A floating whale garden that cleans our waters, Scotland to boost its wind power potential and the Garak Market in Seoul to undergo major redevelopment.
FRANCE
Vincent Callebaut has designed a whale-shaped floating garden called The Physalia, which generates all the power it needs from the sun and reduces water pollution through bio-filtration. Filled with gardens and covered with a green roof and solar panels, the craft's exterior consists of a material that reacts with UV rays to clean water.
SCOTLAND
A major expansion of offshore wind power in the seas surrounding Scotland has been given the all-clear by The Crown Estate, which owns the UK's coastal sea beds. This could lead to the development of 1,000 new turbines, generating nearly five gigawatts of power and creating new jobs in research, engineering, installation and services. Plans for two huge new wind farms off the coast of Wales are also expected to be unveiled this week.
SOUTH KOREA
Samoo Architects and Engineers have won a competition to design the redevelopment of the Garak Market in Seoul, the first public wholesale market in Korea. A key element of the design was transforming the roof into a park that encourages recreational and cultural activities. The design also incorporates spacious parking, underground waste treatment facilities and solar power. An agriculture distribution museum, traditional food quarters and cultural experience spaces will serve as tourist attractions.
DUBAI
Visitors to the Burj Khalifa's 124th floor observation deck were stuck in a lift for over an hour on Saturday when it broke down. Fourteen visitors to the world's tallest building were stuck at a height 12m below the 442m-high outdoor deck. They were eventually transported to the 124th floor. The building has 57 elevators that travel at 10m per second.
UNITED KINGDOM
The Construction Products Association has estimated a three per cent drop in construction output in UK this year, on top of a fall of more than 12 per cent in 2009. It predicts that a recovery will not be seen until 2011, and even then it will only represent growth of one per cent a year until 2013.
