Ultimately, removing containers from the circular economy by retrofitting them into usable spaces could put a strain on the industry and result in the need to use more iron ore, causing even more harm to the environment.

Even as the tiny house movement continues to gain popularity and shipping containers are beloved both for their aesthetic appeal and supposed sustainability, it’s worth asking if they’re the right material for this purpose. — Fast Company

Tokyo ranks as the most expensive city to build in the world, driven by the extensive pipeline of real estate and infrastructure projects pushing up demand for construction resources, according to the report. Following Tokyo are Hong Kong, San Francisco and New York. Boston and Los Angeles rank seventh and ninth, respectively, as both of these markets generally have high labor costs for construction. — Construction Dive

A new report details how construction costs have changed across 12 U.S. cities since the coronavirus pandemic began. Broken down by market, all of the U.S. cities in the Rider Levett Bucknall report saw at least small gains, except for Chicago, which experienced a 1.29% decrease in comparative costs from October 2019 to October 2020. — Construction Dive

The budget committee of Germany’s lower house of parliament yesterday approved additional funding for Berlin’s planned Museum of the 20th Century, designed by the Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, after estimates for the construction costs spiralled to €364m from €200m. — The Art Newspaper

The cost of Stan Kroenke's stadium in Inglewood is climbing [...].

Owners approved raising the debt waiver to $4.963 billion for the first phase of the project, which includes the football stadium where the Rams and Chargers will play, the neighboring 6,000-seat performance venue, the 200,000 square feet of office space for NFL Media, the parking lots surrounding the stadium, and the cost of the entire 300-acre parcel. — Los Angeles Times

Documents that Macedonia's Special Prosecution, SJO, seized on Tuesday with a court order from the Culture Ministry refer to a million-euros-worth tender to build the Museum of VMRO and Macedonian Struggle for Independence...The SJO [...] says it will reveal the start of two new investigations. If one refers to "Skopje 2014", it will be the first-ever serious criminal investigation into this costly project which, according to BIRN’s database, has cost 667 million euros already. — Balkan Insight

“Downton Abbey is just down the road from us," Mockler-Barret said. “And we’re so jealous of Lord and Lady Carnarvon. Although they won’t tell us how much they’ve made from 'Downton Abbey,' I think they’ve done quite well out of it.”

But that’s the fairytale. The residents of Milton Manor will be happy if they can just patch up their inheritance and avoid the humiliation and disgrace of losing the ancestral seat after 250 years of family ownership. — marketplace.org

A shortage of US curtain walling makers caused by the 2008 crash is so severe that it is halting projects and has even forced one developer to open its own factory. [...]

As a result the price for curtain walling systems has risen between 35% and 45% in the past 18 months, and lead times have increased dramatically [...]

In New York, the availability of cladding systems has become the single main determinant of programme and schedule. — globalconstructionreview.com

The government hopes to cap the cost of building the main stadium for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at ¥155 billion, much lower than the ¥252 billion projected under a recently scrapped plan [...].

The government intends to make sure that the stadium will be built by April 2020. But given the International Olympic Committee’s request that the venue be built by January of that year, it plans to ask a yet-to-be-named contractor to propose shortening its construction schedule, the sources said. — japantimes.co.jp

As Los Angeles moves closer to bidding for the 2024 Summer Olympics, officials said they can host the massive 17-day sporting event for $4.1 billion and offered to guarantee that the city will cover any cost overruns. [...]

Garcetti and his team have proposed to spend $500 million less than what Boston had planned and expect to finish with a $150-million surplus by generating billions in broadcast and sponsorship revenue. — latimes.com

The architecture and engineering teams fought to keep up. As the terminal ballooned from 200,000 to 340,000 square meters (dwarfing Frankfurt’s 240,000 and just shy of Heathrow Terminal 5’s 353,000), they parceled out the work to seven contractors. That soon grew to 35, and they brought in hundreds of subcontractors, says Delius. [...]

At the very moment Merkel and her allies are hectoring the Greeks about their profligacy, the airport’s cost, borne by taxpayers, has tripled to €5.4 billion. — bloomberg.com

World-famous architect Tadao Ando was astonished to learn that the design he chose for the new National Stadium would cost ¥252 billion to build, he said at a press conference Thursday, where he spoke for the first time since the swelling cost became an issue. — The Japan News

[...] has ordered a review of the procurement process for London’s garden bridge design after the Architects’ Journal revealed apparent irregularities in the tendering process. [...]

Heatherwick’s £173,000 fee was more than three times more expensive than the £49,939 offer by Wilkinson Eyre, and more than 11 times that of the £15,125 offer by Marks Barfield.

[...] cost of the project could fund 30 new London parks or 30 times the amount of open space the bridge would provide. — theguardian.com