Morgan’s Wonderland – a Texas-based theme park which caters specifically to people with disabilities – has revealed plans to add attractions worth US$6 million in 2024. The major additions will include a 4D cinema giving, a passenger boat ride across the park’s eight-acre fishing lake, a zipline soaring above the lake and a wheelchair-accessible "bike ride". The 4D theatre, located at the park's Sensory Village, gives guests the sensation of

Europe's first Legoland Water Park – and the first to open in a non-Legoland destination – will open at the Gardaland resort close to Lake Garda, Italy, on 28 May. The park, which was announced last year, will cover 15,000sq m (160,000sq ft) and will be constructed, in part, from millions of Lego bricks. Aimed at families with children, it will be home to several different themed lands, as well

Morgan's Wonderland, a completely wheelchair accessible theme park in San Antonio, Texas, has announced that it is to build a new "ultra-accessible" sports complex in the city, providing 8,000sq ft (2,440sq m) of covered space for wheelchair sports. Designed by Luna Middleman Architects, the US$3m (€2.7m, £2.45m) Morgan's Wonderland Sports complex will offer fitness and competition for athletes with different abilities. Facilities will include 8,000 sq ft (745sq m) of

InterContinental Hotels Group’s long-awaited adventurous hotel, which will sit in a 328ft (100m)-deep quarry in the Sheshan Mountain Range in Shanghai, China, is finally due to open this year. The InterContinental Shanghai Wonderland has been designed by JADE+QA, led by architect and former Atkins employee Martin Jochman, and developed by the Shanghai Shimao Group. It has a convoluted backstory that dates back to 2006 and has faced various setbacks since

There has been “a wonderful renaissance” in public realm design, but a lack of meaningful investment threatens to hold back further progress. That is the view of Mehrdad Yazdani, design principal of Yazdani Studio at CannonDesign, who told CLADglobal that “the design community needs to lead the way in helping cities address issues” challenging the long-term success of great public spaces. “My team has worked on a vast array of

With the imminent arrival of spring across Europe and temperatures tentatively rising, the ephemeral Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden will soon return from whence it came, melting back into the Torne River. However, its creators are already preparing for the hotel’s return towards the end of the year, harvesting huge blocks of ice and snow and seeking design ideas for the future guestrooms – each of which is conceived as an

An 18th-century restaurant and cafe in Venice’s historic St Mark’s Square has reopened following a major restoration overseen by Philippe Starck. The Michelin-starred Quadri, owned by restaurateurs the Alajmo family since 2010, has been reinterpreted by the French designer as “a Venetian wonderland of mystery, poetry and magic.” He has worked with local artisans – including glassblowers, carpenters, fabric-makers and art restorers – to recover the building’s original architectural details,

The developer of a proposed US$150m (€135.6m, £116.4m) waterpark development in Niagara Falls, New York, is eyeing a 2020 completion date for the long-touted project. A public-private partnership between the Uniland Development Company and the state, the updated Wonderfalls masterplan sees a glass-enclosed waterpark at the heart of a complex surrounded by restaurants and retail to “create a vibrant pedestrian experience”. “We have spent a lot of time with our

Groundbreaking concepts showing how city buildings could be raised upwards through wooden extensions have been released online. Wood manufacturer Metsä Wood has created the database, which showcases the 172 entries to its ‘City above the City competition.’ The company said that the world’s growing urban population and the rising demand of housing and interior spaces mean cities must start developing strategically and environmentally – which means looking to the skies.

For his latest grandiose Southeast Asian resort project, designer Bill Bensley has taken his inspiration from an unlikely combination of themes: the work of pioneering French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, the importance of higher education, Lewis Carroll's novel Alice in Wonderland – and mushrooms. Bensley’s typically whimsical design touches feature throughout the JW Marriott Phu Quoc Emerald Bay resort in the south of Vietnam – a project the designer has described

Wonderland – Dubai’s first theme park which closed its doors in 2013 – will be resurrected after developers revealed plans for a AED1.8bn (US$490m, €460m, £402m) redevelopment of the abandoned attraction. To be executed in three phases, Ento Capital Management is in charge of the redevelopment, which is scheduled to start in Q1 2017, with work taking three years to complete. As part of the redevelopment masterplan by Forrec, the

Thematic entertainment design and construction firm Sanderson Group have been named as masterplanners for a US$5bn (€4.47bn, £3.87bn) development in Bali, Indonesia, dubbed a “new wonder” by its founders. Margarana Dream City – which covers 2.5sq km (0.95sq m) – follows a theme of “innergy”, with a pyramid-like tower at the heart of the development “drawing the positive 'chi' into a green city”. The mixed-use development offers a variety of

The International Garden Festival has begun in Quebec’s Redford Gardens, with five award-winning garden installations open to the public for the first time. They are being displayed alongside 22 other creations designed for the festival by landscape architects in Canada and around the world. The prize-winning studios – who hail from Canada, the United States, France and Switzerland – won the right to build their gardens following an international competition

Hollywood star Jessica Biel and a consortium of stylists, writers, entrepreneurs and philanthropists have opened a family-friendly dining and creative space close to Los Angeles’ design district. The restaurant, called Au Fudge, is described by its developers as “an all-inclusive culinary, social and visual oasis for adults and children to equally enjoy as their home away from home.” The child-friendly design is intended to create “a unique wonderland”, complete with

Intricate geometric patterns of insects cover lurid pink walls inside the recently renovated Renwick Gallery in Washington DC, as part of an exhibition exploring the concept of wonder. American artist Jennifer Angus – who is acclaimed for her artistic installations using insects – is behind the work, titled In the Midnight Garden. To complete the piece, she selected 5,000 preserved insects from a variety of brightly-coloured Southeast Asian species and

Matt Gibbs, a landscape architecture student, has come up with a proposal for a frosty new transport network. An 11km (6.8m) long ‘Freezeway’ that will offer people a chance to ice skate to work. Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, maintains an average sub-zero temperature throughout the winter. Instead of seeing these conditions as a challenge, Gibbs wants to harness this environment and create a dual function commuter network that acts as