The Ras al Khaimah Convention and Exhibtion Centre looks a lot like something out of Star Wars. Unlike the traditional high-rise building, the design for the Ras al Khaimah Convention and Exhibition Centre accommodates all primary functions, such as the convention centre, hotel rooms, apartments, offices and retail space in a giant sphere.
Whatever next for the Arabian city that has an artificial ski slope covered
in snow even when the temperature hits 50C? Not to mention the world’s
tallest building, some 7,000 metres (2,300 ft) high, rising above palm-
shaped artificial archipelagos in the warm waters of the Persian Gulf. Oh,
and a growth rate of 16% and a population where foreigners in need of
“luxury” homes outnumber locals. Well, what about the world’s first
rotating skyscraper? Commissioned by the Dubai Property Ring, a firm of
UK-based developers, the 30-storey apartment block will use solar energy
to power 20 electric motors that will rotate the tower through 360 degrees
over the course
Paris has chosen an American architect to build the French capital’s tallest new building since the Eiffel Tower in the 19th Century. The new curving skyscraper
will be the centrepiece of a redevelopment project in the north-west of Paris. Thom Mayne’s Los Angeles-based company Morphosis beat off rivals as
prestigious as the UK’s Norman Foster and France’s Jean Nouvel. Building regulations have kept tall buildings out of Paris for 30 years. One
notable exception is the Tour Montparnasse which rises 180 metres (590 ft) in the south-west of the capital. An international jury announced the winner,
following a contest organised by French property group Unibail as part of a project to revamp
