Luxury hotel and spa operator Mandarin Oriental’s second London hotel will launch next January with a brand new spa designed as a boutique sister location to its flagship UK spa at Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park. Open to hotel guests, residents and the local community, the underground wellness retreat at Mandarin Oriental Mayfair will welcome its first guests in early 2024. Facilities will include an indoor heated swimming pool, a sauna,

Global architectural firm Woods Bagot has completed its comprehensive renewal of the Continental Sorrento in Victoria, Australia, with a luxury underground spa and bathing retreat. The hotel – known locally as the “Conti” – opened in 1875 and is based in Sorrento; a popular holiday destination thanks to its sheltered coastal access and the region’s naturally occurring geothermal mineral springs. The opening of the spa marks the final step in

Nordic Hotels & Resorts is creating an urban wellness retreat in Norway’s capital city of Oslo as part of its 231-room hotel project. Owned by Norwegian hotelier Petter Stordalen, the luxury destination will be named Sommerro and welcome guests in the city’s Frogner neighbourhood as of September 2022. Sommerro will be housed in a restored 1930s building – formerly the headquarters of the city’s original electrical company – and encompass

London’s Westminster City Council has approved developer Reef Group’s plans to invest over £150m (US$185.3m, €171.4m) in Cavendish Square, transforming the space into a subterranean mixed-use destination, with a focus on healthcare and wellbeing. Claimed to be London’s first subterranean health and wellbeing destination, the 280,000sq ft (26,000sq m) destination will deliver specialist facilities for London’s private healthcare sector. Currently an underground park, the existing structure will be reused and

London’s Westminster City Council has approved developer Reef Group’s plans to invest over £150m (US$185.3m, €171.4m) in Cavendish Square, transforming the space into a subterranean mixed-use destination, with a focus on healthcare and wellbeing. Claimed to be London’s first subterranean health and wellbeing destination, the 280,000sq ft (26,000sq m) destination will deliver specialist facilities for London’s private healthcare sector. Currently an underground park, the existing structure will be reused and

Studio RHE is converting a 1.5ac (0.6ha) underground bunker that developer General Projects suggests may once have been occupied by MI5 into a subterranean mixed-use destination. Located in Vauxhall, London, Storybox will provide 58,000sq ft (5,400sq m) of flexible space for creative industries workspaces, as well as occupiers like pod hotels, urban farms, R&D labs and fitness clubs. It has been designed with cultural, educational and research bodies in mind

The New York Philharmonic has unveiled plans for the revamp of David Geffen Hall with Diamond Schmitt and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects (TWBTA) designs aimed at fostering a sense of community and connecting it to the world outside. The $550m (€496m, £418m) project was initially to be led by Heatherwick Studio before those plans were dropped. The new plans will see Diamond Schmitt reconfigure the concert hall, which is

Reef Group are to create a £100m+ (US$128+, €117+) subterranean mixed-use destination with a focus on healthcare and wellbeing in London's historic Cavendish Square. Currently an underground car park, the site below Cavendish Square Gardens will be redeveloped to provide 280,000sq ft (26,000sq m) of space across four storeys. The existing structure will be reused and adapted, with atria, lightwells and a 200m (656ft) pavement light drawing natural light into

Milan's famous footballing rivals – Internazionale Milano and AC Milan – will have to reconsider their joint plans for a new stadium. In September, the clubs announced that two teams of architects – Populous and Manica/Sportium – had been shortlisted to design a new 60,000-seat stadium at the San Siro that they would share. The proposals are based on demolishing the current venue and replacing it with an entirely new

Honoured this year among the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Awards of Excellence in the Innovation in Architecture category, Borden Park Natural Swimming Pool in Edmonton, Alberta, is the first chemical–free public outdoor pool to be built in Canada. The 64,000sq ft (19,500sq m) complex, which includes two pools, a sandy beach and changing rooms, was designed by Toronto-based gh3 architecture. Instead of chlorine or other chemicals for disinfection, Borden

The Langley, A Luxury Collection Hotel in Buckinghamshire, England has opened its doors, following an extensive six-year renovation project. The hotel has been restored and designed in partnership with Dennis Irvine Studio. Built between 1756 and 1760, the main Langley Park House is a grand Palladian mansion situated within iconic Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown-designed gardens. The building has been refurbished to allow historic original features to shine, reflecting the natural setting

The Shimao Wonderland InterContinental (IHG), the world’s first underground hotel, has opened in Songjiang, around 22 miles (35 km) from Shanghai in the Sheshan Mountain Range. Built in a 100m (328ft)-deep abandoned quarry, the hotel, which has been in development for a decade, was designed by Studio JADE+QA and the British architectural firm Atkins. Situated around a manmade lake and amid cascading waterfalls, the 18-storey, 336-guest room structure will be

After transforming a historic Scottish bank building into a bar, architecture studio Jestico + Whiles have unveiled their latest hospitality conversion project: a steak and gin restaurant built within Manchester’s Victorian-era Corn Exchange. Conceived as a hidden speakeasy serving 60 types of gin, Alston Bar & Beef will see diners must enter via a discrete entrance into a modest lobby, which is decorated by a large hand-painted mural created by

A new spa has opened at the historic Grand Hotel la Cloche in Dijon, France. Housed in a Haussman-style building dating from 1884, the 88-bedroom hotel is part of Accor’s M Gallery by Sofitel brand, and has recently been renovated by interior architect Frederic Grosjean. “The unique point of this spa begins with the historical location in Dijon, combined with its intimate atmosphere,” Lindsay Madden-Naddeau, director of well-being for Raffles,

This autumn, the famed Blue Lagoon in Iceland will open a subterranean spa, a 62-bedroom luxury hotel and a restaurant celebrating the country’s culinary heritage, all designed by Reykjavik-based Basalt Architects. Blue Lagoon managing director Dagný Pétursdóttir called this is an “important milestone.” “We are evolving and expanding our horizons,” said Pétursdóttir. “Our foundation is the unique geothermal seawater, our stunning environment, and the commitment of our employees to provide

A BMX and skate park has opened within an old Victorian bathing house beneath the seafront in the British town of Hastings. Source Park is formed of a main park, a plaza and a skating shop in the 1870s White Rock Baths building, which once housed the town’s Turkish Baths and smoking rooms – a popular destination for the country’s first seaside tourists. Since the baths closed, the building has,

Centre Parcs has revealed designs for the new Subtropical Swimming Paradise, which will be part of the new Woburn Forest village in Bedfordshire, set to open in spring 2014. Woburn Forest will have the largest of Centre Parcs' Subtropical Swimming Paradises, with features that include water rapids, a wave pool, toddler pool, family play area, Lazy River and three new water rides; Tornado, Twister and Typhoon. The area will be

ASR Limited, the New Zealand-based company that built the Boscombe surf reef in Dorset, has ceased trading. The liquidation of ASR casts doubts over the future of the site as a surfing attraction - the only artificial surf reef in Europe. Plans for the beleaguered £3.2m reef first surfaced in 1999 when Bournemouth Borough Council gave the green light for a feasibility study to be conducted on the project. Detailed

Dubai-based Al Habtoor Group has revealed plans to create one of the Middle East's most luxurious hotels & entertainment developments. To be located on the Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai, the new 1 million sq ft (92,000sq m) complex will be built opposite Al Safa Park. Plans include the building of three luxury hotels with a combined of capacity of more than 1,600 bedrooms. The cost of the complex is

Plans for a £5m arts venue in Hornsea are now in doubt due to a lack of funding. East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC), which approved the plans in May, has agreed to put up £3m of the fundin but is still awaiting a funding decision from Yorkshire Forward on the remaining £2m. Stephen Parnaby, leader of the council, said: “The council will of course continue to do all it