French design practice Marc Mimram have completed a new tennis court for the Stade Roland Garros in Paris. The 5,000-seat Court Simonne-Mathieu is flanked by four greenhouses to camouflage its bulk and ensure it blends in to the site, which is within the 120-year-old Serres d'Auteuil botanical gardens, adjacent to the main Roland Garros complex. The facility is named after the eponymous female tennis champion. The opening of the controversial

International architects Snøhetta have unveiled their kitchen extension and garden redesign for the world-renowned restaurant The French Laundry, in Yountville, California. The three-starred Michelin restaurant, which was founded in 1994 by American chef Thomas Keller and named after one of the building’s former uses, is regularly listed as one of the best in the world. Snøhetta – working in collaboration with San Francisco studio Envelope A+D and Keller – aimed

Artist Asad Raza has created an indoor tennis court with a difference: it sits within a deconsecrated 16th-century church. Rather than an excitable crowd of spectators, players in the San Paolo Converso arena will be surrounded by murals of Saint Paul. Otherwise, though, the space is set up like a typical court – complete with lines, netting, racquets, chairs, a jug of iced jasmine tea and even coaches to practice

A new multi-purpose 5,000-capacity stadium is being built as part of a major redevelopment project for Melbourne Park – the home of the Australian Open tennis tournament. The show court and arena will be surrounded new, smaller developments, such as a cultural terrace, a function centre, a media centre and broadcast studios, and a central kitchen. The cluster of facilities makes up the third stage of the larger overall project,

The contentious redevelopment of Roland Garros, the home of French tennis, will go ahead after the Administrative Court of Paris threw out a legal challenge brought by critics of the project. The ruling brings an end to a tumultuous saga, which has seen the Council of State and Paris Crown Court rule in favour of the project going ahead, only for a different court – the Tribunal de Grande Instance

Sports giant Nike has partnered with artist Kaws to cover two of New York’s community basketball courts with his signature murals. Located in Sara D. Roosevelt Park on Manhattan’s Stanton Street, the side-by-side full courts have been painted with swirling, brightly-coloured patterns and motifs. “My approach to the courts was very similar to how I would work on canvas,” said Brooklyn-based Kaws, whose real name is Brian Donnelly. “I wanted

Engineering design experts Thornton Tomasetti have been selected to work on the £70m (US$92.8m, €83.4m) project to renovate Wimbledon’s No. 1 Court. The studio will work alongside KSS Architects to provide structural and facade design engineering services for the new development, which will include a retractable roof. Improved public facilities, 15 new hospitality suites and an increased capacity to 12,000 seats will also be included in the project. Thornton Tomasetti

Guests staying at a luxury boutique hotel in London can enjoy a cocktail in the cramped courthouse cells which once held the Kray twins, two of the most notorious gangsters in the city’s history. The newly-opened Courthouse Hotel in Shoreditch is located in a Grade II-listed building which once housed the Great Marlborough Street Magistrates Court. The themes of crime, punishment and justice are embedded into the hotel’s design, particularly

The second phase of a 15-year restoration and redesign programme at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is nearing completion, with construction progressing on the new entrance, open courtyard and underground gallery designed by architecture studio AL_A. The £49.5m (US$71.4m, €63.5m) Exhibition Road Building Project – the V&A’s largest architectural scheme in the last 100 years – is expected to open in 2017 now that 95 per cent of its

The first images and renderings have been released of the completed interiors and final exteriors of Bjarke Ingels W57 ‘Courtscraper’ in New York’s Manhattan borough, ahead of its opening to residents next month. While photographs of the the building’s distorted pyramid form and multi-textual facade have been shared widely since construction began, this is the first time developer The Durst Organization has revealed what the structure will look like from

Parisian fashion brand Pigalle and architecture firm Ill-Studio have collaborated to create a vivid multicoloured basketball court squeezed between two apartment buildings in the French capital’s 9th arrondissement. Pigalle founder and basketball aficionado Stéphane Ashpool had previously renovated the Rue Duperré court – where he himself plays and offers coaching to local youths – in 2009 with the help of sports brand Nike and basketball icon LeBron James. The colourful

Bjarke Ingels Group's hotly-anticipated New York ‘courtscraper’ is nearing completion, with dramatic new video footage – captured by a GoPro camera attached to a crane – showing the final panels being added to the structure’s cladding. Located on West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan, the 80,000sq m (860,000sq ft) development, called W57, will have 709 apartments and 4,000sq m (45,000sq ft) of leisure, retail and commercial space. BIG’s design imagines

Bristol Rovers’ £40m (US$62.2m, €56.4m) plan to move into a new stadium across the city has collapsed after supermarket chain Sainsbury’s won its High Court battle over the purchase of its current home. The initial plan had been for Sainsbury’s to buy the team’s 12,000-seat Memorial Stadium in 2011 and lease it back to the club while a new 21,700-seat stadium was developed in the north of Bristol. The supermarket

Seven-time Wimbledon tennis champion Roger Federer pitched up in South London, UK over the weekend to help launch sports goods giant Nike’s legacy project for this year’s Wimbledon tennis tournament. Nike has taken over four community tennis courts in Tanner Street Park, Bermondsey, investing £17,500 in resurfacing the ageing courts with a designer touch in pink and blue and setting up a branded tennis and activity hub. The NikeCourt Club

Bjarke Ingels Group has unveiled its innovative design for 2 World Trade Center (2 WTC), providing a different sort of building depending on your viewpoint. The architectural firm’s designs also include a range of leisure amenities such as roof gardens, sports facilities and a public plaza. The 80+ storey building in New York features seven stacked boxes and rises to 1,340ft (408m). Taking inspiration from its location at the meeting

Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, London, UK, has been given the green light to build a new 56,250-capacity stadium after winning its High Court battle against the sole business standing in the way of its redevelopment. Plans for the £400m (US$644m, €498m) stadium, being built next to Tottenham’s current home of White Hart Lane, were challenged by landowner Archway Sheet Metal Works at the High Court because of a compulsory purchase

A High Court judge has ruled that Northern Ireland’s environment minister Mark H Durkan acted “unlawfully” when he approved plans for a new 38,000-seat GAA stadium in the heart of Belfast. Mr Justice Horner said there had been failures in the environmental impact assessment of the £77m stadium and that the decision to grant planning permission was “irretrievably flawed”. The High Court ruling comes after a Belfast residents' group issued

Nike has unveiled the world's first LED basketball court in Shanghai, China, a facility that has been created for basketball star Kobe Bryant to help train young players in Shanghai as part of Nike’s RISE campaign. The court – dubbed the ‘House of Mamba’ – features all over LED flooring; bringing graphics, video and real-time player tracking to training. Using motion sensors to enable tracking and interactive visualisations, players will

A row has erupted over David Beckham’s vision for a major football stadium located on the last publicly accessible waterfront in Miami, Florida. The proposed stadium, designed by Arquitectonica and 360 Architecture, is based on an open-air design with an undulating roof and a maximum capacity of 35,000. Despite John Alschuler – Beckham’s real estate advisor – commenting that the stadium would “create jobs and opportunities for local businesses”, the

Developer, Capital & Counties Properties (Capco), has received outline planning consent for its far reaching, and controversial, plans for a £8bn regeneration of Earls Court. Plans, which have met with local protest, involve demolishing the famous art deco exhibition centre and two council estates. Land is being acquired under the Conditional Land Sale Agreement, although the company is having to negotiate with Transport for London about an important piece of

Plans for a £10m heritage theme park attraction in Margate, Kent are back on track, following a High Court ruling against a legal challenge that would have prevented the development. Judge Sycamore dismissed a legal challenge by current owners, Margate Town Centre Regeneration Company, over the decision to grant the council ownership of the site. The secretary of state for communities and local government gave the council approval for compulsory

Local Scottish authority Dumfries and Galloway Council will take court action against contractor Kier Northern over a number of problems with the DG One leisure centre, which opened in 2008 at a cost of £17m. A detailed report by independent technical experts found the cost of addressing defects in the gym, games hall, bar, swimming pool and changing village would total £3.7m. At its policy and resources committee meeting on

Hammersmith and Fulham Council's (HFC) cabinet will consider a progress report into the proposed inclusion of two estates in a major redevelopment of London's Earls Court site. The findings from a recent public consultation and draft terms for the Conditional Land Sale Agreement with developer and landowner Capital and Counties are contained in the report. HFC said that if the project does proceed, it will be centred on a masterplan

Marriott International has announced a new European design concept for the Courtyard by Marriott brand, as well as "significant" continental expansion plans for the business. Scotland's 194-bedroom Courtyard by Marriott Aberdeen and the 230-bedroom Courtyard by Marriott Cologne, Germany, are to be the first properties to debut the design in 2013. The Courtyard by Marriott European prototype model is based on a 170-bedroom, six-level property, which can be increased or

Work has been completed on a £2.8m scheme to transform Devon's Cockington Court as a historic attraction and 'innovation workspace' for creative businesses in the Torquay area. The regeneration of the Grade II*-listed building has been designed by Torquay-based Kay Elliott, with the existing property benefiting from structural repair and modernisation. Three new buildings have also been constructed to the rear of Cockington Court and feature art spaces, galleries, craft

A new 5-acre (2-hectare) 'Lost River' park is to be established under new proposals for the mixed-use redevelopment of the Earls Court site in London. Terry Farrell and Partners are behind the masterplan for the 77-acre (31-hectare) site, which is now due to go before local residents as part of a public consultation. The proposals have been drawn up on behalf of three landowners - Transport for London; Hammersmith and

Plans for the long-term future of the Grade II-listed Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool, which includes a multi-million pound refurbishment, have gone before the city council's Regeneration Select Committee. Discussions are now set to get underway between Liverpool City Council and trustees of the 1,250-seat venue in a bid to secure a lease agreement after the select committee admitted that it was impressed with a presentation by the Royal Court