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Gulf states are ready to spend big on bridge and road infrastructure to keep their economies ticking over in 2009. The injections of public spending that were announced at the [...]

More than 100 high-rise towers will be built in Doha in the next few years. By 2013, views of the West Bay area will be dominated by at least 180 [...]

With the UAE alone producing more carbon dioxide (C[O.sub.2]) per person than any other country in the world, the Middle East is a major contributor to the amount of the [...]

Development costs are so high in Doha that a $100m investment would not be enough to build many of the tall residential or commercial towers that are rapidly changing the [...]

Features the masterplan of the Olympic Park in Lower Lea Valley, London in England, host of the 2012 Olympic games. Description of the park's site, Use of bridges to access the park, some of whom will be temporary; Creation of a man made lake at the Olympic village site.

The article reports that the Television Cultural Centre (TVCC) in Beijing, China, designed by OMA, was damaged by fire. The building caught fire during a fireworks display to celebrate the end of Chinese New Year. TVCC was to include a hotel, theatre and TV studio. Broadcaster China Central Television admitted it had caused the fire by allowing the fireworks display.

The article discusses a reports on the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) program in Great Britain, released by the National Audit Office (NAO). According to the NAO, the program to rebuild 3,500 secondary schools by 2020 will cost up to £10 billion more than estimated. The report also revealed that plans for the new schools were taking 18 months longer than expected to develop. NAO head Tim Burr asserted that Partnerships for Schools and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) were too optimistic in their early plans.

This article reports that the controversial redevelopment of the Robin Hood Gardens housing estate in East London, England has been delayed by at least a year, a source at Tower Hamlets Council confirmed. Plans to demolish the estate in Poplar, designed by Alison and Peter Smithson in the brutalist style and completed in 1972, provoked a storm of protest from celebrated architects such as Richard Rogers and Zaha Hadid.

The article reports on the call of the Association of Jersey Architects (AJA) to the politicians of Jersey to exert more efforts to protect local architecture firms during difficult economic climate. However, Jersey's planning and environment minister Freddie Cohen said that moves to protect local architects would contravene Europe procurement law as well as the island's own competition laws.

The article discusses the call of Philip Watson, head of education, for the standardization of design elements under the government's Building Schools for the Future(SF) program in Great Britain. The standardization aims to ensure that practices could plan for a government injection of £800 million to accelerate the program. Watson said that there must be a kit-of-parts approach that would not limit creativity in the classroom.

The article reports on the opening of a new office by architectural firm Darling Associates in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on February 1, 2009. The practice has made the step on the back of five big project wins and other potential commissions. Darling Associates Director Lood Welgemoed, who will head up the new office, said he was confident the firm would get through the current slowdown in the Middle East. Welgemoed added that, with work drying up in London, it was hoped that the Abu Dhabi branch could take up the slack.