a section of the Europaweg trail, a high-altitude walking route offering panoramas of some of Switzerland’s highest peaks, including the Dom (4,545m) and the Matterhorn. The new bridge, whose cables weigh about eight tones, is equipped with a system to prevent it from swinging, the Zermatt Tourist Board said.

AMBS Architects was commissioned with a highly confidential project - due to security reasons until recently - in Basra, Iraq. Home to a bulk of Iraq's oil reserves, the province is becoming one of the fastest-growing business centers in the world (and most precious per square meter). The new downtown master plan was assigned by the Basra governorate with an aim of maximizing the city's capacity by 2025. Avoiding urban sprawl was the top priority in order to protect the environment, thus posing the preference to build vertically, rather than outwards. The scheme for the downtown area will feature a one of a kind landmark to match its importance called The Bride tower. The brief developed into four conjoined towers creating a more logical and stable structure with multiple accesses and escape routes via horizontal and vertical circulations. Tower 1, located on the south side, is the tallest, and is shaded by a glazed canopy known as 'the veil'. The towers are connected at many levels creating "sky gardens" and "sky squares". The Bride will be the first vertical city in the world. It will also be the tallest structure there is and will break new ground in all disciplines of engineering: from structures to vertical transportation and services. It will keep a constant typical section from top to bottom, which gives maximum space efficiency and repetition, reducing the costs. Furthermore, it's designed to be a "round the clock" city, with offices, hotels, whole neighborhoods, commercial centers, sky-squares, parks, gardens and its own rail network. The design responds to the external environment strategically positioning the structures in a way that they can shade one another. The south facade of tower 1 will be almost completely cloaked by a canopy that extends over 600 thousand square meters, covering low-rise buildings, public areas and the first floors of the high-rise. Apart from shading and cooling for the south facade of tower 1, the "veil" will integrate hybrid solar cooling PVT panels (a photovoltaic-thermal combined system). The water heated within these panels will be used to increase the performance of the photovoltaics, and which will subsequently be fed to absorption chillers. the heat provided to the generator will drive a cycle that produces chilled water for cooling. The city of Basra and its surrounding lands have been historically fertile and capable of producing abundant vegetation and agricultural crops. This reputation earned it the name "the bride of the gulf" by local people. The "bride tower" project takes its name to reference this saying and aims to convey the idea at many levels.