The Rothko Chapel will reopen in Houston this June after a 14-month restoration project by Architecture Research Office that is part of a wider $30m (€28m, £23m) masterplan project the studio is carrying out. Opened in 1971, the chapel was created as a place for interfaith worship and contemplation by its founders – artist Mark Rothko and John and Dominique de Menil – and has 14 huge Rothko canvases on

OPEN Architecture's Chapel of Sound amphitheatre – designed for concerts and the appreciation of nature – has topped out at its site in a rocky valley at the foot of the Jinshanling Great Wall in Beijing municipality. The 790sq m (8,500sq ft) structure, the designs for which were revealed in February, houses an indoor-outdoor amphitheatre, an outdoor stage, viewing platforms and supporting spaces. It takes the appearance of a layered,

Wolfgang Tschapeller has suspended four levels of library stacks containing around 100,000 volumes in an inverted ziggurat at the Unversity of Cornell 's Mui Ho Fine Arts Library. Tschapeller's goal was to create "a 21st-century interpretation of the grand reading rooms associated with great research collections." To achieve this, he removed the third floor of the Rand Hall building, in which the library is housed, to create a double-height space

British design practice Hugh Broughton Architects have completed an £8.5m (US$11.2m, €10m) refurbishment of Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich. Also known as the English 'Sistine Chapel', the renovated space features a restored Baroque fresco as well an adjoining undercroft that houses a cafe, art gallery, and visitor centre. Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the scheme was reportedly one of the largest open-access renovation

Chinese architecture practice OPEN have unveiled renderings of the Chapel of Sound – a cavernous amphitheatre currently under construction north of Beijing, outside the city of Chengde. The 790 sq m, roofless structure – shaped to resemble the curvilinear appearance of mollusc shells and human ears – will function as a concert venue and community space. The Chapel will also feature as a kind of temple to nature, providing panoramic

UPDATE: A dramatic new museum celebrating some of the world’s most famous prehistoric cave art has opened at the Lascaux Cave complex in France. The €66m (US$70.3m, £56.2m) International Centre for Cave Art is located in the town of Montignac-sur-Vézère, at the foot of the hill where the Lascaux caves – adorned with the highest concentration of Paleolithic cave art in Europe – were discovered in 1940. Within the new

Shanghai’s G+PARK museum cluster has unveiled a colourful new wedding chapel, creating a kaleidoscope of colour for adventurous couples to tie the knot. Designed by Coordination Asia, the Rainbow Chapel is made up of 3,060 glass panels painted in 65 bright translucent colours, surrounded by a square white structure partially open to the surrounding museum park. Both shapes are traditionally important in Chinese symbolism, with the circle representing fullness and