A unique museum dedicated to a single bronze statue of Apoxyomenos has opened its doors on the Croatian island of Lošinj. The CK25m (US$4m, €3.6m, £3m) Museum of Apoxyomenos, funded by the City of Mali Losinj and the Croatian Ministry of Culture, has been designed by architects Idis Turato and Saša Randic. Centred around Apoxyomenos – a bronze statue of a young athlete, discovered in 1996 in the area at

Following the sudden death of its founder earlier in the year, plans are moving forward to create an £80m (US$105m, €94.2m) dinosaur attraction inside a former quarry in Dorset, UK. Dubbed Jurassica, the project suffered a major blow when CEO Michael Hanlon died from a heart attack in February, aged just 51. The project’s board however, which has the backing of the likes of businessman Sir Tim Smit and naturalist

Dubai investment firm Najibi Group has unveiled plans for a AU$400m (US$300.7m, €270.4m, £226.3m) “active lifestyle” destination in Queensland, Australia. Najibi recently launched its new Australian investment and development offshoot Sanad Capital, which has been created to serve as a springboard for a diverse range of projects on the Sunshine Coast. The firm’s first project will be a community lifestyle and tourism hub “never-before seen in Australia”, according to Sanad.

Just a few months after announcing plans to add a fourth theme park to its expanding attractions portfolio, Six Flags has started work on a development at Dubai Parks and Resorts. The AED2.67bn (US$727m, €639m, £515m) project – the first Six Flags development in the Middle East – will operate under a licensing model with an opening date of Q4 2019. The Six Flags park will contain 27 rides split

The international architecture competition to design a Museum of 20th Century Art in Berlin is entering its final stages, with 42 firms asked to submit their proposals before a decision is made by the end of the year. Sou Fujimoto, Zaha Hadid Architects, David Chipperfield, Herzog & de Meuron, REX Architecture, OMA, Snøhetta, SANAA and UNStudio are among those to have qualified from previous rounds, or who have been invited

Danish architecture firm Kvorning Design & Communication has won the contract for a new Secrets of the Sea exhibition at the Norwegian Petroleum Museum, designed around a whirlpool creation as the new centrepiece for the museum. Featuring different zones with analogue and digital activities to encourage collaboration, learning and play, the exhibition design has been inspired by the sea, which is fitting for the museum located in the port of

Barack and Michelle Obama have chosen the architectural team of Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects and Partners (TWBTA) and Interactive Design Architects (IDEA) to design the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. The Obama Foundation – started by the Obamas in 2014 to “inspire the next generation of young leaders across the world" – issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to seven architectural firms in December. The shortlist, which was whittled

Just weeks after opening its first theme park in mainland China, it has emerged that Disney is already planning another according to the Chongqing city government, which said it is bidding to host a future Disney park. The local authority in southwest China said that Disney had been planning to build a second park even before it started construction on the recently-opened Shanghai Disneyland. “Currently, we are actively preparing for

NFL quarterback Andrew Luck is playing a part in creating a US$35m (€31.5m, £26m) hands-on indoor/outdoor sports exhibit for The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. The Indianapolis Colts star, who majored in architectural design, has been working with the museum and Ratio Architects to create the Riley Children’s Health Sports Legends Experience, which he called a “sports utopia” that every child would want when it opens in Q2 2018. “For me,

Eight architecture studios have reached the final stage of the international competition to create a new exhibition hall for the Museo del Prado in Madrid; Spain’s national art museum. The new gallery, which will showcase artworks that explore Spanish history, will be housed in the Hall of Realms. The building once formed part of the Royal Buen Retiro Palace and was formerly used as an Army Museum, before it was

Oman’s Al-Khonji Real Estate & Development Company (AQAR) has been granted the right to build a new billion dollar leisure district featuring hotels, homes and a theme park. The Special Economic Zone Authority in the central town of Duqm have given the project the green light in a bid to encourage Omani investors to invest in the sultanate and diversify its tourism offerings. The site will cover an area of

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) have created an inflatable beer pavilion for the Roskilde Music Festival which is part sculpture, part bouncy castle. The structure – called FOAM and is sponsored by beer brand Tuborg – is a giant “bubble-like cloud” which is illuminated by purple LED lights at night and can be inflated in seven minutes. BIG were tasked with creating a 120sq m (1,300sq ft) mobile pavilion which could

A new museum exploring the journey of Swedish furniture retailer IKEA opens this Thursday (30 June) on the site of the company’s first store in the town of Älmhult. The IKEA Museum is housed within a 7,000sq m (75,300sq ft) building designed by Swedish architect Claes Knutson in the late 1950s. The building closed in 2012 and has been revamped by WilkinsonEyre and Uulas Arkitekter who restored the exteriors largely

The City of Kaunas in Lithuania has launched an anonymous one-stage design contest for the planned National Science and Innovation Centre of Lithuania, known as Science Island. The competition, developed with Malcolm Reading Consultants, encompasses the design of the €25m (US$27.5m, £20.8m) centre and an urban integration plan for with its proposed home on Nemunas Island – located close to the city’s historic Centras district and cultural institutions including the

After nearly two years of legal disputes, George Lucas has finally pulled the plug on plans for his Museum of Narrative Art in Chicago, with the director now thought to be eyeing San Francisco or Los Angeles for his legacy project. Blaming delays over a lawsuit from a parks group opposed to development along the city’s waterfront, Lucas said in a statement that he would be taking the museum to

A nerve-testing glass slide located 1,000ft above the ground has opened near the top of Los Angeles’ Bank Tower. The 45ft (13.7m) long Skyslide links the 70th and 69th floors of the building. Just 1.25 inches thick, riders feel like they are descending through thin air. The slide is the creation of architects Gensler and forms part of the new OUE Skyspace LA attraction – California’s tallest open-air 360-degree observation

The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC), designed by Renzo Piano, has opened in the Greek capital city Athens with a four day festival of cultural events. The building – one of CLAD’s most anticipated of 2016 – is a multi-functional and environmentally sustainable education, arts, and recreation complex which houses the National Library of Greece and the Greek National Opera in separate wings. The building features a sloping grass

UPDATE: The high-profile expansion of Quebec’s first publicly-established museum by Rem Koolhaas’ Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has opened to the public today (24 June). The new semi-transparent Pierre Lassonde pavilion – named after the Canadian philanthropist whose donations have helped fund the expansion – has increased exhibition space in the 83-year old Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ) by 90 per cent. The museum showcases and preserves Québécois

Design and development studio AE Superlab have proposed a new attraction and landmark for New York, as the city seeks an icon to crown its forthcoming Empire Station Complex. The Halo is a 1,200ft (366m) high semi-transparent, lightweight superstructure featuring panoramic viewpoints and 11 tower rides, which will carry thrill seekers to the top before either carrying them gently back down or plummeting at speed. Empire Station is a US$3bn

Danish architectural firm Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter have unveiled designs for an arctic visitor attraction designed to draw visitors to Greenland. The proposed Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat – a town in the Qaasuitsup municipality in western Greenland – will help develop Greenland’s tourism and will demonstrate the history and culture of the ice fjord, as well as highlighting the dramatic melting of the UNESCO-protected Greenland ice sheet. Scheduled to open in

Russia’s State Hermitage Museum is to open a satellite site on the Barcelona waterfront in 2019. Designed by architect Íñigo Amézola, the US$43m (€38m, £29.2m) outpost, to be constructed in the Port of Barcelona, will cover 15,500sq m (166,000sq m) and will have seven galleries split over five storeys, as well as a large entrance hall, restaurant, cafeteria and auditorium. Renderings of the building show a cube structure sat within

Universal has offered a first-look at its “next-generation” Volcano Bay, promising to redefine the waterpark experience with everything from the queue line to the park’s immersive theming. Volcano Bay, which suffered a minor setback this month following a fire at the construction site, will open by 1 June 2017, according to officials.

A video has been released providing an insight into the design process behind Shigeru Ban’s Aspen Art Museum (AAM), which opened to the public last year. The film, released by Redsquare Productions, features interviews with Ban and the museum’s director Heidi Zuckerman about the museum’s striking design and its impact in the city.

Construction has begun on Astana Expo City in Kazakhstan; the site of the world’s next international architecture exposition. Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) have designed the city's masterplan and 28 buildings around the 2017 Expo theme ‘Future Energy’. The ambitious project seeks to showcase alternative forms of energy and transport to fly the flag for green and sustainable practices. The design team’s goal is to minimise the site’s

A pair of artists have given visitors to Italy’s Lake Iseo the opportunity to walk on water. The duo, known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, have created a temporary 3km-long installation called Floating Piers, which stretches from the commune of Sulzano in the province of Brescia to the island of San Paolo. Created using 100,000sq m of shimmering yellow fabric – carried just above the water by a modular floating dock

Work has started on the Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners-designed International Spy Museum, which is making a a US$162m (€143.2m, £102.1m) move to property developer JBG Companies’ L’Enfant Plaza. The deal was announced on 15 June after 18 months of negotiations, with the 140,000sq ft (13,000sq m) space in Washington D.C. funded through US$65m (€57.4m, £41m) coming from the museum’s owners and the remainder sourced through public fundraising and corporate

Today (17 June), the British public can finally see for themselves the long-gestating expansion to London’s Tate Modern art museum, masterminded by Herzog & de Meuron. The architects transformed the derelict Bankside Power Station on the River Thames into the museum in 2000 to house the UK’s collection of international modern and contemporary art. The Tate was expected to receive two million visitors each year, but was soon welcoming closer