HOK and ERRE have designed a €220m (US$243m, £188m) arena for Valencia that will be used for music, arts, culture and sporting events. Designed for the client Licampa 1617, the facility will house a 1,200sq m (12,900sq ft) multipurpose room, a 1,300-capacity underground and multistorey car park and the headquarters for the men and women’s Valencia Basket Club. The arena will seat up to 15,600 people or accommodate up to

A new €6m (US$6.7m, £5.4m) community sports centre is being built in the Hauts-de-Bry in the commune of Bry-sur-Marne on the eastern suburbs of Paris. The centre – designed by Atelier Ferret Architectures – will provide 3,200sq m of space for a number of indoor sports, with facilities including a large, multi-use sports hall, a table tennis area and a large climbing wall. It will be able to host regional

LICAMPA 1617, an enterprise led by Spanish billionaire entrepreneur Juan Roig, has revealed plans to develop a multi-use indoor sports arena in Valencia, Spain. The company is looking to create the region's premier destination for sports, music, arts, and cultural events and has appointed sports architects HOK to design the arena. The main tenant of the arena will be Valencia Basket, a professional basketball team – sponsored by Roig –

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

A star-studded line-up of architects, designers and urbanists has been announced for the World Architecture Festival 2017 (WAF), which is taking place in Berlin from 15-17 November. Rafael Viñoly, Pierre de Meuron, Alison Brooks, Sir Peter Cook and WOHA founders Richard Hassell and Wong Mun Summ will all take to the stage to deliver seminar talks on topics related to this year’s festival theme, ‘Performance’. WAF is the only global

Hospitality group Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts has opened a “soon-to-be-iconic” hotel at the gateway to Beverly Hills, with interiors designed by the studio of architect and designer Pierre-Yves Rochon (PYR). The 12-storey Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills features 170 guestrooms and suites, designed by PYR to interpret Hollywood glamour and the Streamline Moderne style of the 1930s and 40s. Design features range from a triple-height lobby with a contemporary Art

Los Angeles FC, the Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise co-owned by Hollywood actor Will Ferrell, has unveiled plans to spend US$30m (£23.5m, €26.8m) on a new training facility. The facility will be built on the campus of California State University, and will be the third most expensive in MLS history following the US$60m (£46.9m, €53.6m) investments made my Atlanta United and Real Salt Lake in their respective training centres. Designed

Chinese architecture and design studio Coordination Asia have completed a series of sci-fi tinged pop-up running hubs for sports giant Nike at Shanghai’s Times Square. Created for the Nike+ Run Club – a community which brings people together to explore their cities through running – the hexagonal structures house treadmills in pod-like sections, intended to create a kaleidoscopic interior. LED strips of light on the floor and ceiling build up

The British Film Institute (BFI) has confirmed Thailand’s PACE Development Corporation is its preferred bidder to fund its planned International Centre for Film, TV and the Moving Image on London’s South Bank. A BFI representative told CLAD the organisation is “now in contract negotiations” with the developer, which impressed “following a procurement process for process to test the market for investors.” The institute wants to create a flagship national home

The St Pierre Park Hotel, Spa and Golf Resort on the Channel Island of Guernsey has redeveloped its spa and fitness centre to the tune of £2.5m (US$3.2m, €2.9m). Owned, operated and designed by Hand Picked Hotels – which bought the property last year – the spa includes a new indoor pool and wet area with mood LED lighting, an infinity wall, and floor-to-ceiling windows. A two-tier volcanic stone sauna

A vase-inspired mixed-use tower designed by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) in Melbourne will be referred to Victoria’s planning minister for approval due to the size of the scheme and a conflict of interest among members of the city’s planning advisory committee. The 54-storey tower, which would be located at 582-606 Collins Street, has been designed as a series of four stacked vase-inspired volumes, with a sculptural, mesh-like façade. It will

Sentierre, a new US-based hotel brand with a focus on wellbeing, will include a full-service spa created by Sylvia Sepielli in its first resort, Sentierre Padre Canyon in Utah, US. CEO and founder of Sentierre Stan Castleton said he created Sentierre as a new kind of five-star resort experience. “Sentierre transcends traditional terms such as hotel by offering guests an experience that can be introspective, interactive and invigorating,” said Castleton.

The US$200m (€184m, £128m) Estadio BBVA Bancomer, touted as the most hospitality-driven soccer stadium in Latin America, has opened in Monterrey, Mexico. Designed by sports architects Populous, the 51,000-capacity stadium will be the new home of Club de Fútbol Monterrey (CF Monterrey). What makes the stadium unique in the region is the emphasis on creating a premium fan experience. The stadium boasts 324 luxury suites – more than any other

Geraint John, an established senior advisor at Populous, is today (28 November) being awarded the Pierre de Coubertin medal for outstanding services to the Olympic Movement. Populous is a global sports design and architecture practice and has worked on several Olympic projects including Sydney 2000, London 2012 and Sochi 2014. John is the first architect, and indeed Briton, to ever receive the Pierre de Coubertin medal. Named in honour of

Construction firm Willmott Dixon are working with South Tyneside Council in the early development stages of a new £11m leisure centre in Hebburn. The new centre is being developed by the council and forms part of a masterplan to regenerate the town centre. The leisure hub will comprise a 25m, six-lane swimming pool as well as a learner pool, sports hall, dance studio, library and customer service facilities. Construction on

Essex construction firm Mulalley has been confirmed as the preferred contractor for the new Atherton Leisure Centre, Stratford, UK. Newham Council is investing £14.7m in the centre, which will include swimming pools, a gym, crèche facilities, disabled facilities, and possibly some housing. It will replace the existing leisure centre, which was found to contain significant amounts of asbestos and closed its doors for the last time on 31 December. Construction

Image: Oasis Leisure Centre will receive a revamp Swindon's Oasis Leisure Centre has been transferred to a private operator in the next phase of a £65m scheme to develop a major new "regional leisure hub" for the Wiltshire town. Oasis Operations Ltd has taken control of the facility under an agreement between Swindon Borough Council (SBC) and Moirai Capital Investments announced earlier this year. Leisure specialists S&P Architects are involved

K2 Architects have been revealed as the preferred firm to design the building, finishes and features of a Watersports Hotspot on Colwyn Bay promenade. A design competition for the scheme - part of the Colwyn Bay Waterfront Project - saw a total of six firms shortlisted and put on public display. The top two submissions were identified following the evaluation process before being put before Conwy Council's cabinet, which backed

Local residents in Corby, Northamptonshire, have selected their preferred design for a new six-screen cinema to be developed in the town. Corby Borough Council (CBC) confirmed that the third of four NBDA Architects-designed proposals put forward by Mulberry Developments polled highest in a public vote. Nearly 700 people took part in the consultation, with Option C - a curved, oval shape design - identified as the preferred choice. CBC willl

Plans to establish a new 495-bedroom 'pod' hotel at the Trocadero in London as part of an overhaul of the Grade II-listed property have been deferred by Westminster City Council. According to Criterion Capital's proposals, the hotel is likely to be operated by French company Accor and will occupy part of the second to seventh floors in the building, offering en-suite rooms with an average size of 12 to 17sq

Imperial War Museum North (IWMN) in Manchester has selected German architects Topotek 1 as the preferred design team to develop the external spaces of the museum. According to Jim Forrester, IWMN director, Topotek's scheme was chosen due to the fact that it best addressed a complex brief and complemented the Daniel Libeskind-designed building. Topotek's design includes "contemplation zones", a new quayside walkway with access across the water frontage; a landscaped