Los Angeles is to get a new leisure and mixed-use district called Fourth & Central, with masterplanning by LA-based Studio One Eleven. Denver-based developer, Continuum Partners and site owner, LA Cold Storage, have lodged a planning application with the City of Los Angeles for the redevelopment of the land which has been owned by LA Cold Storage for over 50 years.   The downtown gateway site will be reimagined with the

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

In 2020, the Dubai skyline was updated with an 84,300sq m cube-shaped building with a gaping eight-storey-wide void at its centre. One of the late visionary architect Zaha Hadid’s final projects. Named The Opus by Omniyat, the destination is set apart by being the only project where Hadid was responsible for both architecture and interiors, including select pieces from Zaha Hadid Design’s in-house furniture collection. The two-tower building is located

Shrewsbury Flaxmill Maltings, one of the most important buildings of the UK's industrial past, is to be restored and redeveloped as a heritage visitor attraction. Built in 1797, the building is known as the "grandparent of the modern-day skyscraper", due to its pioneering cast iron frame, which was the first of its kind in the world and paved the way for the development of skyscrapers. It operated as a flax

Western Australia's new $400m WA Museum Boola Bardip, in the heart of Perth's Cultural Centre, has officially opened after four years of construction. Charting the rich heritage of Western Australia (WA), the museum houses eight permanent exhibition galleries, a 1,000sq m special exhibition gallery, life-long learning studios and retail, café and public spaces. The Museum has been conceived as a ‘collection of stories’ about WA's diversity, history and contemporary culture.

The International WELL Building Institute (IWBI) has created a task force that will define the role buildings, organisations and communities can play in tackling COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses. The Task Force on Coronavirus will focus on how the places in which we spend our lives can support respiratory wellbeing and be prepared for related health events like the current coronavirus spread. It will draw on insights from experts across

Hotel and hospitality designer Jean-Philippe Nuel has explained that working on older buildings often makes for more interesting results. Speaking to CLAD in an interview, Nuel said: "Paradoxically, historic buildings often result in more creative projects than new builds because the constraints mean certain situations are unavoidable and this allows us to break the usual standards." "I find historic buildings inspiring," he continued. "The project becomes a story that we

Manuelle Gautrand believes architecture should go beyond simply serving a purpose to provoke unexpected emotion. "I always think about the emotions of the people who will use my buildings," she told CLAD in an interview. "The programme of a building is about functionality, but there’s also something which is not written in the programme. It’s about the emotion that you need to have when you’re living or using a building."

Residents have started moving into C.F. Møller Architects ' recently completed Tall Timber Building, which at 8.5 storeys high is said to be the tallest timber building in Sweden. C.F. Møller Architects have been focusing on timber construction in recent years due to the CO2 savings that they can deliver. Not only does the production of timber produce a limited amount of emissions, but carbon is also retained within the

The historic Bradbury Building in Downtown Los Angeles has launched as a NeueHouse co-working destination with a focus on hospitality, socialising and wellness following a DesignAgency transformation. The 25,000sq ft (2,300sq m) building was originally designed by architect Sumner Hunt and was constructed in 1893. In adapting the space, DesignAgency retained many of its original features, like the wrought iron latticework staircases, birdcage elevators, oak-framed windows, wooden panelling, exposed ceiling

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) have designed an office building for Newcastle, UK, that will curve back on itself like a ribbon as it rises and feature a linear park on its roof. Located close to the Sage and the Millennium Bridge, Stereo No. 1 Quayside will cover 10,000sq m (108,000sq ft). The structure will have a slender form of just 13m (43ft) in width and will snack around itself with

Diamond Schmitt Architects, working with KWC Architects, have designed a joint facility for Ottawa Public Library and Library and Archives Canada (OPL-LAC) aimed at creating an inspiring place for gathering, learning and discovery. The CAD$193m (US$146m, €132m, £111m) building is scheduled to open in 2024, will cover 216,000sq ft (20,000sq m) and be split across five floors. It will house shared resources for the organisations including exhibitions and collections space,

Atelier Tao+C have renovated an old building in the Chinese town of Tonglu to create a capsule hotel and library with floating floors, bamboo bookshelves and a fully glazed gable end that provides views of the surrounding forest. The original floors and partition walls were removed from the 232sq m (2,500sq ft) structure and three staggered floating levels installed and linked with zigzagging metal staircases. On two of the levels

Hassell and OMA have completed construction of the New Museum for Western Australia, which houses museum exhibitions, event spaces and public areas in a newly unified group of old and new buildings. Located in Perth, the facility combines four heritage-listed buildings with a newly created volume, tripling the size of the museum. Inside, there are eight new galleries, a 1000sq m (10,800sq ft) special exhibitions gallery, multipurpose spaces for programs,

Civic Architects' LocHal Public Library has won Building of the Year at the World Architecture Festival's (WAF) World Architecture Awards 2019. Designed in partnership with Braaksma & Roos Architectenbureau, Inside Outside, Petra Blaise and Mecanoo Architecten, the building is a new urban living room created in a former locomotive shed. The project is designed to provide a space for people of all ages to read, learn, study, meet and gather.

Occupants of Ballymore 's EG:HQ mixed-use building, designed by Morris+Company, will have access to 18,000sq ft (1,700sq m) of outdoor amenity space, including six purpose-designed private open-air terraces. Situated in the developing Nine Elms area of London and overlooking the River Thames, the building has been designed to meet the demands of modern businesses. John Mulryan, group managing director of Ballymore, said: "The design of the building really considers what

Work has begun on a new James Corner Field Operations (JCFO) -designed park being built on top of the Presidio Parkway highway tunnels in San Francisco. The Presidio Tunnel Tops project will cost $118m (€106m, £91m) and was made possible when the section of highway, which previously divided the Presidio national park, was moved underground. Covering 14ac (7ha), the park will provide a mix of amenities and nature, with input

Chybik + Kristof have created a wine bar and tasting room in a converted 19th-century brewery and its adjacent 1970s technical space by employing two distinct approaches to renovation. House of Wine is located in Znojmo, Czech Republic, and comprises the two spaces with very different heritages. The original brewery building has been treated as a heritage site, with its fabric restored and preserved, but little in the way of

Studio One Eleven are repurposing three former factory buildings in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles to create a new 1.8ac (0.7ha) mixed-use campus that will reanimate a derelict site and recall its heritage. The industrial typology of the local area sees the design for 2110 Bay Street making adaptive reuse of the three structures with the final result to be a mix of old and new. The frame

Elizabeth de Portzamparc has argued that cultural buildings like libraries and museums shouldn't just preserve knowledge and heritage, but should forge social links too by ensuring their accessibility and approachability. De Portzamparc was speaking in the most recent issue of CLADmag following the opening of the Musée de la Romanité earlier this year, which she described as "the most symbolic public facility I’ve ever worked on." Explaining why, she said:

The observation deck on the top floor of the Empire State Building has reopened this week after the third of a US$165m (€148, £128) four-phase redevelopment of the experience at the iconic New York City landmark. The observatory redevelopment was carried out by design consultants Beneville Studios, project managers JLL, elevator company Otis, contractors Skanska and Thinc Design, who designed the wider observatory experience exhibition. Squint/Opera were responsible for the

CLAD has learned that the South Korean government plans to trigger a building boom in the museums and cultural sector, with the construction of 140 new museums and 46 new art galleries by 2023. The policy was announced by the country's Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism. The move is part of a new five-year plan aimed at making Korean art and artefacts more accessible and doubling the proportion of

A team of researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park, have invented a special type of engineered wood that might be able to reduce carbon emissions and reduce cooling costs by 60 per cent. In order to create the material, the scientists soaked basswood in a solution of hydrogen peroxide to strip away its lignin (glue-like polymers that absorb heat and harden plant cells). The wood was then placed

Carlo Ratti Associati have unveiled the first images of VITAE – their winning concept in the Re-Inventing Cities competition. The mixed-use building will have show-stopping biophilic elements, including a 200-metre 'urban vineyard' which weaves up through the building from the ground floor to the roof. The green pathway will be designed to reflect the double-helix structure of DNA to symbolise the "embrace between research and biophilia". The €40m (US$44.6m, £35.4m)

Emirati developer Emaar Properties has announced plans for an AED25bn (US$6.8bn, €6bn, £5.2bn) waterfront leisure district in Dubai. Called "Mina Rashid", the government-backed scheme will see the creation of numerous luxury facilities and properties, including art galleries, villas, a museum, a floating yacht club, a theatre, and the city's largest swimming pool. Sirdhana, the development's on-site residential complex, will comprise an as-yet-undisclosed number of one- to three-bedroom condos, plus a

Frich's Wood Hotel has officially launched inside the recently completed Mjøstarnet building in Brumunddal, Norway. Featuring 72 rooms as well as an exterior garden, a restaurant, a pool, and a bar, the hotel is connected to a range of cycling and walking trails and faces Mjøs, Norway's largest lake. Other elements of the complex include offices and residential facilities. Frich's is part of the 85.4-metre-tall Mjøstarnet property – reportedly the

Work has started on the Xinhu Hangzhou Prism, a polyhedral high-rise taking shape in Hangzhou, an emerging technological hub in China's Zhejiang province. Designed by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), the 52,000 sq m building will feature a concave pixel-like facade and comprise residential facilities, a hotel, retail units, and an atrium garden with a playground. According to OMA, the tower's skyward pinnacle will serve as an emblematic representation