Crystal Island

Not to be outdone by Kuala Lumpur or Taipei, Moscow is soon to be home to the largest building ever built. British architect Sir Norman Foster has designed a 1500-foot-tall, 27-million-square-foot behemoth of a structure (a ‘city within a building’) called The Crystal Island, set to be completed within the next five years at the cost of $4 billion. The building will house 900 apartments, 3000 hotel rooms, an international school, a sporting complex, and much more. Foster + Partners has also incorporated sustainable design features into the building such as solar panels and wind turbines for power, atriums for ventilation, and special enclosure panels to regulate internal climate, which, judging by the projects’ size, will be sorely needed. LINK