Construction Projects Around the World

Pubs selling ‘authenic British food’? – Probably. Sunloungers – I think so. The cream of British holidaymakers? – Definitely.

However, I have just discovered that the city with the most skyscrapers per population is indeed Benidorm. The likes of Hong Kong and Singapore, where space on their small islands is at a premium, only make it to 7th and 11th position. New York only just makes the top 25.

The statistics are taken from Emporis data looking at the population divided by the number of buildings. For the full list visit http://www.emporis.com/en/bu/sk/st/ma/ci/

Whilst you're at it, somebody tell me where Balneario Camboriu is (the second most skyscrapers per population in the world).

Regular readers will know that I have featured the mad Frenchman Alain Robert scaling the Petronas Towers, Sears Tower and the Federation Tower in Moscow.

It seems he has landed on terra firma just long enough for Channel 4 to talk to him on Thursday night about why he climbs buildings...illegally and without a safety harness in sight.

By the way, is it only me that thinks he bears an uncanny resemblance to Ricardo from the Salon? (An old reality show about...a salon in London).

His career on the track may be over but it looks like Michael Schumacher is turning his hand to property development putting his name to a skyscraper in Dubai.

Continue reading "Schumacher reaches for the sky" »

An amazing fact I just have to share with you is that Beijing has now become the World's No. 1 metropolis with public toilets. With 5,174 it is many more flushes ahead of New York and London.

If you travel there for the Olympics you will apparently never be more than 8 minutes walk from one.

If you are lucky enough to go to the Beijing Olympics make sure you take a trip to the National Aquatics Centre, otherwise known as the Watercube.

Continue reading "Water strange structure" »

Although my main aim is to cover some of the more interesting projects around the World, it’s always good to see what use they can be put to. Most of us will remember the Sticky Man that used cause havoc on your mother's clean windows until we ripped off the legs or set fire to them - but they are seeing a small revival in Japan...

Continue reading "Sticky man comes unstuck" »

The votes from my previous post are in and I can now reveal that, after 300 votes, Hong Kong is your top skyline in the world.

27% of the votes secured Hong Kong, not so closely followed by London (14.33%), Dubai (12.67%) and New York (12%).

Apparently the latest Batman movie has just been shot there with Christian Bale jumping off Hong Kong's tallest building, the 90-floor International Finance Center, a sequence also featured in "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life". So there.

For all the environmental issues that Bono supports he’s caused a bit of a storm over the new U2 Tower, which will be the tallest building in Ireland.

Continue reading "U2 Tower" »

Not that I like it, you understand, but I found this strange office building in Prague, Czech Republic nicknamed the 'Dancing House'.

Continue reading "Dancing House" »

To celebrate the stadium’s 50th anniversary Norman Foster and his team were given the task of ‘restructuring’ Barcelona’s Camp Nou Stadium. It is one of the world’s greatest football venues and is the largest in Europe but it will increase its capacity further with the new design to 106,000.

Continue reading "Nou(er) Camp" »