Amid all the global doom and gloom it looks like Kuwait could be about to make up for all the iced projects around the world with one massive development.

The Kuwaiti government is reportedly about to start on its City of Silk, a brand new 250,000 sq m metropolis on the Tigris and Euphrates river delta.

Anchoring the new city will be the Burj Mubarak al Kabir, a 1001m skyscraper to rival the Burj Dubai.

Designed by London-based architect Eric Kuhne, the skyscraper is three interlocking towers, each twisting 45 degrees top to bottom.

This unusual design is to ensure the whole structure doesn't topple over in high winds.

Popular Science claims the development is about to go ahead. But I guess we shall have to wait and see.

Indonesia will celebrate its national art of batik with a pair of skyscrapers clad in material resembling the textile.

The 210m high Sahid Perdana Twin Towers in Jakarta will reference the traditional form of art on its upper floors while still maintaining a truly modernistic feel.

Designed by Urbane, the elliptical towers will rise from a podium with a pod-shaped entrance. The glass facade will change as the towers rise, merging into a batik-like appearance at the top.

The towers will be linked by a space-age looking skybridge that looks kind of like a UFO has become wedged between the two towers!

The whole complex is expected to open in 2010.

Work has started on a trio of interconnected energy-efficient skyscrapers with lush rooftop gardens in bustling Taipei, Taiwan.

The Chinatrust Bank Headquarters will use the latest technologies and design tools to reduce its carbon footprint and optimise passive heating and cooling.

Designed by NBBJ Architects with Fei and Cheng Associates, the complex features a 30-storey building, 21-storey office block and a 10-storey hotel.

Each of the towers will include vertical atriums and rooftop gardens to insulate the buildings, reduce rainwater runoff and mitigate the urban heat island effect.

They are due for completion in 2012.

Someone once said Fridays are a good day to break bad news because people have the weekend to vent and do things to cheer themselves up.

In keeping with that (probably) misguided nugget of information, here are the top 15 skyscrapers on hold.

It seems to be a bit of a who's who of interesting projects including the Chicago Spire, Moscow Tower - which was to be the tallest tower in Europe - and the zany 56 Leonard Street in New York.

Dubai takes a particular hit with its' dancing towers (now named Signature Towers and pictured on this post) iced as well as Dubai Towers and more.

Check out the full list at Oobject and don't shoot the messenger.

This is the latest structure designed to address population growth and an increased strain on resources in the world's biggest cities.

Dystopian Farm by Eric Vergne was a finalist in the Evolo Skyscraper Competition and proposes a sustainable vertical farm for the residents of New York City.

Vergne's design cultivates the idea of providing city dwellers with a sustainable food source in a building, which integrates producers and consumers.

The biomorphic skyscraper is modeled after the plant cells of ferns and provides space for farms, residential areas and markets.

Airoponic watering, nutrient technology and controlled lighting are all a part of the design.

Vergne told Inhabitat.com the structure will change city life as the rat race knows it: "Through food production and consumption, this skyscraper sets up a fluctuation of varying densities and collections of people, bringing together different social and cultural groups, creating new and unforseen urban experiences that form and dissipate within the flux of city life."

It is fantastic that all these striking and really visual, leafy, sustainable skyscrapers are being designed.

It would be even better if we could actually get one built in a city like New York. Let's hope the Singapore one comes through.

The developer behind London's skyscraper the Shard of Glass loves building tall buildings so much, he is planning three more!

Developer Irvine Sellar has commissioned Beijing Bird's Nest architects Herzog and de Meuron to design towers rising 100, 200 and 250m high.

They are planned for a site near the Shard at London Bridge Station and will stand just south of City Hall.

A planning application is expected within two months and construction should take seven years.

There are plenty of opponents and one estate agent has commented Sellar is "building his own competition" and is already having trouble selling pads in the Shard.

If the latest designs at New York Fashion Week are anything to go by, fashion is all about breaking down barriers and turning simple trends on their head.

For instance, why have a knitted scarf when you can have a gigantic boa constrictor of a neck warmer that would have taken 12 grandmas two years to knit (as seen in 2008)?

So when it came to redesigning the ironically ugly Fashion District in New York for Women's Wear Daily, one architect turned into a fashion designer - but instead of turning buildings on their head he turned them on their side.

Pentagram's James Biber has proposed six horizontal skyscrapers clad in polka dots, stripes, checks, plaid and stocking mesh throughout the district.

He says: "They connect the various showrooms, designers, sales forces and the occasional workshop while housing the most spectacular runway spaces in the world."

Oh and that "fashion gets a home where it deserves one - far about the street - high in the clouds".

Check out the full proposal here.

Are we even able to call these things skyscrapers, since they aren't in the sky?

Today's casualty of the economic crisis comes to us courtesy of New York City.

Boston Properties, the biggest owner and developer of office space in the States, has pulled the plug on a 39-storey skyscraper it had started work on in Hell's Kitchen.

Builders working on the foundation of the sheer glass tower at 250 West 55th Street will be told to stop work after a key tenant pulled out of the project.

It seems the law firm that Boston Properties had lined up to lease almost half of the building pulled out weeks before the deal was expected to be signed off and - this has got to hurt - after a full year of negotiations!

Work will be suspended and it is not known when it will restart.

Interestingly, this project hit a speed bump earlier in its life when one property owner wouldn't give Boston Properties access to his building so the tower could go up.

Read about the cat fight here!

That maestro of modern architecture Frank Gehry is creating history in New York with a skyscraper critics are already calling revolutionary in many different respects.

The Los Angeles native has designed a 76-storey tower in Lower Manhattan - not too far from Ground Zero - that will become the city's tallest residential building.

And why is the architectural and construction press going crazy about it?

1. First of all, Beekman Tower (as it is known) is hypnotic and dynamic. The exterior steel cladding appears crinkled, allowing the apartments little bays. The effect is as the NY Times puts it: "rivulets of water, crinkled sheets of aluminium, melted ice".

2. Its impressive height, without the need for bulk, suggests the city's 9/11 scars are fading from the psychology of the skyline. And being so close to Ground Zero, it seems an elegant reassertion of New York's architectural might.

3. On the ground, construction workers are using one of the most sustainable concretes on the market - iCrete. This high-performance material touts a 40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions resulting from less cement paste needed to bond the aggregates. This also results in lower material costs, less excavation and less labour and makes construction faster.

4. Finally, in a world beset by financial problems, Gehry has designed his own modelling programme to keep costs on track. Digital Project models, in three dimensions, every odd shape an architect envisions and then lets engineers and architects reconcile the shape with the site and other features. And thanks to its use, the project is reportedly on budget.

Beekman tower is presently under construction and will incorporate a school when it is completed. This school is located in a lower red-brick section that takes nothing away from the dramatic building.

The tower is slated to open in 2010 and will undoubtedly become an icon on the New York skyline and yet more proof of Gehry's genius.

In a competition only open to billionaire developers, the Burj Dubai has seen off early efforts from Saudi Arabia's royal family to build a skyscraper taller than the 800m plus tower.

The Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), which is owned by Saudi Arabia's royal family, has shelved plans to build a skyscraper to rival the Burj.

In October the company announced it would build the Kingdom Tower in Jeddah but that the final height was a secret and would be well over 1km high.

But sources now say the tower is on hold after KHC lost £5.6bn in the fourth quarter of 2008 due to the downturn in equity markets.

Project manager Bechtel is in the process of ending its involvement with the project.

It is unknown how long the development will be delayed.

Private developers in Philadelphia are pushing ahead with plans to build a 460m skyscraper in the US city, despite the debilitating financial crisis.

Developers behind the American Commerce Centre say the iconic skyscraper - which would be among one of the tallest skyscrapers in the world - would employ thousands of builders and boost jobs when it opens in 2012.

Zoning changes have been passed to make way for the 63-storey tower and council officials claim funding for the project is on track.

Councillor Darrell Clarke told the Associated Press most of the money was coming from union pension funds and that the project had a 50/50 chance of going ahead.

"If they don't build it, then we're where we are currently with a vacant lot," he said.

The developers say the biggest hurdle is finding tenants for the project but that they hope to commence construction later this year.

This is the latest design in the war against environmental damage.

A group of engineers from Nectar in California have designed a skyscraper that it hopes will become a gigantic filter for the sky - undoing pollution generated by all the other skyscrapers.

Basically it holds about 200-400 large trees that absorb pollutants and converts CO2 into nice, clean and breathable oxygen.

It is made of concrete and includes a windmill powered water system that gives the trees the water and nutrients they need.

There are no plans for its construction yet, but its designers hope one day it will spring up near some of the world's worst polluting factories.