Week's top news: Brexit shocks architects, a US$1bn stadium and Renzo Piano returns
Our biggest news stories came right at the end of this week, with UK’s decision to leave the European Union.
Many of Britain's best-known architects – including David Chipperfield and David Adjaye – had campaigned for the country to remain in the EU in the days preceding the national referendum on the issue, but their pleas were rejected by 52 per cent of those who voted.
The result has sent shockwaves through the architecture and design industries in the country, as economic uncertainty begins to take root and the social and cultural repercussions of Brexit become clear.
In sports architecture this week, France’s rugby federation agreed a deal to begin the construction of a new national stadium designed by Populous. Meanwhile, in the US city Minneapolis, NFL franchise the Minnesota Vikings were handed the keys to their own new US$1bn home.
Following the opening of the Tate Modern last week, another of CLAD’s most anticipated leisure buildings of 2016 has now opened – Renzo Piano’s green-roofed Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens.
Other cultural openings this week include a Carsten Höller slide in London and OMA’s extension to the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, while Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners announced their Washington Spy Museum is now under construction.
In hotel news, Conrad, Unico, Hard Rock, and Antara unveiled new properties. Meanwhile, Architects of Invention revealed a hotel concept designed using biomimicry and Ron Arad completed his expensive revamp of the Watergate Hotel.
Other projects CLAD reported on this week include a beautiful planned visitor centre by a Greenland glacier, Christo's floating piers across an Italian lake, a new library by Dutch innovators MVRDV and Kazakhstan’s sustainable Astana Expo City, which will host the world’s next international architecture exposition in 2017.
For more leisure design and architecture news you can check the CLAD website everyday and follow us on Twitter @CLADglobal.
Week's top news Brexit Renzo Piano Populous Minnesota Vikings architecture design Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural CenterEurope's premier Evian Spa unveiled at Hôtel Royal in France
Clinique La Prairie unveils health resort in China after two-year project
GoCo Health Innovation City in Sweden plans to lead the world in delivering wellness and new science
Four Seasons announces luxury wellness resort and residences at Amaala
Aman sister brand Janu debuts in Tokyo with four-floor urban wellness retreat
€38m geothermal spa and leisure centre to revitalise Croatian city of Bjelovar
Two Santani eco-friendly wellness resorts coming to Oman, partnered with Omran Group
Kerzner shows confidence in its Siro wellness hotel concept, revealing plans to open 100
Ritz-Carlton, Portland unveils skyline spa inspired by unfolding petals of a rose
Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners are just one of the names behind The Emory hotel London and Surrenne private members club
Peninsula Hot Springs unveils AUS$11.7m sister site in Australian outback
IWBI creates WELL for residential programme to inspire healthy living environments
Conrad Orlando unveils water-inspired spa oasis amid billion-dollar Evermore Resort complex
Studio A+ realises striking urban hot springs retreat in China's Shanxi Province
Populous reveals plans for major e-sports arena in Saudi Arabia
Wake The Tiger launches new 1,000sq m expansion
Othership CEO envisions its urban bathhouses in every city in North America
Merlin teams up with Hasbro and Lego to create Peppa Pig experiences
SHA Wellness unveils highly-anticipated Mexico outpost
One&Only One Za’abeel opens in Dubai featuring striking design by Nikken Sekkei
Luxury spa hotel, Calcot Manor, creates new Grain Store health club
'World's largest' indoor ski centre by 10 Design slated to open in 2025
Murrayshall Country Estate awarded planning permission for multi-million-pound spa and leisure centre
Aman's Janu hotel by Pelli Clarke & Partners will have 4,000sq m of wellness space
Therme Group confirms Incheon Golden Harbor location for South Korean wellbeing resort
Universal Studios eyes the UK for first European resort
King of Bhutan unveils masterplan for Mindfulness City, designed by BIG, Arup and Cistri
Rural locations are the next frontier for expansion for the health club sector
Tonik Associates designs new suburban model for high-end Third Space health and wellness club
Aman sister brand Janu launching in Tokyo in 2024 with design by Denniston's Jean-Michel Gathy
How Portugal’s biggest brewer enlisted the help of one of the country’s best known architects to turn two historic nature parks into thermal spa and nature destinations