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,

An AV experience project, which turned the Sydney Opera House's famous 'sails' into huge video screens, has won the Experience Design category in Fast Company's 2023 Innovation by Design Awards. Created by Australia-based Art Processors, the From the Sails: Light Years project included an original film artwork projected onto the Sydney Opera House's western sails to mark the iconic landmark's 50th-year celebrations. The 17-minute film charts the building's history and

1 Hotels, the eco-luxury brand and brainchild of Starwood Capital founder Barry Sternlicht, has opened its debut European property in the heart of the UK capital with design by GA Group. 1 Hotel Mayfair has been designed to set a new benchmark for lower-impact luxury in London and adhere to 1 Hotels’ sustainability-minded philosophy that “those that travel the world should also care about it”. The London location is gearing

Calilo, a luxury boutique resort on the Greek island of Ios, has a new spa and fitness centre. The hotel has a philosophy based on sustainability, art and intentional design. Inspired by the naturally calming energy of water, the spa includes six new treatment rooms that feature waterfalls and treatment beds suspended above pools of water to deliver a calming experience for guests. The ceilings are partially perforated to allow

London has a new double Olympic skating centre following a £30m investment by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority. The aim is to encourage physical activity and community within the local population. In addition to the rinks, it has a large gym and a dance studio, as well as community spaces and a café. Designed by architects FaulkerBrowns, The Lee Valley Ice Centre will open on Saturday 17 June, with

Luxury jewellery and design house Tiffany & Co. has reopened its flagship store on 57th Street and Fifth Avenue in New York City, following a redesign led by architect Peter Marino and OMA New York. The project marks the first renovation of the store since it first opened its doors in 1940 and has been named The Landmark. For the redevelopment, Marino reimagined the interior architecture while OMA New York,

A £186m cultural centre, set to transform the arts and music scene globally, will open its doors in June this year. Factory International, based in Manchester UK, but with a global outreach, is the largest investment in a national cultural project in the UK since the opening of London's Tate Modern in 2000. The centre will house 13,350sq m of flexible floor area, utilising supersized moveable walls that can be

Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (WBD Sports) and metaverse services provider Infinite Reality have entered into a multi-year agreement that will deliver new immersive and interactive metaverse experiences to sports fans. The scope of what’s on offer – described as “new avenues for sports communities, athletes and brands to interact with each other within unique virtual environments” – can be experienced and previewed for the first time at the UCI Track

Culturespaces has announced that its new digital art centre, Fabrique des Lumières, will open in Amsterdam on 22 April 2022. Located in the historic former gas plant of Westergasfabriek – built in 1885 by the Imperial Continental Gas Association – the cultural attraction will use "cutting-edge technology" to create immersive exhibitions devoted to some of the most celebrated figures in art history. The venue has a total surface area of

Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas has launched its brand new desert retreat called Six Senses Shaharut in Israel. With its secluded setting laid into a dramatic cliff with panoramic views of the Negev Desert, the resort is home to a 1,900sq m spa realised by Tel Aviv-based Plesner Architects. The facility is designed to offer a contemporary interpretation of nomadic structures, reminiscent of the Nabataean community which occupied the area

Football's world governing body FIFA has filed a criminal complaint over what it describes as "criminal mismanagement" of the World Football Museum project in Zurich. The project was first announced by disgraced former FIFA president Sepp Blatter in 2012 and the attraction opened its doors in February 2017 at a cost of around CHF500m (€459m, £415m). The 3,000sq m (32,300sq ft) museum is part of a larger development which includes

Mexican design firm, Aidia Studio, has unveiled plans for a complex of 25 luxury hotel pods with collapsible shells, located in the Rub’ al Khali Desert in Abu Dhabi. Called the Oculus, the pod consists of a double-glazed dome encasing a luxury hotel room, which is shrouded by a collapsible shell for shading, temperature control, camouflage and privacy. The outer shell is made up of 60 shading panels which create

Details have been revealed for what is being described as the world's most radical and environmentally-friendly furniture factory and visitor centre. Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) for Vestre, the 6,500sq m factory – called The Plus – is in Magnor, Norway. It will be a "global showcase for sustainability" and highly-efficient manufacturing. As well as a fully functional factory, The Plus will include a visitor centre and a 300-acre

Cooper Robertson are transforming the historic Farmington Country Club in Charlottesville, Virginia, to make it more inclusive for women, children, families and younger generations. The buildings at Farmington date back to the 1760s, with the east wing of its clubhouse building having been designed by Thomas Jefferson and the club itself having been established in 1927. As Cooper Robertson has pointed out, though, "While private-membership clubs [in the US] remain

FAAB Architektura have designed a conceptual eco-building for Saudi Arabia aimed at changing the environment around it. The Vertical Oasis Building would feature 59 above- and below-ground levels spread across a height of 220m (722ft). A mixed-use programme would include retail, office, hotel and residential spaces, as well as a 712sq m (7,700sq ft) rooftop park. The main feature of the tower's design, though, is a permeable façade broken up

The English National Ballet (ENB) has moved into a new £27m ($33m, €30m) home in London designed by Glenn Howells Architects (GHA). The 93,000sq ft (8,600sq m) building combines a number of previously separate ENB campuses into what it calls "a multi-faceted 'dance factory'". The ground floor is conceived to be a gathering and circulation space, with a public café and an exhibition area. Seven full-sized rehearsal studios include a

The Central Coast Aquarium (CCA) in Morro Bay, California, could reopen with a contemporary and light-filled glazed building designed by RRM Design Group. The aquarium closed to the public in 2018, but proposals as part of a feasibility study suggest transforming the existing facility into a new 16,000sq ft (1,500sq m) aquarium. Concept drawings outline a multi-level building with full-height glazing in places, balconies and outdoor spaces. The new facility

​ 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

Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara have been named the 47th and 48th laureates of the Pritzker Prize – the first female pair to be so and the first two recipients from Ireland. Farrell and McNamara set up their Dublin-based practice Grafton Architects in 1978 and are described as creating "modern and impactful works that never repeat or imitate, but are decidedly of their own architectural voice." "What we try to

Six Senses has confirmed its desert resort and spa in the Arava Valley, Israel, designed by Plesner Architects, will open in June after ten years of design and planning. Located in the Negev Desert, Six Senses Shaharut will be a modern reinterpretation of nomadic structures, reminiscent of the Nabataean community which occupied the area over 2,000 years ago. The resort’s design preserves the unique characteristics of the site, integrating with

The recently opened, Klai Juba Wald -designed Guitar Hotel at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino has a new string to itself following the launch of a new J-Lo-themed music and light show on its LED façade. The Hollywood hotel opened in October 2019 as part of a $1.5b (€1.4b, £1.2b) expansion of the Seminole resort and is claimed – probably not unreasonable – to be the world’s first

Retail designers Brinkworth have designed a new store in San Francisco for fashion brand Supreme, with a floating skate bowl that reflects the brand's skate culture roots. The store itself covers 2,800sq ft (260sq m) and was renovated having been in a state of dilapidation. The design for the space is sparse, with exposed brick and exposed steel framework throughout, while a large glazed frontage allows passersby to see inside.

Studio Ramoprimo have created a store for fashion retailer TGY conceived to go beyond just selling clothes and be a hub for fashion lovers, events and exhibitions. The venue in Shenyang, China, is aimed at inspiring people to talk about lifestyle, creatives to organise industry functions and photographers to host shoots. Covering 600sq m (6,600sq ft), it combines a curated shop, a flexible event area, a temporary exhibition space where

Wafai Architecture have designed a sustainably constructed house that is inspired by the shape of a seashell and is aimed at helping residents live close to nature. The Seashell House, the first project for which is currently in discussion, is reminiscent of a junonia shell in terms of its folded shape and its patternation. The single-storey structure's compact 240sq m (2,600sq ft) footprint means a limited impact on a site

X+Living have created a kids' activity centre in Shenzhen, China, that combines a mix of slides, ball-pits and hidden spaces with fantastical design elements and a pastels aesthetic. Shenzhen Neobio Family Park is the most recent of a number of Neobio Family Parks that X+Living has worked on. Covering 6,000sq m (64,600sq ft), it houses the play space, an entrance lobby, a changing area and a restaurant. Located partly in

A sports centre in Barcelona, designed by Anna Noguera and Javier Fernandez, has won awards for its sustainable and innovative design, which includes a greenery-covered façade, swathes of glazing and timber interiors. Barcelona City Council appointed Noguera and Fernandez after they won an architectural competition it ran in 2014. The competition briefed for the creation of a sports centre in the Turó de la Peira area of Barcelona, in which

The 1920s-built Lensbury private members club, which also now incorporates a hotel, conference centre and a leisure centre, has reopened following the refurbishment of its leisure facilities by Zynk. The club is set within 25ac (10ha) of landscaped grounds in Teddington, London, and celebrates its centenary next year. Work has included the redesign of facilities including the holistic studio, group cycling studio, gym floor and Hi-Energy / HIIT studio. The