The Musée d'Orsay in Paris, France, has announced plans for a major expansion project following an anonymous €20m (£17.6m, US$22.4m) donation. The project, called Orsay Grand Ouvert – or Orsay Wide Open – is thought to have been in development for a period of several months and has now been made public following the donation. A new wing and a 7,000sq ft (650sq m) Education Center, as well as an

FUGU Hospitality has installed a nine-bubble village of accommodation at the Alpin D’Hôme hotel in the Alps resort of Les Orres, France, providing a cosy, low-impact and close-to-nature place for guests to stay. FUGU was established in 2011 to provide bubble structures for events and launched its FUGU Hospitality subsidiary last year to rollout bubbles designed for habitation. Among the potential uses it suggests are home or hotel living spaces,

Buro Ehring 's concept for a stadium with a sunken pitch that is hidden by an eclectic group of buildings surrounding it has won the ' Staydium: Stadiums that live beyond sports ' design competition. The competition brief was to create a conceptual design for a stadium for Montpellier, France, that could be used for international events beyond just sports. It sought to find ideas for ways in which the

Reiulf Ramstad Architects have created a series of steel installations along a trail that follows the former Rosheim-St Nabor railway in Alsace, France. The Chemin des Carrières – literally the Quarries Path – stretches for 11km (7mi), joining a number of formerly industrial quarry sites. The installations have been created at five sites along the route, with each conceived to tell its own story. At Rosheim, intertwined sculptural circles of

French ecological architect Vincent Callebaut has won a competition to redesign ancient thermal baths in the Savoyard town of Aix-les-Bains, France. Dubbed "Ecume des Ondes" (Foam of Waves), Callebaut's proposal features a many-storied, heavily foliaged structure with waveform green terraces. Other elements of the spa centre include a retail galleria dedicated to wellbeing, a rooftop restaurant with an aquaponic urban farm, and a viewing centre for the site's Roman ruins,

A team led by French architecture firm Triptyque has designed Ecotone, a mixed-use development projected to become one of the largest wooden structures in the world. The €300m ($340m, £261.5m) project, which will feature biophilic and biomimetic elements – such as terraced hillsides inspired by bird and bee nests – will span 81,870 sq m and comprise a hotel and multipurpose sports hall, as well as fitness centres, restaurants, retail

MVRDV founders Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries have announced the opening of a new office in Spaces Réaumur, Paris, reflecting the firm’s long line of forthcoming projects in France. This year, construction has already begun on the reconstruction of the Part-Dieu shopping centre in Lyon and the extensive renovation of the Gaite-Montparnasse shopping centre in Paris, with a porous façade connecting the mall to the street,

Norwegian architect Reiulf Ramstad has revealed the design his firm have created for a hotel that will be blended into the landscape of the Alsace hills in France. Construction on the Breitenbach Landscape Hotel will begin in the next few months. Conceived to “gather the best of architecture, design, spa facilities and food culture in the region”, several distinctive architectural forms will be spread across the valley to create “a

French football club FC Nantes has revealed the first design sketches for its planned new 40,000-capacity home stadium in western France. US sports architects HKS and French practice Atelier Tom Sheehan & Partenaires (ATSP) have created the concept for the YelloPark Stadium, which includes a fixed roof with a retractable oculus. The traditional horizontally stratified organisation of a stadium will be reinvented to create “a tailor-made experience for each ticket

US architect Steven Holl has won an international design competition for the new Angers Collectors Museum and hotel, inspired by the medieval Apocalypse Tapestry displayed in the French city. Collaborating with Parisian real estate firm Compagnie de Phalsbourg, Holl’s design for the museum is inspired by the historic Chateau d’Angers – built by King Louis IX in the 13th century – with the architect planning to create a new cultural

French designer Philippe Starck has joined forces with hospitality giant The Hilton Group to create a surreal, 14-storey hotel in Metz, France. The property will be operated by Hilton's Curio Collection under a new brand, called Maison Heler. Envisioned as a monolithic and monochromatic tower, topped by an 18th-century style Alsace traditional house, Starck has described his plan to create “a habitable, surreal and poetic work of art that will

One of the largest ongoing leisure developments on the planet, EuropaCity in Paris, will feature a dramatic indoor/outdoor cinema embedded into the landscape, courtesy of a competition-winning design by UNStudio. The Dutch practice have been selected as the architects to realise the Centre Culturel Dédié Au 7è Art – one of eight key buildings within the wider EuropaCity masterplan created by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). Described by UNStudio as “a

The French government has unveiled an ambitious plan to renovate Paris’s landmark Grand Palais and create a cultural boulevard linking the historic site with the Champs Elysees and the River Seine. First built for the Exposition Universelle world fair in 1900, the giant glass vault of the Palais had a strong impact on the country’s Art Nouveau movement and has become one of the French capital’s best-known icons, as well

The Rolling Stones have officially opened one of the largest indoor stadiums in Europe, Paris’s U Arena. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and co ended their latest world tour with three sold-out shows at the stadium, built in the heart of the French capital’s La Défense district, close to the landmark Grande Arche. Designed by Pritzker-winning architect Christian de Portzamparc, the arena forms a distinctive horseshoe shape – the ‘U’ of

A futuristic home has been built for a Roman museum in the French city of Nîmes – in stark contrast to the real-life Roman amphitheatre next door. Construction has been completed ahead of the opening of the Musée de la Romanité de Nîmes in June 2018, with 5,000 exhibits from a collection of 25,000 set to move in over the coming months. Architect Elizabeth de Portzamparc is behind the striking,

One of Paris’ most controversial buildings is set to undergo a green-tinged transformation, with three architecture studios joining forces to comprehensively renovate the Tour Montparnasse skyscraper. The monolithic glass and steel building, which climbs 209m (685.6ft) into the sky, provoked a public outcry when it was completed in 1973 and is widely considered to be out of place in the city’s urban landscape. The negative reaction was so strong, the

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has officially approved plans to transform Paris into an Olympic Park for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games – a decision which will see sporting events take place against the spectacular backdrop of the city’s historic buildings, streets and landmarks. The Champs Elysees and the River Seine are among the 38 Olympic and Paralympic venues spread across the French capital, while beach volleyball will be

British exhibition designers Casson Mann will team up with Parisian architects Atelier Philéas to create a new Centre of Franco British Relations in Ouistreham, France. Located on Sword Beach, facing the English channel, the attraction will explore and celebrate the shared social history and culture of the two countries, and the influence each has had and continues to have on the other. The design team were chosen ahead of 132

Boutique hotel group The Hoxton has debuted its fourth property, with the new opening inside an 18th century Paris townhouse once home to Louis XV’s main courtiers. The Hoxton, Paris – located on Rue du Sentier in the French capital’s 2nd arrondissement – occupies three buildings and has 172 bedrooms, two courtyards, a modern French brasserie, an intimate bar, seven meeting rooms and a communal pantry kitchen. The building, originally

Luxury goods giant LVMH have announced a €60m (US$71.4m, £55m) plan to turn Paris’s 19th-century leisure park, the Jardin d‘Acclimatation into one of France’s top three theme parks. Work to restore the historic sections of the park and to build 17 new attractions - much of which will be themed around the steampunk genre - will begin on September 4 and is expected to last until May 2018. The park

Global luxury hotel operator Aman has added a new two-storey, 767sq m (8,256sq ft) spa at Aman Le Mélézin in Courchevel, France, which is due to open in December for the Alpine skiing season. The hotel is celebrating its 25th anniversary, and has undergone two years’ of redevelopment, a process which began in 2016 with the refurbishment of all the rooms and suites. Construction work involved the entire building being

New construction images have been revealed showing a typically sculptural Frank Gehry-designed tower rising in Arles, southern France. The twisting, mountain-like building will be the new home of LUMA Arles, an experimental contemporary art centre where artists, researchers, and creators collaborate on multidisciplinary exhibitions and projects. Facilities will include studios, workshops, galleries, a café and restaurant, and a large glass atrium open to the general public. When complete, the tower

New York architects SO – IL and French firm Laisne Roussel have won an international design competition to integrate new buildings and public spaces into Paris’ historic but underused Place Mazas. Their flexible urban strategy, called ‘L’ Atelier de l’ Arsenal’, will retain the historic fabric of the 60,000sq ft (5,590sq m) site, located between Canal Saint Martin and the Seine River, while adding three new public squares and a

The first design images have been released showing Tadao Ando’s plans to convert Paris’ historic Bourse de la Commerce building into a new contemporary art museum for the collection of billionaire businessman François Pinault. The Bourse, built in the 19th-century by architect François-Joseph Bélanger, is a circular structure topped with a high glass dome located close to the recently revamped Les Halles culture centre. Ando plans to install a 9m

After 15 months of renovation and an investment of €6m (US$6.8m, £5.3m), The Relais Bernard Loiseau in Saulieu, France has opened its 1,500sq m (16,146sq ft) four-storey wellness centre. Designed by the Claude Correia architecture agency, the facility includes a ground floor garden level with two ‘worlds’ designed to provide an intense and varied stimulation of the five senses. The ‘multisensorial zone' includes a phlebology area, effervescent beach, massage alcoves,

A historic fine art museum in Nantes, France, will re-open to the public tomorrow (23 June) following a major transformation by British architecture practice Stanton Williams. The firm have designed several extensions to the Musée d'arts de Nantes’ original 19th Century ‘Palais’ building and 17th Century Oratory Chapel – creating an additional 4,000sq m (430,000sq ft) of space for artworks to be exhibited. The €48.8m (US$545m, £430m) project was conceived

One of the individuals integral to the completion of Paris’ landmark Pompidou Centre has told CLADglobal about the “terrific fight” Richard Rogers, Renzo Piano and the rest of the design team had with the French architectural establishment to realise their “radical” vision for the controversial project. In an exclusive interview to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the building, Davies revealed that many local practices “resisted the notion of foreign architects