These pictures are from a wonderful New York City penthouse apartment designed by UnStudio. This building features a series of metal bands at different sizes that creates a unique shape for the building and provides a little character for each floor.

These some pictures of this building, the wide living area with modern fireplace, modern bar stool table, the bathroom with an awesome views.

The building is Five Franklin Place in TriBeCa.

Via momoy

London’s Southbank will feature a new landmark building following the approval of a planning application to redevelop York House.

The new design was initiated after a four-year planning period for the original, smaller design which, by the time planning was granted, had become obsolete.

And Sheppard Robson have eventually designed a bold but beautiful glazed-design which reflects the sun beams in rainbow colors which will create a crystal effect.

One of the world’s most beautiful city skylines could be changed dramatically after a ban on high-rise buildings in Paris was scrapped last week.

The Paris city council voted Tuesday to consider erecting tall buildings on the rim of this historically low-rise capital. Plans to build towers of up to 220m at six sites in the French capital will now go to public consultation. They will contain shops, offices and childcare centres.

Socialist mayor Bertrand Delanoe also wants new blocks of flats to counter a housing shortage.

The ban on buildings exceeding 40m was introduced in 1977. Many believed that the 350m Eiffel Tower should be the only building dominating the skyline.
Building height limits have changed little in Paris since Baron Haussmann redesigned the city during the mid-19th century, with caps now at 121 feet.

Only a handful of exceptions have been made for high-rise projects in recent decades
The new decision means that six new sites, under consideration for completion between 2012 and 2014, could host buildings reaching as high as 656 feet, or a little under two-thirds the height of the Eiffel Tower.

The city is currently home to only a scattering of towers, notably including the Montparnasse Tower, which, at 690 feet, stirred controversy when it was built in 1972 and is still considered an eyesore by many Parisians today.
Mr Delanoe insisted the new rules would not blight Paris, saying the administration would not repeat the mistakes of the past.

Via heraldsun/npr

Russia’s state-controlled energy giant, Gazprom, has unveiled a new design for a major new office building it has been planning for several years in St. Petersburg. The new design proposes to use plants to control the building’s temperature.

It’s been described as the first building to be given a “green fur coat” a glass tower with double walls, in between which hundreds of trees and plants will provide heat in the winter and cooler temperatures in the summer. With temperatures in St. Petersburg rising to 30 degrees Celsius in the summer and plummeting to minus 30 in the winter, the design will be able to regulate the temperature without the need for expensive air conditioning or heating systems.

But according to a recent poll, more than 40 percent of residents thinks that would ruin the skyline of St. Petersburg, designated by the United Nations as a World Heritage Site. Built by Tsar Peter the Great at the start of the 18th century, its Venetian-style buildings and winding canals attract thousands of visitors every year.

But the architects say the project will revitalize a city that has been in decline since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Construction is planned to start later this year with completion scheduled for 2012.

Dubai has garnered much attention in recent years with a never-ending supply of architectural wonders being built, or proposed, at a head spinning pace. Mostly these towering structures are grand and tall, but some are also green

An ambitious project by David Fisher’s firm Dynamic Architecture looks set to be yet another new addition to Dubai’s skyline.

The building’s 59 floors will be capable of rotating about a central axis, their continuous motion allowing residents in the tower’s 200 apartments to choose a new view at the touch of a button.

The Strata Tower, a forty-story, luxury residential building designed by architects Hani Rashid and Lise Anne Couture of Asymptote, has broken ground on Al Raha Beach and is now under construction.

The landmark Strata Tower is designed to signify a dignified and important future for Abu Dhabi and the region.

As a signature architectural statement, the Strata Tower’s articulate, striking physical presence seeks to encapsulate meaning through the use of abstract form drawn from both local cultural landscapes and motifs and dynamic forces of global influence.