UNITED STATES
The recession in America has left people stranded, with fewer people moving house than one year ago, new figures from the Census Bureau show. The number of people moving slumped to 35.2 million in March 2008, the lowest number since 1962 when the nation had 120 million fewer people. The fixed position is not only negative for the housing market but it suggests Americans are unwilling to follow job opportunities that may involve relocating, Joseph Tracy, research director at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said.
UNITED KINGDOM
The British government has extended the suspension of stamp duty on homes costing less than £175,000 until the end of 2009. The move is intended to revive the ailing housing industry but planner have warned that local authorities must speed up the process if it is to have the desired effect. The chancellor, Alistair Darling, promised an extra £435 million in support for energy efficient schemes as well as £525 million in support for offshore wind power projects. Paul King, CEO of the UK Green Building Council, said: “This falls short of a comprehensive strategy to put low carbon buildings at the heart of the economic recovery. More could have been done to really make green refurbishment affordable and attractive.”
DUBAI
Zaha Hadid’s £82.3 million Dubai Opera House is one of the casualties as strapped developer, Sama Dubai, cuts projects. The 2,500-capacity building would have formed a key part of The Lagoons, a mixed-use development in Dubai Creek covering almost 7 million m2. The future of one of Hadid’s Abu Dhabi projects, the Performing Arts Centre on Saadiyat Island, is also uncertain. However, the client, Abu Dhabi’s Tourism Development & Investment Company, is talking to banks about additional funding.
UNITED KINGOM
Randy British architects could be using the professional dry spell to swing an upturn in their sex lives. As three-day weeks and redundancies leave many architects twiddling their thumbs, an ‘extra-marital dating site’, IllicitEncounters.com, reveals that the number of architects, builders and construction professionals committing adultery online has risen by nearly a third in the last six months to nearly 8,000.
HONG KONG
Hong Kong architect Gary Chang has managed to squeeze 24 rooms into his 32m2 of floor space. Dubbed the ‘domestic transformer’, Chang replaced the walls in his tiny apartment with a series of sliding units that move on metal tracks and conceal stocked drawers and filled shelves. The apartment can be a large open-plan studio or transformed by fold-down surfaces, seats and beds. Lack of space is a huge problem in Hong Kong, which has seven million people.
