Global hotel brand Sofitel has partnered with researchers at Paris City University to gain deeper insights into how people sleep when staying away from home. Sleep, a crucial pillar of health and wellbeing, has become a top priority for wellness-focused consumers, with the Global Wellness Institute reporting that the sleep market contributes US$77.3 billion to the US$5.6 trillion global wellness economy. Compared to previous years, consumers now have access to

Rural Scottish retreat Murrayshall Country Estate has received the green light for its £30 million (US$38 million, €34.8 million) masterplan. The proposal includes plans for an extension to the 40-key four-star hotel in Scone, Perthshire, as well as the addition of a new spa and leisure facility with treatment rooms, a spa pool, spa cafe, gym and studio, a leisure pool and outdoor spa terrace. Proposed updates also include a

The Eden Project has revealed new visuals for its planned Dundee project in the city’s East Docks, with architecture by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios. The images show plans for an attraction which has been inspired by the Nine Incorporated Trades of Dundee – a group formed in the 16th century to bring professions from bakers to tailors into a single organisation with more bargaining power. Eden Project Dundee will be themed

The MSG Sphere, a controversial auditorium and music globe designed by Populous, has been given full planning permission by the London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC). If built, the Sphere would tower 90m above Stratford, London, and in addition to the auditorium, would include a nightclub, bars, restaurants, cafés, shops and parking. The sphere would boast the “largest and highest resolution LED screen in the world” – in the form of

Maslina Resort has opened on the Croatian island of Hvar, inspired by local healing traditions and nature. Croatian architect Tomislav Alujevic, interior designer Léonie Alma Mason and landscaper Thomas Seconde were responsible for the project, working with Melany Martinez Thomas, founder of consultancy, Spa and Wellness Collective on the spa. Located near Stari Grad, the 53-key resort is surrounded by olive groves and terraced vineyards, stretching across two hectares of

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

Chelsea Football Club has allowed the planning permission for its new Herzog & de Meuron -designed stadium to lapse, keeping the project on hold until "economic conditions improve". The English Premier League received planning permission in 2017 to build a 60,000-seat venue at the site of its current Stamford Bridge stadium. But the club announced a year later that it had put the project on hold due to the "unfavourable

Urban Prairie Architectural Collaborative (UPAC) have converted a large brick-built warehouse in Kansas City, Missouri, into a bouldering gym with a variety of other fitness facilities. Sequence Climb was the result of a two-year search across the US for the right building by founders Graham and Dara Hess. The 20,000sq ft (1,900sq m) warehouse that they settled on not only provides ample room, but also features a barrel roof under

The highest outdoor observation deck in the western hemisphere, designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF), has opened at Hudson Yards in New York after nearly two years of construction. Edge takes the form of a triangular platform that extends 80ft (24m) out from the 100th floor of 30 Hudson Yards at a height of 1,131ft (345m). William Pedersen, founding and design principal at KPF, explained that it has been designed

Four Seasons has announced it will open a property at the World Trade Center in New Orleans in late 2020 that will offer panoramic views of both the city and the Mississippi River. Owned by Two Canal Owner and developed by Carpenter and Company and Woodward Interests, Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences New Orleans will be situated in the downtown area of the city. The 341-room hotel will feature

The highly-anticipated St. Louis Aquarium, designed by PGAV Destinations, has opened its doors at the city's Union Station, a former train station and National Historic Landmark that has been converted to become a mixed-use entertainment destination. Among Union Station's features are its Grand Hall, which features original terrazzo flooring, green-glazed terracotta bricks and stained glass windows, and the St. Louis Union Station Hotel, which still offers some of the station's

Laboratory for Visionary Architecture (LAVA) has collaborated with agricultural collective Cityplot to design a lifelong learning centre in Germany that uses social, spatial and leisure elements to optimise the learning process. Life Hamburg will be a 12,000sq m (129,000sq ft) figure-of-eight-shaped building that is aimed at reinventing learning for 800 children and 800 adults. The centre's design is based on the purpose-inspired and personal learning educational principles of Learnlife and

London-based interior design firm Studio Duncalf has designed a new Alchemist restaurant in a former industrial warehouse that previously housed boat-building and set design workshops in Copenhagen, Denmark. Studio Duncalf split the 2,500sq m (27,000sq ft) warehouse into a number of different rooms, with the aim of "taking the diner on a journey through a sequence of different spaces each with a different ambience." Guests enter the restaurant through a

The Mississippi Aquarium has announced an opening date of 30 April 2020. Designed by Eley Guild Hardy, it will be one of the largest aquariums in the US. Currently under construction in Gulfport, Mississippi, the US$93m (€85m, £75.7m) project will sit on a 5.8-acre (23,500sq m, 253,000sq ft) beachfront site. There will be 80,000sq ft (24,380sq m) of exhibits in total, connected by landscaped walkways with plantings representing all seven

Sports stadium and events venue experts Populous have unveiled designs for the largest video gaming and esports complex in the Southern Hemisphere. Covering 2,700sq m (29,100sq ft), spread across two floors and with a capacity for over 1,000 people, Fortress Melbourne will house a purpose-built arena with a retractable 200-seat grandstand, a professional boot camp room and training facilities, dedicated areas for LAN, RPG and tabletop gaming, two bars and

Neath Port Talbot council has greenlit plans for the Afan Valley Adventure Resort – a highly anticipated leisure destination set to rise on a 325-acre former forestry plantation in South Wales. The new attraction, which is being overseen by Peter Moore OBE – of Center Parcs fame – will comprise 600 trail lodges, a 100-room spa hotel, restaurants, and a plethora of sports and recreational facilities, including a survival academy

Marriott International’s W Hotels has opened the W Costa Rica – Reserva Conchal, the first W Hotel in the country, which also includes the first full-service bar located inside an Away Spa. Located within a 2,300-acre nature reserve near an internationally-renowned surf spot, the W Costa Rica includes 150 bedrooms, all designed with the beauty of the natural area – including the nearby beach and jungle – in mind. The

Cox Architecture have been selected to design a new stadium at Moore Park in Sydney, Australia. Set to replace the Allianz stadium, which was built in 1988 by the firm’s principal, Philip Cox, the arena is planned to be a 45,000-seat "civic infrastructure" that will provide extensive amenities and services to "multiple specialist and public groups". Cox’s design director, Pete Sullivan said the new building would "provide a superior platform

Developer Tishman Speyer and architects DSDHA have completed the first phase renovation of famous Alison and Peter Smithson’s Economist Building and Plaza on London’s St James’s Street. The Brutalist Grade II*-listed complex, completed in 1964, was originally commissioned by the Economist magazine, which had its offices there for more than half a century. The buildings are now being upgraded, with new public amenities added. As part of the first phase,

The specialisation of the architectural profession has brought us to a point where interior design and architecture are cut off from one another, and this is a huge mistake, Neri & Hu co-founder Rossana Hu has argued. In an interview with CLADmag, Hu said: “As architects, we’re often asked why we’d want to work on interior projects, and we sometimes find ourselves apologetic about doing so. "But interior projects carried

The new home for Brazil’s 50-year-old Museum of Image and Sound (MIS) is entering the final stages of its development, with the Diller Scofidio + Renfro-designed (DS+R) building taking shape on Rio’s beachfront. Opened in 1965, MIS offers a vast archive of photographs, film, documents and sound recordings reflecting the cultural history of Rio. In 2009, DS+F were selected from a number of world-class architects, beating the likes of Daniel

Architects Cullinan Studio and multidisciplinary firm Arup have received planning permission for the UK’s longest aerial walkway: a 400m-long (1,312ft) ribbon “floating through the treetops” of the Conkers visitor attraction in Leicestershire. The sinuous attraction – composed of a galvanised steel structure – narrows and widens at different points, creating passing places and observation points overlooking the forest below. Three timber-clad treehouses, or eyries, feature along the walkway, providing event

The Chinese mainland has its first Hard Rock Hotel, complete with a huge vinyl mosaic, hundreds of red guitars hanging from the walls and a golden dragon made from drumsticks and 1,680 cymbals. Hong Kong practice CL3 Architects, led by William Lim, were commissioned by developer Mission Hill Properties to design the Hard Rock Hotel Shenzhen, combining the brand’s trademark references to rock and roll with local design flourishes. Vibrant

The government of Dubai has announced plans for the development of a vast 'space simulation development' in Dubai called Mars Science City, as part of Dubai's Mars 2117 Strategy, which seeks to build the first settlement on Mars in the next 100 years. The AED 500 million-scheme, extending over 1.9m sq ft, will simulate conditions on the surface of the red planet, with heat and radiation insulation and walls which

Plans to develop a second zoo in Sydney, Australia, have been given the go-ahead after local government officials granted planning permission to the AU$36m (US$28.8m, €24m, £21.3m) “cage free” project in Bungarribee. First touted in September 2015, the proposal for the Western Sydney Parklands – masterplanned by Australian design firm Misho + Associates (M+A) in conjunction with landscape architecture from Aspect Studios – will create natural-looking spaces developed to showcase

The performing arts centre under construction at the heart of the World Trade Center campus in New York will be one of the most innovative of its kind ever built, the project’s lead architect has told CLADglobal. Speaking in an exclusive interview, Joshua Prince-Ramus said that the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center would become "a really extraordinary tool for the creation of new art,” adding that his firm Rex

The International Garden Festival has begun in Quebec’s Redford Gardens, with six award-winning garden installations open to the public for the first time. The projects – which were chosen ahead of 156 rival submissions in a special competition to be included in the 18th edition of the festival – are displayed alongside a number of other commissioned gardens created by more than 70 architects and landscape designers from various disciplines.