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The Burj Tower in Dubai will be finished next year and at more than 700 metres high it will become the tallest building in the world. In contrast, the construction of skyscrapers in London planned in the recent period of growth now looks under threat as recession looms. DEYAN SUDJIC, Director of the Design Museum, predicts the future for British architecture and examines how it is a seismograph for economic change. Deyan will be chairing the debate Design Cities: Where Next? at the Design Museum, London at 7.15pm on 15 December.

What makes a perfect house? A feeling of contentment, well-proportioned rooms and a sense of grandeur? Television producer and director TIM KIRBY asserts that these notions of what makes a good home can be traced back 500 years to the Italian architect Andrea Palladio. The Perfect House: The Life and Work of Andrea Palladio is on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Four on 17 December at 9.00pm.

The grandeur of space has enthralled poets for centuries, but as we journey further into its depths, does it lose its mysticism? Astrophysicist DAME JOCELYN BELL BURNELL has co-edited an anthology which rekindled poets’ curiosity in space by twinning them with astrophysicists to inspire them with the latest advancements in astronomy. Dark Matter: Poems of Space, edited by Maurice Riordan and Jocelyn Bell Burnell, is published by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

DR ANDY MIAH, from the University of the West of Scotland, believes that in this critical time of financial turmoil and concern about climate change there needs to be collaboration between the arts and the sciences. He argues that we no longer need specialist knowledge but ‘transdisciplinary’ creative solutions. Human Futures: Art in an Age of Uncertainty is edited by Andy Miah and published by Liverpool University Press.