Thierry Henry's €300,000 "dream" aquarium

As reported in Britain's Daily Mail - so you know it must not only must be true, but also completely accurate - the 34-year-old has slapped in an application to remodel his ever-so-modest London pad in the British capital's swanky suburb of Hampstead.

Apparently Henry wants to knock down the 1999-built €6million (or in local currency £7,2 million) house and replace it with something even bigger, better and more clearly suited to his needs.

That includes everything the modern-day man requires of course, such as a bar, a cinema a swimming pool and - the accessory that has tongues-a-wagging and journalists a-writing - a €300,000 mammoth aquarium running the entire height of what would become a humble four-storey home.

You can read the full details of the giant fish tank (although that seems the most inappropriate description) the 34-year old would like to install as well take a look at the plans he has submitted to the local council in the Daily Mail.

They're also available in euros in a report in the French daily Le Parisien and the weekly French celebrity gossip magazine Closer (yes it has attracted the attention of the serious sectors of the media).

But it's hard for anyone of regular means surely to get past some of the financial stats that come, not only with the initial price tag, but also the estimated heating, cleaning, stocking, lighting, feeding and maintenance costs.

Yes we're talking silly figures here.

Henry's application might run into a few problems though from those considering on the council who might consider giving him the green light.

Sir Richard MacCormac is against the project. He's the man who designed the current house that Henry wants to tear down, and whose construction is described by those "in the know" apparently as "one of the finest examples of modern day architecture in the United Kingdom."

And The Twentieth Century Society, a British charity which campaigns for the preservation of architectural heritage from 1914 onwards, is reportedly considering slapping in a request for the building to be listed, which would effectively scupper Henry's application.

The motive behind what would appear to be the most absurd of building projects is apparently Henry's desire to maintain a "pied à terre" in London so that he has somewhere to stay when he's over from the States to visit his daughter Téa who lives with his ex-wife Claire Merry.

Henry currently plays for New York Red Bulls and will be returning Stateside after a short spell on loan for one of his former clubs Arsenal.

Thierry Henry's New York loft (screenshot BFM TV)

Some of you might remember that Henry splashed out a miserly €11 million for a New York apartment when he first left Europe in September 2010.

Clearly the man has more money than sense.

A Nouvel skyscraper for Paris

The French capital is to get just what it needs to set it apart from the rest of the globe’s major cities - a new 300-metre skyscraper set to challenge the world-famous Eiffel tower’s domination of the city’s skyline.

France’s very own Jean Nouvel fought off competition from four other world class architects to be awarded the commission to construct the new Signal tower.

Strictly speaking it’ll actually be built in the largely business district of La Defense on the outskirts of Paris as there are height restrictions on new buildings within the city limits.

Completion of the concrete glass and steel tower is due by the end of 2013.

It won’t quite match the height of the Eiffel Tower – which stands at 324 metres - and is unlikely to become a major tourist attraction, but it’s early evidence that the president, Nicolas Sarkozy, wants to leave his architectural mark on the capital in much the same way as his predecessors.

In fact the thinking behind the tower’s construction is to spearhead an ambitious plan to breathe new life into the whole of La Defense – now more than 50 years old.

At 71 storeys the tower will almost be a town within a town with shops and restaurants on the ground floor, and above those the inevitable offices and a 300-room hotel, all topped off with a layer of luxury apartments.

Unlike many of the rest of the ageing skyscrapers in the district, it’ll combine those all-important energy saving features that simply weren’t around decades ago, including solar panels and wind turbines on the roof.

But when all is said and done it’ll still be a hulking 300 metres of concrete, glass and steel, probably with lights left on unnecessarily overnight (as is common practice in many office complexes).

And as critics have been quick to point out, without a corresponding update of La Defense’s infrastructure the new tower could signal added congestion for commuters in the future as more businesses and therefore more employees are tempted into the district.

It’s already used by 400,000 people daily and is home to 2,500 company headquarters as well as 20,000 residents.

The new tower won’t be the only mighty construction on the horizon when it’s completed.

There are already two other 300-metre projects under construction, both of which are due to be finished by 2012. And Nouvel’s building is just part of a larger renovation plan for the district under which 17 existing but ageing buildings are scheduled for demolition – and replacement.

Of course the choice of Nouvel has brought an awful lot of patriotic backslapping and congratulations here and there’s no doubting his credentials or international track record.

Earlier this year he won the profession’s top honour, the Pritzker prize, plus to gain the new commission he beat off competition from the likes of Britain’s Norman Foster and US architect Daniel Libeskind.

But there has to be a slight doubt lingering as to whether this latest venture will not simply turn into something of an eyesore – albeit it a very tall one.

Nouvel’s last project to be completed here in Paris, the Quai Branly museum of tribal arts, already looked pretty tatty from the outside when it opened in 2006 and looks set to age quickly.