Prizes for one of the largest competitions in the field of sustainable architecture are currently being awarded in several countries. Presented every three years, the Holcim Award in 2009 will go to projects from Morocco, Vietnam, China and the US.

On August 8th in 2008 the new American Embassy in Beijing was opened up by president George W. Bush and his father George Bush senior. The second largest Embassy after the one in Baghdad was designed by thy American based firm Skidmore, Owings & Merill (SOM).

Near China`s new National Stadium, the “Bird`s Nest”, there is the new Olympic TV Transmission Tower that will broadcast the signal of the Olympic Games tot the world.

At present Beijing has three railway stations in operation – one in the east and one in the west. The new station in southern Beijing will manage trains shuttling between the capital city and neighboring Tianjin on China's first 300 km/h high-speed rail.

PLUS to DETAIL-Issue 7-8/2008

Photogallery about the Buildings for Olympia 2008 in Beijing.

The 13th China International Exhibition for Building Material, Building System, Construction Machinery & Architecture will be held from 26 – 29 March 2008 in Beijing, China.

Herzog & de Meuron’s Olympic Stadium in Beijing was declared one of last year’s most innovative international designs. It therefore received the Brit Insurance Designs of the Year Award 2008 in the category of architecture. The product One Laptop Per Child has recently been announced to be the overall winner.

Designed and completed in four years, Terminal 3 at Beijing Capital International Airport opens the doors this week to its latest Olympic creation – a massive glass-and-steel airport terminal with a gently sloping roof that will welcome visitors to the Summer Games.

The Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), a place to keep and display the collections of the Belgian Baron Ullens, one of the most important collectors of modern arts, was founded in the 798 Art Zone in Beijing. It is part of a vast munitions complex built by East German engineers and known as 798.

Set on the campus of Tsinghua University in Beijing, the Sino-Italian Ecological and Energy-Efficient Building is a collaborative project conceived to demonstrate the potential of energy-efficient construction and to provide a platform for long-term bilateral cooperation in the fields of energy and the environment.