A new luxurious resort with a view, US landscapes subject to energy ratings and Saudi Arabia pushes public transport.
ITALY
Make has won a closed competition to masterplan and design a hotel resort on Montenegro's Adriatic coast. The plan involves a hotel, residential apartments, leisure facilities, restaurants and bars, a treetop walkway and a series of sheltered areas accommodating leisure and spa facilities. Three crystalline beacons, 100m above sea level, and a fourth beacon located in the sea, linked by a cable railway, have also been incorporated into the design. Architect Bibiana Zapf will link each element with a stream, which will be incorporated in a sustainable energy system for the resort, providing hydro-power.
UNITED STATES
Landscapes in the USA will now be subject to their own environmental rating system. The spaces around buildings can now earn recognition from the Sustainable Sites Initiatives' new star rating scale, with the highest rating being four stars. The ratings may consider planting trees in a parking lot, paving with permeable materials to minimise heat and storm-water runoff or landscaping with native plants.
SAUDI ARABIA
Construction has begun on the Riyadh metro, a light-rail project aiming to reduce congestion in a city where 87 per cent of the population uses private cars as their primary mode of transport. The first phase of construction will involve the construction of a 25 km north-south route. The rail system is expected to serve 1,500 passengers per hour per track initially then up to 8,000 passengers per hour.
IRELAND
London's NBBJ Architects has been selected to design a new 400-bed, 100,000 sqm Children's Hospital in Dublin. It will be working with Dublin-based Murray O'Laoire and Brian O'Connell Associates on the project, which includes a sky garden and a separate Ambulatory and Urgent Care Centre at Tallaght.
UNITED KINGDOM
Work on the 160m long roof frame of Zaha Hadid's Aquatics Centre for the London Olympics has been completed. The steel, wave-shaped roof weighs more than 3,000t and stands on only three supports. The roof was fabricated off-site and assembled on temporary supports before being lowered into place. Work will now commence on the roof's aluminium covering and the timber cladding of the ceiling.
