For those following the US election, campaign strategy and policy has been surprisingly bereft of construction news.

Sure, we've had Joe the plumber and Tito the builder; but experts claim candidates John McCain and Barack Obama have ignored one of the US' biggest woes - crumbling infrastructure.

Popular Mechanics has come up with a list of 10 pieces of US infrastructure desperately needing work, calling on the government to start rebuilding the country.

At the top of the list is the iconic Brooklyn Bridge, which is rated as structurally deficient because of rusting steel and deteriorating road decks. It isn't going to collapse but repairs won't start until 2010.

Looks like tomorrow's winner has their work cut out for them not just undoing Dubya's legacy.

It is where the first skyscraper was conceived, but these days in Chicago the construction of tall buildings is going belly-up.

According to this report by Bloomberg, property tycoon Donald Trump has run into trouble with his Trump International Hotel and Tower as demand for apartments slump.

Trump has had to ask his bankers for extra time to repay a loan used to finance the 92-storey Trump International Hotel and Tower (pics here).

He's also had a tough time lining up contracts with tenants.

"The market in Chicago is very bad at the moment," admitted Trump to Bloomberg.

And construction of the 150m high Chicago Spire - to be the tallest building in America - is in doubt after parties associated with its' design served lawsuits on the developers.

Shelbourne Development Group has admitted work onsite has slowed and will not resume normal activity until the market picks up again.

In this economic climate it can't bode well when the home of tall buildings is struggling to keep them going up.

Theoretically it is a concept that just should not work: "Hey, let's put a restaurant in a propeller and stick it on top of a 655m skyscraper!"

But in the land of all things insane and miraculous, Dubai has plans to do it (video below).

The emirate's newest proposed skyscraper, the Anara Tower, will include a massive propeller-like structure at the top, which will house a restaurant in a glass pod in the middle of the spokes.

Designed by Atkins, the tower will also keep gardening types happy with a massive atrium and gardens on every 27 floors (more pics).

It is slated to begin construction in late 2009. Let's hope the money keeps rolling into Dubai and we see this one built!

When you are a sassy, urban, apartment-dwelling millionaire there are some things you just won't stand for - hair loss, losing at poker or sharing a pool with a rival millionaire.

That is where 1KL apartments in Kuala Lumpur come in (more pics).

In the hopes of preventing a dangerous game of splish splash, architects SCDA have designed this highrise so that every apartment has an infinity pool.

In fact, one of them must have two because the 155m tower has 95 pools for its 94 apartments.

Located next to the world famous Petronas Towers, the luxe development uses biometric security (ie fingerprint scanners) to operate the lifts and includes a sports car-friendly garage.

The super-rich will be moving in mid-2009. Anyone know a good pool boy?

Warning: This image could cause heart palpitations in even the hardiest builder's chest.

This is what architectural genius Frank Gehry calls his "preliminary sketches" for the Panama Puente de Vida Museo.

And aren't they horrifying? It seems like old Frank was either phoning it in, or he appointed a bunch of five-year-olds to do his designs while he counted his cash for this project.

Let's hope for the builders' sake that there were a few more sketches that followed this one.

They're two completely different breeds, but finally scientists and surfers have been able to agree on one thing - the power of a good wave.

After months of construction, the world's first wave farm off the coast of Portugal has started generating power for 1,500 homes.

Consisting of three 130m by 4m Pelamis sea snake-like wave energy converters (more pics), Agucadoura can generate 2.25 megawatts.

Basically, the sea snakes are connected by hinges and bob up and down with the waves. The hinges are resisted by hydraulic rams that pump fluid through hydraulic motors that turn electrical generators that make power.

This power is fed via an underwater cable to shore.

Scottish firm Pelamis Wave Power hopes to build another 21 sea snakes next year to increase capacity.

Soon it'll be the scientists yelling "surf's up, dude!"

In true homage to Hollywood's skinny starlets, one of the thinnest buildings in the world is nearing completion in New York City.

The 172m high tower 785 Eighth Avenue has just 5.08m of frontage on 48th Street and just 7m on Eighth Avenue.

The anorexic building, designed by Ismael Lavya Architects, has a height to width ratio of 33.98 to 1 at its' skinniest point. Its' maximum width is just 7.18m.

The residential building isn't all lean and mean though - a bit like a muffin-top, it includes areas that expand over into its' neighbours' airspace.

Construction is underway, with residents of the 100 apartments to move in next year.

Manhattan-ites must be hard workers. Staying focused when you have a corner office with views of Central Park or the Empire State Building must require some super-human concentration.

But in an obvious effort to reduce distractions, the canny bosses at AT&T built this tower in 1974 that has no windows (more pics).

Designed by John Carl Warnecke, the Long Lines building in New York is a telephone exchange made of pre-cast concrete panels clad with pinkish Swedish granite.

Nearly 170m high, it has only 29 floors - each storey is nearly 5.5m tall.

In true brutalist style, it not only keeps staff focused but is protected from nuclear fallout for up to two weeks after a nuclear blast. Of course!

Due to begin construction in Singapore shortly is this super eco-friendly skyscraper that features a living wall of plants (video below).

Looking more like an advertisement for When Plants Attack!, the EDITT tower (Ecological Design in the Tropics) was designed by TR Hamzah & Yeang as a substitute to the glass-dominated façade of the city.

Plants will make up about half of the building, while ramps will connect it to nearby shops and offices so garden lovers can pop by for a visit.

Since it can get rainy in Singapore, the building will collect rainwater and use a grey-water system to flush loos and water plants.

It is to be built with recycled materials and to feature photovoltaics that will provide almost 40% of the building's energy needs (see full specifications here).

Let's hope none of the office workers suffer with hayfever.

Placards, microphones, screaming crowds - if only there was a way to get around those noisy, troublesome anti-development protests.

The newly-completed and partially-uninhabited 7 World Trade Tower manages to overcome all those pesky protest issues by appearing to disappear.

Using ultra-clear, low-iron glass with stainless steel spandrels behind the glass to reflect sunlight the building can fade into the background when conditions are just right (more pics here).

Skidmore Owings and Merrill director Ken Lewis, who worked on the design with David Childs, said the idea was for "luminosity".

And funnily enough, he said for the first time in his career in New York no one protested against the "invisible" design.

For hundreds of years Britain has had to contend with every colonial outpost or rival nation laying claim to something intrinsically English.

Just look at those bloody Kiwis who act like they invented fish and chips or the Aussies who reckon they're the kings of cricket.

Now the Middle East has got in on the game. Check out these two projects. Where do you think they got their inspiration?

The Abraj Al Bait Towers in Mecca, Saudi Arabia will hit 595m when completed in 2009. If you group all seven towers together, the development would have the biggest floor area ever with 1,450,000 sq m. Mostly a residential building, its' distinctive feature will be four clock faces on each side of the tower, including two 80m high by 65m wide.

Not content to just look like Big Ben, the 300m high Al Yaqoub tower will also aim to kick Britain's iconic landmark's butt. The 72-storey building will be the tallest clock tower in the world when it's finished shortly, putting our mini-version to shame.

These are the (kind of boring) towers that will form the approach to Dubai's jaw-dropping Palm Jumeirah.

Now for such a cool development (it's the one in the shape of a palm tree), I was expecting something a little...more exciting or something. This is architecturally-insane Dubai after all! The plan is for a 14-storey podium to house a terminus station for the monorail that goes out to the island, as well as food and shopping areas and towers with apartments and offices.

Mott MacDonald will provide technical and site assurance services on the towers and car park podium being built by Taisei.

Mott project manager Rod Williams says: "There is a very challenging timescale, the station is due to be open in April 2009 to meet contractual requirements of Atlantis (a hotel). A futher challenge is that the design of the podium, which houses the stadium as an isolated box - the interior of which is being completed by the monorail contractor - is being developed as the project proceeds."

In these credit crunch times, you can just about bet that if anything is still going up, it is going up in Dubai. So here's a quick guide to some of the more obscene and audacious projects under construction right now.

5. O-14, Business Bay

Architects Reiser + Umemoto originally dreamed this building up as a curtain-wall tower, but decided that would be "ridiculous in Dubai". A much more sane idea obviously was to build a tower with no interior columns, held up by an exoskeleton that has 1,300 holes in it. The 22 storey building will be made of concrete with steel reinforcement. Its exoskeleton acts as a chimney that cools the building and is connected to the slab via "tongues".

4. Falconcity of Wonders

Always dreamed of seeing the seven wonders of the world, but don't like travelling? Why not try Falconcity of Wonders - home to all your favourite ancient wonders plus a few modern ones like the Eiffel Tower and Leaning Tower of Pisa to keep even the fussiest sightseer happy. Yep, Dubai really will be the centre of the world when it finishes construction of its own Taj Mahal, pyramid, hanging gardens of Babylon and Great Wall - not to mention a few others. Oh, and when viewed from space, the city will resemble a falcon. Of course.

3. Burj Dubai

It may not be finished but that hasn't stopped this massive tower taking out the title of the world's tallest man-made structure ever built. Standing at around 707m, it is expected to get as high as 818m. It's also setting construction records left and right, with concrete being pumped 601m high and workers to put in 22 million man hours by its' completion in September 2009. Interestingly, ice is added to make sure the concrete can withstand hot Gulf weather and the weight bearing down on it.

2. Hydropolis

It gets pretty hot in Dubai, so you can kind of see where designers got the inspiration to build an entire hotel the size of Hyde Park under water. The £300m Hydropolis project will be reinforced by concrete and steel with Plexiglas walls and bubble-shaped dome ceilings that let visitors see the marine life around them. But construction hasn't gone swimmingly, with contracts cancelled or delayed. It should be open late 2009.

1. The World

Could there be a more audacious name for a building project? Thumbing its' nose at rising sea levels, Dubai is building 300 islands in the shape of the world 4km offshore. Initial development is completed and 232km of shoreline has been created. Rumoured to have bought their own piece of the world are Posh and Becks, drummer Tommy Lee and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Enough of the depressing stories of building sites being mothballed and skyscrapers scrapped! Proof something is actually going up has been unearthed in Vienna.

Lego lovers have built the tallest Lego construction in the world, topping out at almost 30m and using nearly 460,000 tiny bricks.

If only Legoland in Windsor would rise to the challenge and build something higher - it might give out-of-work brickies something to do.

Anything you can do I can do better - that's the message from Saudi prince Al-Waleed bin Talal to Dubai's tall building developers.

In a competition of one-upmanship, the prince has announced he will build the world's tallest building in Jeddah - taller than even the Burj Dubai.

The prince's firm Kingdom Holding Company says the building will be more than 1km high and cost £15.5m. But they're keeping the exact height of Kingdom City under wraps so rival developers do not have a specific height to surpass.

It sounds like he could win, with the Burj Dubai expected to top out at 818m (currently it's at 707m).

But that is only if another Dubai developer Nakheel underestimates the size of its' 1km high building. Yep, Nakheel is also planning to build "the world's tallest building". And yes, it's final height is also a secret.

With a Cadbury Crunchie bar it is usually the honeycomb that lets you down. You know, get some sun and it turns all gooey and falls apart.

But a building by MAD architects under construction in Tianjin, China, will actually use a honeycomb facade to hold the building up - freeing it of any internal structures.

The 358m Sinosteel International Plaza (more pics) has five sizes of hexagonal windows that help make the building energy efficient.

Each window was placed in strategic spots according to the air flow and solar direction on the site to make sure it doesn't go the way of a melted Crunchie bar.

The development also includes an 88m hotel and will be completed in 2011.

Formula 1 race legend Michael Schumacher's stock just keeps going up and up in the United Arab Emirates.

First he was gifted a £4.1m island off the coast of Dubai by crown prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Now a 240m tower planned for Abu Dhabi has been dedicated to him.

Developed by Marasi and PNYG and designed by the Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA), the Michael Schumacher World Champion tower was inspired by the aerodynamics of a Formula 1 race car.

Its' design encapsulates speed and fluid dynamics, while the lower levels of the tower include terraced wharf apartments.

The building's facade consists of a series of reflective fins that give the building a constantly changing appearance and also control the solar shading. This surface also allows for repetition and possible standardisation during construction.

The tower, which includes 400 apartments and a marina, is due for completion by 2011.

And you were wondering what to get a race car champion with his own island...

In the sleepy hinterland of western Japan, a home building trend is taking shape like a cupcake in an oven.

A bit of a sweet tooth, Japanese baker Katsuyuki Kitagawa always wanted to live in a cupcake - so he decided to make one out of styrofoam (video below).

And just like a chocoholic who can't get enough, dozens of the low-cost homes are springing up in Kyushu.

They're made of 20cm thick pieces of styrofoam covered in a thin layer of concrete, don't require cranes to build and come in 10 pieces.

The International Dome House firm says they can withstand earthquakes and typhoons pretty well. Oh and so you don't die of noxious fumes while baking a cupcake - they're covered in a flame retardant.

This imposing ramshackle home-made skyscraper (video below) is the brain child of Russian gangster Nikolai Sutyagin and also believed to be the tallest wooden house.

Started in 1992, the house was originally just two storeys but after numerous additions now rises to around 13 storeys (no one is too sure) to 44m.

Sutyagin, a construction boss himself, decided he wasn't using the roof space well enough after a trip to see houses in Norway and Japan. So he added another three floors himself.

But that just didn't look right, he claims, so up and up and up it went.

A spell in jail ruined Sutyagin's finances and he now lives in four rooms at the bottom of the tangled house.

Neighbours want the building torn down, but Sutyagin has erected a roof around the second floor that he says lets him claim everything above is just decoration.