Architecture, it’s been said, reflects the society that surrounds it. Consider then, the new Medical Library Düsseldorf´s Heinrich-Heine-University. Known as the OASE building, it’s been described as being a “pulsating space for studying, reading, learning, inspiration and social encounter.” Enthusiastic, certainly – but it’s a pretty accurate way of putting it.
Camping used to be a miserable affair – bourn of the necessity of one following four things:
Tax is one subject that is guaranteed to get people hot under the collar. That’s why – when Warren Buffett’s name appeared in the by-line above in piece in the New York Times in August all hell broke loose.
The world has long harboured a fascination with Russia: the vastness, the politics, the wealth, the poverty, its resources, diversity, monotony, and spirit. From Kaliningrad in the west across the Eurasian landmass to Ratmanov Island in the Baring Strait, the country is difficult enough to comprehend for it’s natives – but what about a foreigner?
NEW YORK – The most architecturally significant hotel to rise downtown in recent years, The Cooper Square Hotel is at once a pioneer and a sign of a changing neighborhood.
When a lowly iPhone game called Angry Birds was released at the back end of 2009, nobody batted an eyelid. There was no fanfare, no multi-platform blanket advertising; nothing. It crept quietly onto the app market and it went straight to number one in Finland. But gradually news of this charismatic game spread across the globe.
Luxembourg based company Skype, founded in 2003 by Niklas Zennström from Sweden and Janus Friis from Denmark, was valued earlier this year by Microsoft at $8.5bn. With close to 700 million users, the world’s leading peer to peer communications company has set countless new standards in innovation and technological development. 
There is a central tenet to the school of thought on the traditional approach to green business initiatives; namely, that creating wealth and jobs and saving the environment are mutually exclusive pursuits. Sweden has proved that there is in fact another way – and skimming over the statistics, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that their approach may well be right…
With a population of just over 9m, Sweden is proof that you can actually have both – responsible and sustainable growth. It’s a concept that rarely rises above the rhetoric in Britain, but in Sweden it’s a reality.
