Sustainability was a recurring topic in the news this week. Former US presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter met in Atlanta to discuss sustainable cities and green energy policies, the American Society of Interior Designers sealed a new agreement to integrate health and wellness into the projects of its members and the UN unveiled a new tool to measure the impact urbanisation has on quality of life. It was also

Today (17 June), the British public can finally see for themselves the long-gestating expansion to London’s Tate Modern art museum, masterminded by Herzog & de Meuron. The architects transformed the derelict Bankside Power Station on the River Thames into the museum in 2000 to house the UK’s collection of international modern and contemporary art. The Tate was expected to receive two million visitors each year, but was soon welcoming closer

A passion project of the late Zaha Hadid has been unveiled to the world, with her exhibition design for a major retrospective of artist Kurt Schwitters opening in Zurich this week. Schwitters was well known for his poetry, music and Dadaist-flavoured art. His most famous work is an installation called Merzbau – described by critics as “a living, inhabited, ever-expanding collage” – which spread over eight rooms in his Hanover

Architecture studio Gensler have won the contract to design the interior of San Francisco’s Chase Center, which will be the new home of basketball franchise the Golden State Warriors. Gensler will work with MANICA Architecture – who are designing the exterior of the building – to work on all the public interior space, including concourses, clubs, suites, offices, locker rooms the team store and retail space. The architects have pedigree

Luxury resort and casino Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas has unveiled a newly renovated spa and wellness facility. Managed by Trilogy Spa Holdings, a boutique spa operator, The Spa at Red Rock by Well & Being features customised wellness experiences, including an updated menu of cutting-edge fitness classes, nutrition, integrative medicine, mind-body therapies and advanced skincare. This is the third Well & Being spa for Trilogy – with spas

Wolfgang Buttress’ multi-sensory celebration of bees will open to the public this Saturday (18 June) in London’s Kew Gardens. The Hive is a pavilion inspired by scientific research into the health of bees and their role in pollinating crops essential to human survival. The 17m (55.7ft) high, 40 tonne aluminium structure takes visitors on an experiential journey through the life of a bee colony, from an outside meadow into the

The architecture studio of David Adjaye have won the international competition to design a new contemporary art museum for the centre of Riga, Latvia. The Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation today (16 June) announced that Adjaye Associates’ vision for the museum – which imagines a highly-animated tilting roof geometry – has been selected ahead of six rival submissions, including from Caruso St John Architects and Henning Larssen Architects. Adjaye

The under-development Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi took a major step forward this week when the temporary sea wall surrounding the structure came down, flooding the area around the building. Contractor Arabtec Holdings has removed the 14m (46ft) temporary hydraulic cutoff walls used during the main construction phase, with the sea water now enveloping the museum, giving it the appearance of floating on water. "This delicate process is the result

Las Vegas’ US$375m (£264.7m, €333.1m) multi-purpose T-Mobile Arena, which opened in April, looks set to become the home of the latest National Hockey League (NHL) franchise. Reports in the US suggest the NHL has chosen the Nevada city over launching a franchise in Quebec, although the league’s board of governors will hold a formal vote on 22 June. The Populous-designed arena – described by its creators as "a diamond in

Baltimore’s National Aquarium has unveiled plans for North America’s first ever seaside dolphin sanctuary, which has been designed by architects Studio Gang. The aquarium has formed a team of experts who will be tasked to find a site which ensures the health and welfare of the dolphins, following a criteria which includes an outdoor location with natural seawater and a tropical or sub-tropical climate. The aquarium is aiming to transition

The organisers of Paris’s bid for the 2024 Olympic Games have unveiled plans to build a 15,000-capacity aquatics centre if the city’s application is successful. Located in the Saint-Denis region of Paris, the centre will house two 50m (165ft) swimming pools and two diving pools. Once the Games are over the capacity will be scaled down to 2,500. The aquatics centre will be the only facility that will need to

High profile figures ranging from Hollywood actor Leonardo DiCaprio to former US presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter have urged for further research and investment into making our cities more sustainable in recent weeks. Now the UN has increased its own commitment to this drive by introducing a new scientific tool that measures the rate of global urbanisation, its characteristics and the potential effect of urban sprawl on the quality

New London mayor Sadiq Khan has claimed culture will be as important as housing, transport and the environment in his administration. Speaking at the press opening of the new Tate Modern in the UK capital, Khan vowed to increase the number of cultural facilities and public spaces by “embedding culture in London’s planning system.” “For too long culture has been merely a nice-to-have,” he argued. “We’ve got to change that.”

Tadao Ando has told CLAD about his design for a new contemporary art museum in Paris which will house the vast collection of billionaire businessman François Pinault. Pinault’s plans to transform the French capital’s historic Bourse de la Commerce into the museum were unveiled in April this year. Ando was selected to work on the project following a previous collaboration with Pinault to renovate Venice’s 17th century Punta della Dogana

Cox Architecture will create a 3,000 capacity velodrome in Jakarta for the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia. According to reports in Australia, where the studio have their headquarters, the project will cost AUS$51m (US$38m, €33.6m, £26.5m) and is set to be completed by June 2018. Engineering firm Motts MacDonald, Indonesian architects BKM and construction company Wika are all said to be involved. In order to ensure the quick construction time,

The Smithsonian Institute is teaming up with the V&A Museum to create a collaborative permanent exhibition space at London’s Olympicopolis site. The plans, which date back to January 2015, originally called for a stand-alone Smithsonian to act as an anchor for the site upon its opening in 2020/2021. The amended plans now come at significantly less cost to the Smithsonian, with the V&A partnership giving the institution a permanent presence

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) and the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) have today (14 June) announced a partnership to accelerate the integration of health and wellness in the built environment. In a bid to engage the interior design community in the drive, ASID will educate its 25,000 members in the US and Canada on the principles, practices and applications of the internationally-recognised WELL Building Standard accreditation. The

The Goddard Group and Moschanko Investment Group have been given the go-ahead by Russian President Vladimir Putin to develop and build a US$4bn (€3.6bn, £2.8bn) theme park near Moscow. Called “The Magical World of Russia”, the new project has been touted as a major destination and resort theme park that will “reflect Russian and other international cultures”. The development gained the endorsement of President Putin at a recent meeting involving

M Social Singapore, the first property of a new lifestyle hotel brand from Millennium Hotels & Resorts, opens on Wednesday (13 June) with interior designs by Philippe Starck. The hotel is located on the Singapore River overlooking the vibrant Robertson Quay enclave, as part of a wider integrated development of luxury apartments and new public spaces. M Social will feature 293 guestrooms spread over ten floors, a restaurant and bar,

The first renderings of the next Margaritaville destination resort – which will open in Orlando, Florida by the end of 2017 – have been released, shining a light on US singer Jimmy Buffett's ambitious plans for the US$750m (€664m, £526m) leisure scheme. Construction recently began on the 320-acre property, called Margaritaville Resort Orlando, which features interior designs from The McBride Company and is being developed by Encore Capital Management in

A design team led by landscape architect Mia Lehrer + Associates (MLA), and featuring Rem Koolhaas’ OMA, has been selected by the City of Los Angeles to design “one of the most important civic spaces in the city’s vibrant downtown core”. Located on First and Broadway and known as FAB Park, the project incorporates themes of food, art and land to celebrate LA’s diversity. The City’s Department of Recreation and

Mark Wray Architects have won an open design competition to design a visitor hub for an ancient forest site in Surrey, England. The firm’s design for the project – which will be located in 640 acre Langley Vale Wood – was described by judges from the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and Britain’s Woodland Trust as an “imaginative and beautiful scheme that demonstrates well how mankind and nature can

Former US presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter will participate in a one-on-one conversation about creating sustainable cities, green energy and economic growth on 14 June. The presidential pair will speak at the end of the Clinton Global Initiative’s (CGI) 2016 American meeting, which is currently taking place in Atlanta, Georgia. The meeting is gathering leaders in business, investment, innovation and city management to discuss solutions to nine of the

Luxury hotel brand Bulgari will come to Moscow in 2019, with a hotel set in the former residence of a noble family that was also later home to musicians from the famed Conservatory P.I. Tchaikovsky. Designed by Italian architectural firm Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel and Partners – which is also working on the Bulgari Dubai – in collaboration with Russian architectural bureau Atrium, the Bulgari Hotel in Moscow is planned

Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor has designed the latest installation for Norway’s National Tourist Route (NTR) initiative, where the country’s most scenic roads are dotted with fantastic viewpoints and architectural rest stops. Allmannajuvet, a commission that dates back to 2002, is finally set to open 8 September, just months after the opening of Utsikten (the View), a precipitous triangle slab balanced on a dramatic mountainside. Zumthor’s Allmannajuvet site consists of

The Rothschild Foundation has backed an international design competition to create a £20m (US$29.2m, €25.7m) light installation on the 17 central London bridges crossing the River Thames. Chaired by Lord Rothschild, The Rothschild Foundation gives grants to a variety of charitable initiatives, also supporting artistic and cultural ventures across the UK. With the foundation’s backing, the Illuminated River contest is searching for ‘elegant and charismatic’ proposals to transform the Thames

Global spa management company Resense is working on eight new spa developments across Asia, with projects scheduled in China, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand and South Korea. Resense has also established a subsidiary company, Resense China, with offices in Beijing, which will oversee all projects and developments within Asia. Emlyn Brown is director and Alice Zhang is operations coordinator. “The team in Beijing will continue Resense’s dedication to creating and supporting spas