The tower, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, will contain offices, exclusive residences, a luxury hotel, restaurants and a viewing gallery across 72 floors which can be occupied.

There are a further 15 levels which make up the 'spire' - six of which have the potential to be used, with another nine exposed to the elements.

The 1,016ft skyscraper was inaugurated by the prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of Qatar, Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr Al-Thani, and The Duke of York. — dailymail.co.uk

When, in 2005, he was asked to propose a long-term lighting strategy for the city of Durham, the architect Jonathan Speirs, who has died of stomach cancer aged 54, insisted that what the council really needed was a light and darkness strategy — guardian.co.uk

The exhibition’s curators...argue that during these two centuries, transformations took place in three major public arenas, “gathering places where people mixed for business, leisure and worship”: church, the theater and the market. And that those changes created an “open city.” — NYT

Remember Jimenez Lai's recent Kickstarter project, trying to turn his conceptual project Hefner/Beuys House into a reality at the Architecture Foundation in London? Well, it certainly worked out for him and his Chicago-based architecture practice Bureau Spectacular: the project got funded and the installation Three Little Worlds opened this week, just right on time for the London Festival of Architecture. — bustler.net

Zaha Hadid emerged this week as the favourite to buy the Design Museum in London after impressing with her plans to turn it into an architecture museum. — bdonline.co.uk

It has transformed the London skyline, but the giant Shard faced hostility all the way. Its Italian architect Renzo Piano meets Steve Rose on the eighth floor – and answers his critics — guardian.co.uk

In this one-off special the Culture Show goes behind-the-scenes to follow it from commission to completion, and discovers just how difficult it is to build a tower for the 21st century. — bbc.co.uk

The Horniman Museum and Gardens in London just reopened its 16.5 acre gardens to the public after a major £2.3M ($3.5M) redevelopment. [...]

The most prominent part of the redevelopment is the new Gardens Pavilion designed by London-based practice Walters & Cohen. The firm's partners, Michál Cohen and Cindy Walters, recently topped a shortlist of strong competitors to win the coveted AJ Woman Architect of the Year Award. — bustler.net

The Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in London, designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron and Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, was presented to the press today before it will officially open to the public tomorrow, June 1. — bustler.net

The architect who created the £269 million aquatics centre has criticised “rude” Games bosses for not inviting her to a single event.

Zaha Hadid claimed she was not asked to the opening or closing ceremonies of the Games, or to any of the diving and swimming heats at her acclaimed building in the Olympic Park. — thisislondon.co.uk

London's Serpentine Gallery just released plans for the 2012 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei. This summer's pavilion, the twelfth commission in the gallery’s annual series, will be open to the public from June 1 to October 14, 2012. — bustler.net

The fact that one of Britain’s most exciting new design practices is named after a social research organization formed in the 1930s is not a coincidence. The photographer Theo Simpson and the graphic designer Ben Mclaughlin founded their London studio, Mass Observation, last year with a mission to examine everyday experiences and surroundings. Their expanding portfolio of self-published books and print editions investigates contemporary social, political and economical issues... — tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com

The clouds, made of 100 per cent environmentally friendly foam, soap bubbles and helium, can float as high as 20,000 feet and can travel up to 20 miles before they break up.

The clouds were formed to celebrate the launch of WiFi hotspots from The Cloud, giving Sky Broadband Unlimited customers free and unlimited access to WiFi in popular places such as The London Eye. — thisislondon.co.uk

Staffers at some London data centers won’t be burdened with long commutes when the 2012 Olympics roll into town this summer and jam up city streets. Instead, they’ll have futuristic sleeping pods to crash in so they can never leave work.

In the past month, a London company called PodTime has sold 19 pods at £1,375 ($2,190) a pop to three collocation facilities, including a data center operated by Interxion, says Jon Gray, the founder of the 1-year-old company. — wired.com

Because towers take so long to plan and construct, the current crop reflect a vision up to a decade old, reckons Nick Offer of Arup, an engineering firm. Economic conditions and the scale of such projects mean that only the very brave will invest now... In 2010 the coalition scrapped the previous, Labour government’s density targets, which were designed to encourage developers to build more units. Instead it has endorsed “garden cities” — economist.com