Bulgarian cyclists to fly over traffic, architectural photographers "violated" and disgraced banker joins RMJM.
BULGARIA
Architect Martin Angelov has designed a bike lane in the sky, called Kolelinia. It resembles a tightrope, but is designed to handling commuting bikes on a steel wire above traffic. The system consists of towers connected by wires with a U-shaped rim. Cyclists put their tyres into the rim and attach a specialised handle to the safety wire. They then ride across, as if they would on the ground.
FRANCE
The Court in Strasbourg has found that the stop-and-search powers recently used by police to detail an architectural photographer "violated" his rights to privacy. The photographer, Grant Smith, was taking photos of a Christopher Wren church in London, when he was stopped by police. The ruling came as thousands of photographers prepared for a mass protest organised by campaign group "I'm a Photographer, Not a Terrorist."
UNITED KINGDOM
RMJM has hired former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, Fred Goodwin, to work as senior advisor. Goodwin, who started work for the firm in December, provoked outrage in December 2009 when it was revealed that he would receive an annual pension of approximately $1,105,000 on the same day that the bank announced a record loss of $42.6 billion.
JERUSALEM
Frank Gehry, who is designing the new Broadway Tower for the University of Technology, Sydney, has been dropped as architect for the Museum of Tolerance following a wave of protest. Officials have decided to redesign the Museum to reflect "today's world economic realities". The project attracted anger from within Jerusalem, halting the project for two years, because Gehry's design would have been built on the site of an ancient Muslim cemetery. The new architect is expected to be named shortly.
CHINA
An urban farm has been planted in the heart of Shenzhen as part of the Shenzhen & Hong Kong Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture. The square plot of land, called Landgrab City, represents a map of the city and visualises how much food is required to sustain it. The area is subdivided to indicate the amount of food consumed from each food group and was designed to educate locals on the origins of their food.
