Architecture

The recently unveiled eco-friendly Eurobank building on central Stadiou and Omirou streets opposite the Old Parliament calls to mind the historical layers of Athens as the same plot featured earlier notable structures.

SANT FELIU DE GUÍXOLS, Spain - On a recent afternoon, Jo Farb Hernández, a Californian folklorist and curator, was admiring the bizarre structure that stood before her near Spain's border with France. Flowerlike concrete appendages rose to the sun, bejeweled with glass, marbles and shards of old pots.

A 2,000-year-old fountain that was discovered to have been active up to the seventh century is now once more supplying water in the Ancient City of Kibyra in Burdur after a recent restoration.

Slovenia's pavilion at the International Architecture Exhibition, which opened on 20 May and runs until late November, is dedicated to the principles of ecology in architecture which have been lost in the face of advancing technology.

Rents are up to three times more expensive in modern and energy-efficient office buildings that have been built recently than older office stock. This explains their appeal among investors as well as real estate development companies.

Tourists in Rome checking out the Pantheon, Italy's most-visited cultural site, will soon be charged a 5-euro ($5.28) entrance fee under an agreement signed on March 16 by Italian culture and church officials.

The first taste of the proposals of the nine partnerships of international and Greek architectural firms that participated in the competition for the expansion and upgrading of the National Archaeological Museum and competed with that of David Chipperfield Architects and Tombazis and Associates Architects that was ultimately chosen was released on Monday by the Culture Ministry.

Amid the quake panic in the country's largest metropolis of Istanbul, which has a population of 16 million, the city's municipality is taking measures to ban mezzanine floors in accordance with the new zoning regulation to make the city more quake-resistant.

The Trade Ministry has vowed to take necessary measures to prevent price increases and ease supply problems in the cement market.

The ministry said in a statement that it is monitoring developments in the construction sector, which has a considerable weight for the Turkish economy, adding that it is looking into the foreign trade angle.

The winning entry for the New National Archaeological Museum is by the architectural offices of David Chipperfield Architects and Alexandros N. Tombazis & Associates SA, selected by an international committee convened by Culture & Sports Minister Lina Mendoni, the ministry announced on Monday.