London’s largest airport is looking forwards to the start of construction of its new Terminal 2 as per the plans designed by Foster + Partners and under development by Ferrovial Agroman and Laing O’Rourke’s joint partnership company HETCo. The Terminal 2 expected to cost around £1 billion would play the new domicile for the Star Alliance airlines.

Heathrow’s Terminal 2 being developed as a part of the £4.8 billion investment across the airport would have 185,000m2 of floor space that would provide an anticipated 20 million passengers every year. The new terminal is designed to emit 40% less carbon than the already existing ones. The large north facing windows on the roof would provide the building with ample natural light and also prevent the temperatures inside from rising too high. The solar panels on the roof will cut down on the buildings energy consumption. Besides, the heating and cooling system of the building would run on energy extracted from renewable sources.

This two phase construction expected to be ready by 2019 would not only give the airport an opportunity to provide better services to its customers, but also do good to the city’s power grid and environment.

Via WorldArchitectureNews

With the governments all over the world working towards environmental conservation, the mayors of San Francisco and other Bay Area cities have promised to smear the region with electric-vehicle charging stations. On Thursday, they divulged plans to work with Palo Alto start-up called Better Place on a $1 billion plan to build re-charging infrastructure needed to bring more electric cars on to the roads and aim to set up the system in place by 2012.

Headed by an ex-SAP executive Shai Agassi, Better Place will soon put in 250,000 charging ports, 200 battery-exchange stations and a control center to service electric cars at businesses, public parking places and homes. With backing from Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Australia’s Macquarie Capital Group, Agassi doesn’t plan to ask the cities for money. The start-up will give customers an electric vehicle with company’s batteries at a reduced rate with a subscription to drive a certain number of miles.

Better Place will be working with Renault-Nissan to supply electric cars and foresees a range of electric vehicles from General Motors, Toyota, Silicon Valley electric-car startup Tesla Motors and others for Bay Area. Very soon, the region will rise to be the country’s electric car capital.

Source: MercuryNews