On one of the last patches of land along the Nile River in central Cairo, Egypt is constructing Africa’s tallest building. In a difficult feat of engineering, the project will twist from a thin triangular base to form a rectangular tower, rising 70 stories and providing a panoramic view of the Nile River and the pyramids. The 300-meter project is meant as a monument with a message: after years of instability, Egypt is ready for investment. Designed by the late architect Zaha Hadid in 2007, the “Nile Tower” will be part of a plan to transform the area between downtown Cairo and the Nile River into an upscale district. The bill for the project is set at $600 million, though it’s likely to cost nearly $150 million more, according to Diaa Tantawy, the Design Manager at Living in Interiors, the company developing the building. As Egypt pushes through economic reforms, the Egyptian pound has weakened, making imported building materials significantly more expensive. And yet despite the cost, developers are breaking ground, because the construction sector is crucial to driving growth in the domestic economy and is key to the government’s plan for successful reforms. Currently, there are 1,400 active construction projects in Egypt, valued at $248.2 billion. The project was first championed a decade ago under former President of Egypt Hosni Mubarak, but was put on hold in the aftermath of the revolution that ousted him from office in 2011. Now the building has gained support from current President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who is working with the developer to get proper clearance for design aspects like the building’s height. In terms of making the scheme financially viable, the development is seeking investors from across Europe. The Nile Tower is meant to transmit a message of growth outside the country. Says Tantawy, “It will change how the whole world sees Egypt. We are now strong, the leader of Africa and the Middle East, you can invest with us.” According to the project’s current plan, the top 36 floors will be apartments, the middle 18 floors will be a hotel with approximately 230 rooms, and the remaining floors below will be reserved for amenities like a casino, night club, spa, health club and shopping area. The building is designed with a glass façade in front, and shades in the back, shielding tenants from the development. Over the next few years, the Maspero sector is slated to become the “new modern Cairo.” However, the Nile Tower also shows that this new Cairo has roots in the past. As projects planned before the revolution rise into the sky, development plans are picking up where it left off.

A 100-meter-tall experimental air purifier has been built in Xi’an, the capital of China’s central Shaanxi province, reported The Inhabitat. The tower, which is being tested by researchers from the Institute of Earth Environment at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has noticeably cleaner air over an area of 10 square kilometers since being turned on last year, according to the South China Morning Post. The tower sucks in polluted air and funnels it into greenhouses at the base of the structure. The smog is heated in the greenhouse by solar energy, then rises through the tower, passing through several layers of cleaning filters. The expelled air contains 15 percent less particulate matter than it did before being scrubbed. The greenhouses are powered by solar energy and are able to run in winter as well as summer. Cao Junji, head of research, said, “It barely requires any power input throughout daylight hours. The idea has worked very well in the test run.” Cao and his team are now planning a 500-meter-tall and 200-meter-wide tower, with greenhouses covering 30 square kilometers that would be able to purify air for a small city. Air purifiers have been installed in China before, but only in a symbolic way. Last year a 4-meter-high filter called “CityTree” was tried out in Berlin.

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.

Architect Ole Scheeren has unveiled plans to build a 333-metre-high skyscraper in Vietnam's largest city, which will mimic the topography of the country's natural landscape, reported The Dezeen. Called Empire City, the building will be built near the center of Ho Chi Minh City, in a rapidly developing area on the east side of the Saigon River. It will be made up of three towers, which will rise up from a "mountain-shaped" podium. This podium will feature terraced gardens, designed to be reminiscent of Vietnam's tiered paddy fields, while the tallest of the towers will swell out near the top, to create an elevated garden, or "sky forest". "I felt we should think about the future of architecture and of the city itself, and think of ways that nature and human beings can coexist," Scheeren told Dezeen. "But we wanted about ways that nature could not only exist on the ground, but also high up in the sky," he said. "So we created a podium like a giant terraced landscape, to anchor three towers to the ground, and this landscape is then pulled up into the sky." With a height of 333 meters, Empire City will be taller than any of Ho Chi Minh City's existing skyscrapers – far exceeding the 262.5 meters of Bitexco Financial Tower, the city's current tallest building. The main 88-storey tower, called Empire 88 Tower, will contain apartments and a hotel, as well as the public observation deck and a top-floor events space, known as the Cloud Space. The podium will accommodate retail, while the two smaller towers will contain offices and homes.

Construction has begun on Zaha Hadid Architects' residential high-rise in the Mexican capital, set to become the city's tallest apartment building. The Bora Residential Tower is being built in Santa Fe, a major business district in the west of Mexico City. The 280 thousand square meters La Mexicana park lies adjacent as well as three universities and the regional offices of Fortune 500 firms including the likes of Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon. Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) was given a prime location for the building, beside the Mexicana park and in walking distance to schools, theatres, cafes and restaurants. It will also be near to the new Santa Fe Transit Hub, which will offer a quick connection to the city's metro network. As the area is suited to a range of potential buyers, like families, retirees and young professionals, the British firm designed the building with six different layouts, which are arranged as separate sections around the central circulation. The tallest of the sextet will have over 50 storeys – a feat that ZHA claims will make it the "highest residential tower in Mexico City". In total, the building will include 200 apartments of one, two and three bedrooms. Each will have two glazed sides to make the most of natural light and views to the surroundings. These will open onto private terraces so that residents can enjoy the mild, subtropical climate. Newly released renderings show that the balconies will have a triangular profile, and be offset from one another so as not to block light to levels below. The tower tapers inwards at the base, as the corner edge skirts out over 10 stories to form canopies over public space below. The multi-level space underneath will be occupied by restaurants and shops facing onto the street. Renderings show a glazed entrance, leading into an atrium with marble-like walls. The levels wrapping the space will be occupied by seating areas.