A fitness club with a boxing studio, dance and performing arts studio and a four-court sports hall are just a few of the facilities included in plans for the new Horizon Youth Zone in Grimsby, UK. The 5,440sq m centre will also include a climbing wall, health and wellbeing room and an outdoor 3G pitch. Planning approval has been given for the redevelopment, which will be located in the town's

The "respectful renovation" of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium is among the four winners of this year's European Award for Architectural Heritage Intervention (AHI). Now in its fifth edition, AHI is a biennial award organised by the Association of Architects for the Defence and Intervention in Architectural Heritage (AADIPA) and the Association of Architects of Catalonia (COAC). The renovation of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts

Global design and production agency BRC Imagination Arts has appointed Christian Lachel as chief creative officer, taking over the role from BRC founder Bob Rogers. Previously vice president and executive creative director, Lachel first joined BRC in 1997. Since then, he has helped guide the company during a period of rapid GLOBAL growth, and has taken lead roles on projects including Destination Scotland (Johnnie Walker Princes St, Glenkinchie Distillery), Jameson Distillery

Coventry, the UK City of Culture in 2021, wants to seize a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to create an arts hub to establish the city as an international destination for culture. Coventry City Council (CCC) has revealed multi-million pound plans to transform the IKEA building in the city into a visitor attraction showcasing some of the UK's greatest works of art. The new national Collections Centre would be created through a partnership

Construction work has begun on the huge Shanghai International New Cultural and Creative esports Center. The 500,000sq m venue is estimated to cost around 5.8 billion yuan ($898.2m) and forms part of a larger, US$1.5bn project. Built by Chinese property company SuperGen Group – the parent company of Chinese esports organisation Edward Gaming (EDG) – the venue is located in the city's Minhang District. The 6,000-seat arena is expected to

LA-based experience design studio, BRC Imagination Arts, is the creative force behind the new Glenkinchie Distillery attraction, which has opened today (29 October 2020) near Edinburgh, Scotland. The single malt distillery is located in East Lothian, a region known for its produce and has undergone a major transformation of its visitor attraction as part of a wider £185m investment by owner, Diageo. Glenkinchie will be known as the ‘Lowland Home

Google Arts & Culture has partnered with more than 500 cultural institutions to offer 'virtual museum exploration', following the temporary closure of thousands of art galleries and museums during the COVID-19 pandemic. An online platform designed to provide public access to gallery and museum collections across the globe, Google Arts & Culture uses the same technology developed for Google Maps Street View to enable users to 'walk' through world-famous galleries

Developers have been given the green light to start work again on the US$750m (£647m, €688m) Nickelodeon theme park development at the Mall of China. Work was suspended as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, however, plans for the construction of the third and fourth phases to resume were approved following an inspection ensuring health requirements were met. Located in the Yubei District of Chongqing City, the Mall of China

​ Wheeler Kearns Architects have transformed a decommissioned cheese factory in the US city of Bentonville, Arkansas, into a multidisciplinary space for visual, performing and culinary artists. The Momentary was opened at the end of February as a satellite location of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which is also in Bentonville. The 63,000sq ft (5,900sq m) facility was conceived with the aim of providing a unique cultural hub

citizenM is set to break ground on a second hotel in Seattle, which is due to open in April with Gensler and Concrete design inspired by the context of the historic Pioneer Square location in which it will be situated. citizenM has three of its "community-minded, tech-forward" hotels open in the US already and is working on locations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Miami and Washington, D.C. The Pioneer

Donald Insall Associates have completed restoration work of Edwardian architecture at Grade II listed heritage swimming baths that are being converted for use as an arts and culture venue. Moseley Road Baths are said to be the only baths in the UK built before 1914 to have continuously hosted swimming since they opened, which was in 1907. They are architecturally significant due to the quality and completeness of their interior,

wHY Architecture are to build a monolithic but welcoming glazed, wooden theatre in a new park on the Kama River as a beacon for the emerging arts district in Perm, Russia. The firm began working on the Tchaikovsky Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in September 2019 and their design was given the go-ahead in January 2020 by a vote of approval from the City Council of Perm, the planning commission

Geelong Arts Centre has reopened after a AU$38.5m (US$26,3m, €23.9m, £20.1m) redevelopment by Hassell, with a new translucent skin and a newly revealed heritage church building. The centre is located in the Australian state of Victoria, where it is the only state-owned arts centre outside of Melbourne. Following Geelong's designation as a UNESCO Creative City in 2017, it was felt that the centre needed upgrading to serve the city's "growing

Elora Hardy has been made an Honorary Royal Designer for Industry by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) for her pioneering work in architectural design, in particular for the design and build of bamboo structures. Hardy was born in Bali and spent 14 years of her life growing up in the US, where she received a degree in fine arts and went on to work in the fashion industry. In

The Hall Arts Hotel, which has been designed by HKS Architects with interiors by Bentel & Bentel, has opened in Dallas, allowing guests to stay surrounded by luxury boutique design and a diverse collection of artworks. Work on building two towers on the site actually began in the 1980s and a seven-level underground car-park that remains to this day, but the project was halted due to a real estate crash.

The first exhibition has opened at MICA, the contemporary art museum at the Changsha Meixihu International Culture & Arts Centre, which which was designed by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA). ZHA says the 115,000sq m (1,240,000sq ft) centre is the largest and most versatile cultural centre in China's Hunan province, comprising three separate but complementary venues that each cater for a different use. The 1,800-seat Grand Theatre, which was completed in

The Kai Art Center, designed by KAOS Architects, has opened in a former submarine production plant in Tallinn, Estonia. Originally built in 1916 to house workshops for shipbuilding, the building was used for the construction of 12 submarines between 1913 and 1917. Split across two floors, it is made of reinforced concrete and has a curved roof that gives the centre one of its most notable features – a 6m

Austria-based wellness operator Lanserhof has opened its first UK location at the historic Arts Club in London. The six-storey luxury health and wellness club – situated on Dover Market Street in Mayfair – has a focus on personalised services and houses a wide range of gym spaces equipped by Technogym, exercise and studio rooms and a full-service spa featuring treatment rooms and a cryotherapy chamber. Designed by Ingenhoven Architects, the

The first stage in the preparation of a planning application for the proposed Eden Project North in the UK has been completed, with the submission of an Environmental Impact Assessment Scoping Report to Lancaster City Council. Designed by Grimshaw Architects, the £85m (US$108m, €95.6m) development will see a series of mussel-shaped pavilions capable of housing a variety of environments built on the seafront at Morecambe, Lancashire. In the latest information

Sereno Hotels has unveiled a new spa at Le Sereno St Barts following damage from Hurricane Irma in September 2017. Parisian designer Christian Liaigre, lighting designer Arnold Chan and landscape architect Fernando Tabora – the team which created the original spa – has reformed to work on the new-build reincarnation. The new Spa Le Sereno features three treatments rooms including the waterfront pavilion, a space for relaxation and the island’s

The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) has selected OMA and KOO to plan its US$95m (€85.1m, £75m) Center for the Arts. The 88,000 sq ft (8,175.4 sq m) complex will have a translucent roof with embedded photovoltaics that will reflect light from the performance halls. The facility – to be located on the school's north-west campus – will comprise a 500-seat concert hall and a 270-seat auditorium, as well

London-based architects Sergison Bates have won an international contest to design a new performing arts centre in the medieval quarter of Leuven, Belgium. The €60m (US$67.1m, £51.6m) project will see the Sint-Pieters Hospital, which dates to the 11th century, transformed into a 10,000 sq m multi-use structure with concert halls, rehearsal rooms, and lounge areas. "This will be more like a cultural platform than a conventional arts venue," explained the

The latest venture from German wellness operator, Lanserhof, is scheduled to open in May at the Arts Club in London. Designed by Dusseldorf-based firm Ingenhoven Architects, the six-storey gym – situated opposite the club on Dover Market Street in Mayfair – will be the first facility of its kind to offer club members an MRI scan as part of its tailored training programme. Members will also have access to additional

Funding for the planned World Trade Center performing arts complex in New York has taken another major step forward, with the award of a multi-million dollar grant from the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. The grant of US$89m (€78.11m, £70.11) to the Ronald O.Perelman Center for the Performing Arts takes funding raised to 82 per cent of its total construction costs. Major

The Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation Centre for Conservation at Museum Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) in Texas has reopened as part of the second phase of the institution's US$450m (€395.5m, £351.5m) redevelopment, designed by Lake|Flato Architects. The new centre sits across the road from MFAH’s curatorial offices and includes 23,796sq ft (2,211sq m) of conservation studios and support space and will now allow the museum to bring together various art conversation

Construction has commenced on the Quzhou Sports Campus, an ambitious project which is designed to resemble a craterous landscape not unlike the conical puys of France's Massif Central. Helmed by Beijing-based MAD Architects and based in China’s Zhejiang province, the sprawling, 700,000sq m (7.5 million sq ft) complex will function as a kind of mini-city and feature a 30,000-seat stadium, hotels, youth centres, retail shops, museums, a gym, and a

David Chipperfield Architects and ReardonSmith are moving forward with plans to design a new Rosewood hotel on 30 Grosvenor Square, the former site of the US Embassy in London. Developed in collaboration with the Grosvenor Estate and Qatari Diar, the new hotel is scheduled for completion in 2023. Expected to cost £1bn (US$1.3bn, €1.1bn), it will comprise 137 bedrooms, five restaurants, six retail units, a spa and a ballroom with