Work is underway in the London Borough of Ealing on a landmark leisure centre to replace the old Gurnell Leisure Centre, which remained closed after COVID. The modern complex will include London’s third Olympic-sized swimming pool, a waterpark with slides, fitness studios, a climbing wall, a soft play area and a café. Outside will be a new skatepark, BMX track and children’s playground. Green space around the new leisure centre

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

Work could soon begin on what has been described as one of the first developments of its kind in the world. The £200m Llanelli Wellness and Life Science Village, planned for the Carmarthenshire coast, is set to include a wellness hotel, sports and wellbeing centre, wellness spa and primary care centre. An outline planning application for the project will be assessed by mid-November, with preparatory works on site at Delta

English Premier League football club Crystal Palace has been given the green light to build an “iconic” new Main Stand at its Selhurst Park home, after Croydon Council resolved to grant permission for the project designed to redevelop the stadium for the modern era. Sports architects KSS are overseeing the project, with their design vision first revealed in December last year. They are working with the club to increase the

New details have been announced for the entertainment arena being developed in Swansea as part of a £1.3bn leisure investment designed to reinvigorate the Welsh city centre's cultural scene. Swansea City and County Council has announced the signing of a deal with live entertainment company the Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG) to operate Swansea Arena, construction of which will begin this year. Architecture practice ACME is designing the 8,825sq m (95,000sq

Atlantic Wharf in Cardiff has been selected as the preferred site for a new 15,000-seat indoor arena. The planned £110m (US$155m, €124m) venue – which would be capable of hosting sports, cultural, and entertainment events – is now set to be built across two sites in Atlantic Wharf close to the Red Dragon Centre in Cardiff Bay. Cardiff Council, which is driving the project, has identified a large indoor venue

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London has made an unusual acquisition – a section of a former council estate that’s set to be demolished. The piece of the building that the museum has acquired consists of a three-storey maisonette flat, its exterior walkway and sections of concrete stairway, which was part of Robin Hood Gardens in Poplar, East London. It’s being taken apart and will be delivered to

The city council of Australia’s Gold Coast has fast-tracked the building a AU$60.5m (US$48.1m, €40.3m) art gallery to add to its fast-developing cultural precinct. Designed by ARM Architecture, the colourful, twisting gallery is expected to be built to the south of the city’s Evandale Lake. The building will feature up to five floors of exhibits and halls and a rooftop bar. According to the Gold Coast Bulletin, work is likely

A British heritage charity has warned that council planning committees are too easily seduced by glitzy computer-generated images of buildings they’re tasked with approving or rejecting. According to the Telegraph newspaper, Marcus Binney of Save Britain's Heritage argued that such images rarely show the reality of how the building will appear and be used in reality. "[Developers] lavish large amounts of money on producing these images, and they're very persuasive,”

Developers around the world are increasingly looking to the skies, with more buildings over 200m (656ft) completed in 2016 than in any other year. In its review of the year, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) has determined that 128 buildings of 200m height or greater were completed around the world – a marking the third year running the record has been broken. The figure represents a

Premier League football club Chelsea has seen its application to build a new £500m (US$614.6m, €585.3m) stadium approved by the local council. The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham have give the green light to the structure, which will be built on the site of the club’s current Stamford Bridge ground. Herzog & de Meuron – the architect behind the innovative Nouveau Stade de Bordeaux, which was used for Euro

Moreau Kusunoki, the architecture studio behind the failed attempt to bring the Guggenheim art museum to Helsinki, have expressed their “disappointment” at the council’s decision to block the project. However, the philosophical founders of the Paris-based practice, Nicolas Moreau and Hiroko Kusunoki, told CLAD that the process of designing the project as an “extraordinary adventure” despite the result of the council’s vote, which was recorded as 53 to 32 against.

Residents of Scottish capital city Edinburgh are being asked to have their say on an ambitious rebuild of the existing Meadowbank Stadium and Sport Centre. The City of Edinburgh Council will submit a planning application early next year for the redevelopment, which is expected to cost in the region of £40m (US$50.5m, €46.4m) and is being designed by Glasgow architects Holmes Miller. Among the proposals for the complex are: an

A £5m (US$6.5m, €5.8m) proposal to reopen Turkish baths in Newcastle, UK, has moved a step closer with the council approving planning permission. Charity Fusion Lifestyle is behind the project, which will see the baths and pool re-established in the north-east city by 2018. The venue will be kitted out with new health and wellbeing facilities, a spa and bistro cafe. Work is expected to begin in early 2017 to

The body in charge of organising Tokyo’s Olympic Games has admitted its decision to cancel Zaha Hadid Architects’ (ZHA) National Olympic Stadium design in favour of a cheaper alternative has already cost it ¥68.6bn (US$650.6m, €582.4m, £497m) in compensation payouts. According to media reports in the country, the Japan Sports Council (JSC) announced it has already earmarked the sum – ¥600m US$5.8m, €5.2m, £4.4m) higher than the amount estimated by

Planning approval for a “game-changing” £37m (US$49m, €43.7m) water park has been granted by Coventry City Council. The FaulknerBrowns-designed facility – which is located in the city’s town centre, and was funded by both private and public investment – is expected to open its doors in 2018. As well as flume rides the water park contains toddler areas, leisure water and lane swimming. Most of the water features and high

The move to bring a second Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise to Los Angeles has made significant progress after the city council green lit plans for a US$250m (£173.1m, €219.6m) stadium complex for Los Angeles FC. LA City Council “unanimously approved” a final Environmental Impact Report for the development, which will include a 22,000-capacity stadium, restaurants, office space, a conference centre and a football museum. The local office of architectural

Stockholm City Council has approved David Chipperfield’s controversial design for a permanent home and museum for the Nobel Foundation. Under the proposals, a 25,000sq m (269,000sq ft) golden, cuboid facility will be constructed to house nearly all the foundation’s activities, including the Nobel prize ceremony, and to stimulate ideas and knowledge through a museum. However, the new headquarters will be located in an inner-city Blasieholmen district surrounded by many of

Italian Serie B football club Cagliari has been given the green light to build a new 21,000-capacity stadium, designed by Polish architectural studio JSK Architekci. Yesterday (6 April), Cagliari City Council approved the declaration of public interest for the proposal which will see a new ground constructed in the Sardinian city by 2019. The club is ploughing €55m (£44.5m, US$62.6m) into the project and is hoping to sell the stadium’s

Real Madrid’s plan to redevelop its Santiago Bernabeu stadium has encountered a new setback after the city council rejected it in the interest of the public. The €440m (US$477.9m, £320.7m) development proposal – which includes the installation of a retractable roof, increasing the capacity to 90,000 and building a hotel, shopping centre and underground car park – will only be accepted if the council believes the interest of local citizens

Thomas Heatherwick and Joanna Lumley’s controversial Garden Bridge over London’s River Thames has won planning permission from Westminster Council. Planning permission for the £175m (US$294m, €216m) bridge was granted yesterday (2 December) at Westminster City Hall in a packed meeting attended by more than 120 people. The Garden Bridge plan will connect the South Bank and Temple areas of London. Westminster Council is the second body to grant planning permission

A pipe dream of turning a former opencast coal site in Kelty, Scotland, into an iconic landscaped art project headed up by Charles Jencks, has been scrapped. The multi-million pound scheme, the ‘Fife Earth Project’, would have seen the former mining site transformed into a major tourist attraction explaining Scottish history and diaspora. Four different landscaped mounds across the 665 acre park would have been used to represent the continents

London’s controversial Garden Bridge, designed by Thomas Heatherwick and Dan Pearson, has been given the green light by Lambeth Council. Lord Mervyn Davies, chair of the Garden Bridge Trust, said: “This is a great day for the Garden Bridge. The decision by Lambeth council has helped further drive the momentum behind this iconic project, taking us ever closer to reaching our goal.” The £175m (US$294m, €216m) bridge, which will cross

A number of leisure opportunities could be up for grabs after Glasgow City Council revealed that 93 separate areas of land around the Buchanan Galleries shopping district may have to be compulsorily purchased as part of a planned expansion. The list of compulsory purchase orders is now due to be sent to Scottish Ministers for approval, with the council stating that it requires the land to push ahead with significant

Aberdeen City Council is looking for construction firms to carry out a £30m (US$50.9m, €37.8m) revamp of the Scottish city’s art gallery. The local authority’s approved plans include the construction of a new rooftop gallery and the extension of the gallery’s iconic war memorial. “It's great to see the next step towards expanding the Art Gallery has been taken,” said council chair Dustin Macdonald in a statement. The council has

Council bosses have agreed to sell land to a shopping centre in Stoke to facilitate a £20m expansion leisure project. Despite blocking a similar deal 18 months ago, Stoke-on-Trent City Council plans to sell off 537sq m (5,780sq ft) of land at Quadrant Road to intu Potteries for a fee of £180,000. The 60,000sq ft expansion – called The Hive – will feature five restaurants and a Cineworld multiplex, but

Torbay council and Torbay Development Agency granted planning permission for a £90m luxury resort and flats development on the site of the existing Torquay Palace Hotel in Torbay in March. Mapstone Developments are consulting GJR Architects to create the 137 apartments – a mix of flats and duplex units – with 270 parking spaces, private spa and leisure facilities. Divided into four blocks of flats in a gated, concierge-serviced community