South African development is one of 16 'climate positive' projects, construction begins on world's third tallest building and the Pope to meet architectural leaders at the Sistine Chapel.
SOUTH AFRICA
An urban lifestyle destination called Zonk'izizwe Town Centre has been selected by the Clinton Climate Initiative and the USGBC as one of 16 projects that will participate in the Climate Positive Development Program. The Program is designed to support the development of large-scale urban projects that demonstrate that cities can grow in a 'climate positive' way. Other 'climate positive' communities will be located in Melbourne, San Francisco, Toronto, Jaipur, Pretoria, Seoul and London.
SOUTH KOREA
The Lotte Group has begun construction on what will be the tallest building in the Far East and the third tallest in the world. The 123-floor Lotte Super Tower will be 555m tall and will comprise retail, office, residential and hotel space. The current design proposal, by Kohn Pederson Fox, proposes a hybrid system of steel and concrete. The firm is also looking at placing a wind turbine at the top of the building and harvesting cooking oil to use as biodiesel.
ITALY
Pope Benedict has invited artists, sculptors and architects to meet under the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican to encourage dialogue between the Catholic Church and the arts. Five hundred leading figures in the arts world were invited, with more than 250 accepting. Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind and Anish Kapoor will be attending. The meeting will take place later this week with Pope Benedict discussing the long established connections between the Church as patron of most of the arts represented among the guest list.
CHINA
Peter Ridley is joining Atkins as a senior design director to strengthen the company's Beijing design team. Ridley, who was previously a Foster's partner, joins a team of 300 working between Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen that will focus on architecture, design and masterplanning and urban landscaping. Projects that the team will be working on include the Sonjiang Hotel and Xi'an Airport.
UNITED KINGDOM
A new commercial office and retail building in London called The Peak, has been officially opened. The Sheppard Robson designed building adjoins the Apollo Theatre and replaces two existing structures. The facade design was developed to balance the requirements of natural daylighting and solar gain control. Renewable energies are also derived from substantial installation of photovoltaic panels and solar thermal collectors.
