Middle East operator, Gymnation, has opened its largest club to date in Riyadh's Qurtubah district, offering male and female facilities. The 77,000 square foot club offers Saudi Arabia’s biggest ladies-only reformer Pilates studio, as well as a private reformer Pilates room; an outdoor roof terrace for fitness and social events; the region’s largest free weights area; a recovery zone with saunas, ice baths, and treatment rooms; a dedicated Glute Training

BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group has completed the 1,200sq m Jinji Lake Pavilion in Suzhou, China. Situated on the Jinji waterfront, the pavilion offers a space for public gatherings and hospitality and is one of the eleven permanent pavilions developed as part of the City’s initiative to create a vibrant and welcoming promenade. Designed by BIG and Arts Group, the new Jinji Lake Pavilion merges the traditional Chinese courtyard typology

Designed by BIG in collaboration with ALB-Architect, the Opera & Ballet Theatre of Kosovo will house four performance halls and a new public plaza in the capital of Prishtina. As the first opera house in the Republic of Kosovo, the theatre symbolises the country’s rich and diverse cultural heritage while reflecting a new identity for Prishtina rooted in creativity and a commitment to the country’s artistic growth. Commissioned by Kosovo’s

The King of Bhutan has announced plans for a new economic hub immersed in nature and designed by architecture firms Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), Arup, and Cistri. Referred to as the Mindfulness City, the masterplan for the future Gelephu Special Administration Region (SAR) is informed by Bhutanese culture and its strong spiritual heritage, as well as the country's Gross National Happiness (GNH)* index. The goal is for the SAR to

Detailed plans have been revealed for the National Juneteenth Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, US. Designed by architects Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), the 50,000sq ft visitor attraction will anchor a larger mixed-use development on the Historic Southside of Fort Worth. It will explore the events of June 19, 1865, when Union General Gordon Granger issued Order No. 3, in essence declaring that “all slaves are free” in the state of

A team of architects led by BIG and HOK have won an international competition to design the largest dock of Zurich Airport in Switzerland. Composed predominantly of regional wood, The new Dock A and adjacent buildings seek to strengthen the airport’s continued status as the gateway of Switzerland. Bjarke Ingels, BIG founder and creative director, said: “As airports grow and evolve and as international guidelines and safety requirements change, airports

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) have been selected as the architect for the Vltava Philharmonic Hall in Prague, Czech Republic. The first national concert hall to be built in the country in 100 years, the venue will be the home of the famous Prague Symphony Orchestra and will have an audience capacity of more than 1,800. BIG – which won an international competition between 19 other architectural practices to secure the

Swiss luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet will open a museum celebrating the company history next month (June 2020). Located next to the company HQ in the village of Le Brassus in the Vallée de Joux in Switzerland, the museum has been designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and will immerse visitors in the manufacturer’s "cultural universe past, present and future". BIG won an architectural competition to design the Musée Atelier Audemars

International sports and live entertainment company Oak View Group (OVG) has announced plans to build a £350m ($456m, €402m) arena in Manchester, UK, that will be the biggest in the country and one of the biggest in Europe. The arena is to be located in the Eastlands area of the city on the Etihad Campus, most of which belongs to City Football Group, who own Manchester City and "with the

Thermal spa operator Groupe Nordik will open one of the biggest day spas in the world in Whitby, Canada, once construction is completed in December 2020. Located in Cullen Central Park, the CA$50m (US$37.7m, €34.4m, £29.4m) Nordik Spa-Nature Whitby development covers just under 9ac (4ha) and was designed by LemayMichaud, working with Groupe Nordik’s own internal projects and design team. The spa is billed as an "avant-garde, innovative and multisensory

The world's largest cricket stadium, designed by Populous, has been inaugurated in India. The Motera Stadium, officially the Sardar Patel Stadium, located in the western state of Gujarat in the city of Ahmedabad, was constructed over the course of three years at a cost of $100m (€89m, £77m). Andrew James, lead architect and senior principal at Populous, said: “Cricket is the biggest sport in India and this stadium has been

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

Plans for the £337m ($438m, €394m) Museum of London, designed by Stanton Williams, Asif Khan and Julian Harrap Architects, have been submitted to the City of London Corporation. Described as "one of the biggest cultural projects happening in Europe", the museum has been in development since 2015, with the Stanton Williams and Asif Khan-led team announced in 2016 and the designs revealed earlier this year. The facility is to be

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and Toyota have unveiled plans for a prototype city of the future designed to be a living laboratory for testing new technologies, ways of living and approaches for sustainability. Woven City will cover 175ac (71ha) at the base of Mount Fuji in Japan and will be home to full-time residents, as well as researchers in different fields. Among the areas being studied will be autonomous technologies,

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and WXY Architects have unveiled a vision for Downtown Brooklyn aimed at reanimating the 370ac (150ha) district with public spaces, recreation amenities and pedestrian-friendly streetscapes. The two practices spent last year working on the Downtown Brooklyn Public Realm Action Plan – a study of the area's streets, sidewalks, plazas, parks, alleyways, intersections, underutilised spaces and other public spaces. Carried out on behalf of the Downtown Brooklyn

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and Mecanoo have been among the winners at the INSIDE World Festival of Interiors – the annual awards that celebrate the best interior designs from around the globe over the past 12 months. INSIDE is the sister event of the World Architecture Festival (WAF), with this year's events running concurrently from 4-6 December in Amsterdam. INSIDE celebrates projects across a variety of categories, with one category

Earlier this month, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) unveiled their designs for the Portico – a 53,500sq m (577,000sq ft) development comprising two courtyard buildings joined by a 140m (459ft)-long hanging canopy. Designed by BIG's London office, headed by partner and design director of BIG London Andreas Klok Pedersen, the Portico sits on the last two plots of the CityLife mixed-use district in Milan. Describing the design to CLAD, Pederson said:

The Collective has opened new co-living destinations in the Long Island City neighbourhood of New York and in London’s Canary Wharf. Its 125-room Long Island City venue is the firm's first in the US and its only one for short (one to 29 night) stays only. The Collective Paper Factory, as it is called, is housed in a 100-year-old building that previously housed a paper goods factory and a radio

Clymb Abu Dhabi, a climbing and sky diving attraction on Abu Dhabi's Yas Island, is to open on 29 November 2019, according to owner Miral. The building was designed by Cansult Maunsell, an operating company based in Dubai and part of global consulting firm Aecom. The US$100m (€89.8m, £77.3m) project will deliver the world's tallest indoor climbing wall at 140ft (43 metres) tall, and its widest skydiving flight chamber, spanning

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) have released images of Copenhagen Zoo's giant pandas settling into its completed yin-yang-shaped enclosure. Construction of the Panda House began in 2017 and earlier this year it became home to Mao Sun and Xing Er, who are being loaned from China to Denmark. BIG designed the 2,450sq m (26,400sq ft) enclosure with the wellbeing of the pandas and with the potential for their mating in mind.

This weekend saw the opening of Bjarke Ingels Group's (BIG) ski slope-topped waste-to-energy plant, CopenHill. The 41,000sq m (441,000sq ft) power plant in Copenhagen, also known as Amager Bakke, is said to be the cleanest in the world, incinerating waste and cleaning the smoke created to produce electricity for around 30,000 households and central heating for 72,000 households. Uniquely, though, it also features a variety of recreation and leisure facilities

Construction work has begun on Pixel, a new residential-led, mixed-use project in Abu Dhabi's new Maker's District. Designed by MVRDV, the development aims to provide residents with a lifestyle based around outdoor living and community spirit – an innovative approach in the Emirates, as it deviates from the prevalent typology of disconnected towers. The 85,000sq m (915,000sq ft) development features 525 apartments, shops, offices, and amenities situated around a lively

A 170,000sq ft (51,816sq m) vertical aquarium is one of the ideas being considered for a proposed 500ft-high (152m) observation tower at the centre of a development project on the California coast at San Diego. Seaport San Diego, a US$2.4bn (€2.15bn, £1.93bn) scheme that encompasses 70 acres of land and water along Harbor Drive, is currently in the initial planning stages with architects Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and developers 1HWY1.

The Twist – a museum designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) – is set to make its debut on 18 September in Hønefoss, Norway. Situated in the Kistefos Museum's 270,000 sq m sculpture park, the new structure – which has been described as an “art museum, sculpture, path in the landscape, and bridge" – spans the Randselva river. The Twist will house three galleries dedicated to contemporary art The site used

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) have unveiled plans for EPIQ – the firm's second project in Quito, Ecuador. Overlooking La Carolina Park, a 165-acre green space in the city, the 24-storey building will comprise a variety of wellness and residential amenities, including a rooftop pool, spa centre, extensive lounges, a music room, a fitness suite, and a yoga area. In an apparent evocation of the Spanish Colonial buildings in Quito's UNESCO-recognised

Architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have joined forces to conceptualise a man-made archipelago for OCEANIX, a non-profit company interested in exploring the viability of floating cities. Intended to serve as a blueprint for future pelagic communities, the conceptual city – also named "Oceanix" – is designed to organically expand over time and accommodate up to 10,000 residents. "The additive structure has a

Danish design firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) have revealed the latest changes to their vision for the proposed Howard Terminal Ballpark in Oakland, California. Set to replace the Brutalist-style Oakland Coliseum, the new sports complex, which will be the home of the Oakland Athletics Major League Baseball (MLB) team, will have a circular instead of jewel box shape in order to "boost fans' experience". In a statement, Dave Kaval, president