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Oman to develop $155mn tourism project in Muscat Construction on Yenkit Hills project to start next year, with completion scheduled for 2026 Oman’s Ministry of Heritage and Tourism has signed an agreement with Qurm Stone Development for the development of a $155 million tourism project in Muscat, it has been announced. According to a report by the Oman Observer, the Yenkit Hills tourism project is to be set up over a 500,000sqm area in Muscat governorate and will be implemented in three phases. Phase One will see the development of a five-star resort with 90 rooms and suites, complete with...

How to keep buildings cool without air conditioning – according to an expert in sustainable design Matt Hinsta/Flickr., CC BY-NC-ND Aurore Julien, University of East London The warmer it gets, the more people crank up the air conditioning (AC). In fact, AC is booming in nations across the world: it’s predicted that around two thirds of the world’s households could have an air conditioner by 2050, and the demand for energy to cool buildings will triple. But unless the energy comes from renewable sources, all that added demand will generate more greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global warming –...

How to print a building: the science behind 3D printing in construction Building sites are going to look a bit different, in the future. Shutterstock. Seyed Ghaffar, Brunel University London It’s often claimed that 3D printing – known in the trade as “additive manufacturing” – will change the way we live. Most recently, a team from Eindhoven University of Technology announced plans to build the “world’s first” habitable 3D printed houses. But it’s one thing to build small, prototype homes in a park – it’s quite another to successfully use additive manufacturing for large scale projects in the construction sector....

Transparent wood is coming, and it could make an energy-efficient alternative to glass Glass windows like these could be replaced with wood. Shutterstock/Visions-AD Steve Eichhorn, University of Bristol Wood is an ancient material humans have been using for millions of years, for the construction of housing, ships and as a source of fuel for burning. It’s also a renewable source, and one way to capture excess carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere. Today, the main component of wood - cellulose – is produced annually at 20 times the volume of steel. One thing you wouldn’t use wood for is making...

Bendable concrete and other CO2-infused cement mixes could dramatically cut global emissions Bendable concrete created at the University of Michigan allows for thinner structures with less need for steel reinforcement. Joseph Xu/University of Michigan College of Engineering Lucca Henrion, University of Michigan; Duo Zhang, University of Michigan; Victor C. Li, University of Michigan, and Volker Sick, University of Michigan One of the big contributors to climate change is right beneath your feet, and transforming it could be a powerful solution for keeping greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. The production of cement, the binding element in concrete, accounted for 7%...