A busy overpass next to Seoul's central train station has been closed as construction work begins on a new city skygarden designed by Dutch architects MVRDV. The 45-year old overpass is being stabilised in readiness for its transformation into Seoul Skygarden; a 938m long (3,077ft) public park, featuring cafés, flower shops, street markets, libraries and greenhouses. MVRDV won a Seoul metropolitan government competition to design the project earlier this year.

A crumbling 100-year old church in Llanera, northern Spain, has been transformed by local skateboarding enthusiasts and a hotly-tipped artist into a spectacular indoor skate park. Almost every interior surface in the ‘Iglesia Skate’ church is painted with bright murals and geometric patterns, creating a kaleidoscope of colour. The collective behind the scheme – who call themselves the Church Brigade – describe it as “a temple of urban art.” “It’s

A community group in London has completed a design brief for an elevated linear park following one of the city’s disused railway lines. Named the Peckham Coal Line, the proposed green space would occupy a 900m (1km) stretch of a line once used to transport coal between two train stations in Peckham, south-east London. The planned park consists of pedestrian and cycle routes running through Victorian brick viaducts before dropping

A striking, sinuous opera house designed by Beijing studio MAD Architects has opened in the northern Chinese city of Harbin. Located within the wetlands surrounding the Songhua River, the Harbin Opera House has been designed as a response to the region’s untamed wilderness and chilly climate. The building’s smooth white aluminium walls twist and turn as if sculpted by the water and wind, blending into the surrounding environment and transfusing

Rio de Janeiro’s hotly-anticipated Museau do Amanhã (Museum of Tomorrow) – designed by prize-winning Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava – will be officially opened tomorrow (17 December) by the city’s mayor. The contemporary science museum, which has taken five years to build, is located in the city centre’s Porto Maravilha district – the site of the largest urban development project in Brazil. The Museum of Tomorrow will allow the public to

Street artists and New York businesses have joined forces to beautify the city’s Lower East Side using one simple tool: spray paint. One hundred metal storefront security gates in the Manhattan neighbourhood have become city-sanctioned canvasses for a carefully selected group of graffiti artists, illustrators, graphic designers and abstract painters – including rising stars Shantell Martin, Faust and Mr Stash. The creators have each been partnered with a local business

Sweden’s famous Icehotel has reopened for its 26th winter and is brimming with hand-crafted, ice-sculpted art. Visitors to the hotel – located in Jukkasjärvi, Lapland – can choose to sleep in an art-themed suite, including one featuring a 3m (10ft) tall elephant carved out of snow. Nineteen of the Icehotel’s 50 rooms feature the unique pieces of ice art created by architects and designers from all over the world. You

With construction of Louvre Abu Dhabi entering its final stages, government officials have said a handover of the building will take place in the middle of 2016 – on schedule for an amended opening date at the end of that year. Work on the iconic structure’s roof was completed in October last year, along with all 9,200sq m (99,000sq ft) of the museum’s galleries, plus the concrete work for the

Plans for a second zoo in Sydney, slated for 2017, will be led by best-practice sustainability objectives, according to the project’s lead architects. The proposal in the Western Sydney Parklands at Bungarribee, covers 165,000sq m (40.7 acres) and could house up to 500 animals. John Burgess, managing director of Sydney Zoo and founder of Sydney Aquarium, announced plans for the attraction in September, which is expected to draw around 745,000

New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is to celebrate Pritzker Prize-winning Toyo Ito with an exhibition exploring how the Japanese architect has inspired fellow designers following in his footsteps. The exhibition – A Japanese Constellation: Toyo Ito, SANAA, and Beyond – will run from 13 March to 4 July 2016. On display will be a retrospective of recent works by three generations of internationally acclaimed designers who have been

The abandoned east wing of London’s iconic Alexandra Palace entertainment venue is to be restored and reopened to the public for the first time in decades. Three million people visit the palace every year to explore its grounds, enjoy concerts and take part in sporting events. However, it has been many years since the public have been able to access the hidden Victorian theatre and television studio located to the

Following a two-year competition involving more than 100 leading architecture and design firms, Heatherwick Studio and Diamond Schmitt Architects have been selected to reimagine and renovate a concert hall for New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The duo have been tasked with transforming the centre’s largest hall – originally designed by Max Abramovitz and opened in 1962 – into a 21st-century symphonic concert venue “where the architecture is

The latest striking creation from the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) opens to the public today (11 December) in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. Designed as a series of pixelated steel and glass cubes that appear to float skywards, the Timmerhuis is a mixed-use complex housing shops, restaurants, cafes and Rotterdam’s city museum. The building is a merge between a 1950s municipal office block – which now forms the interior

Australia’s Northern Territory Government has unveiled plans by Darwin-based DKJ projects.architecture to create a new visual art gallery in the centre of Darwin. Led by DKJ in partnership with Fender Katsalidis Mirams, the A$18.5m (US$13.5m, €12.3m, £8.9m) plans feature the redevelopment of the existing Harry Chan building, which will become a gallery for the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT). “Our view about museums and galleries is

The new branch of Taiwan’s National Palace Museum – one of the most-visited museums in the world – is nearing completion and set to open at the end of December. The National Palace Museum (NPM) Southern Branch, which has been designed by Taiwanese architect Kris Yao of Artech, will focus on Asian art and culture. The new museum is located in the southern county of Chiayi, reflecting wider ongoing efforts

Plans to build the tallest skyscraper in the City of London have been unveiled by Eric Parry Architects, who say it will feature the UK’s highest free public viewing gallery. At a height of 309.6m (1,000ft), Parry’s commercial tower, named 1 Undershaft, will be as tall as its Renzo Piano-designed neighbour The Shard – currently the tallest building in western Europe. It will be located in the heart of the

Themed entertainment specialists Zeitgeist Design + Production (ZD+P) have promised Indonesia’s first world-class theme park, using a combination of a dramatic natural setting and cutting-edge technology to create a “Narnia-like” immersive experience never before seen in the region. The US$500m (€464.5m, £331.5m) theme park and resort development just outside the Indonesian capital of Jakarta was announced by the Media Nusantara Citra Group (MNC) in November. “It’s a beautiful site,” said

International innovators and architects NBBJ have revealed their latest unusual design concept: a series of natural ice rinks on London’s River Thames. The firm releases three outside-the-box concept designs every year to inform its commissioned physical projects. The idea is to resurrect a city tradition dating back to the 17th century called the Frost Fair, which would see Londoners take to the frozen waters of the Thames in winter to

Film maker Sir Peter Jackson will invest millions of dollars into a blockbuster movie museum and convention centre in his home town of Wellington, New Zealand. The NZ$134m (US$88.7m, €81.7m, £59.1m), three-storey development, which will cover more than 10,000sq m (107,639sq ft) of prime waterfront land, will be built in the heart of Wellington’s central business district, pending city council approval. Also backed by Weta Workshop co-founder, Sir Richard Taylor

Mexico City’s Papalote Children’s Museum has unveiled the winning design for its future home; a forest-inspired building that promotes fun, exploration and discovery. Barcelona-based design studio MX_SI and Mexican firm SPRB were awarded first prize in the competition for the project, which attracted 171 entries from around the world. Construction is expected to begin early next year in Iztapalapa district. The new museum building – which will house an expanded

A David Rockwell-designed interactive light display in New York’s Winter Garden Atrium has opened, kickstarting a new seasonal tradition for Lower Manhattan based on the concepts of sharing, giving, community and light. Luminaries takes the form of approximately 650 twinkling LED cubic lanterns, which are suspended in a cascading canopy from the ceiling of the 10-storey glass atrium, located within Brookfield Place – better known as the World Financial Center.

Seven galleries dedicated to European art and history at London’s Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum will reopen on 9 December following a £12.5m (US$19m, €17m) redesign by architects ZMMA. The entire front wing of the museum has been restored to house more than 1,000 artefacts dating from Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Storage space has been reclaimed to enlarge the galleries by a third to 1,550sq m (16,700sq

The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles reopens today (7 December) following a multi-million dollar redevelopment marking its 20th anniversary. The museum closed in October 2014 in readiness for an extensive US$125m (€112m, £80m) transformation both inside and out. The original 1960s building has been painted a bright red and fitted with a ribbon-like stainless steel exterior shell, designed by architects Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. More than 800 LEDs accentuate

CLAD understands that the award-winning design for China’s new National Maritime Museum, created by Australian practice Cox Rayner Architects, is now likely to be realised in 2017. The project, located in the city of Tianjin, was originally set to open in 2015 but has suffered delays since it was named the Future Project of the Year at the World Architecture Festival (WAF) in 2013. A representative from Cox Rayner told

English Heritage has unveiled a series of six possible designs for a new footbridge at Tintagel Castle, a site long associated with the legend of King Arthur. The 13th century castle, built by Richard the Earl of Cornwall, first became a tourist site in the 19th century. Now mostly ruins, the heritage attraction sits on a jagged rock outcrop currently accessible by a long stair climb. The castle is among

Ontario’s Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa has unveiled plans for a CA$80m (US$60m, €56.5m, £40m) renovation, upgrade and expansion, bringing the facility first opened in 1967 into the modern age. Designed by Canadian architecture firm NORR, the redevelopment masterplan includes five main galleries, temporary exhibition space, an artefacts gallery, maker space and classrooms. The museum’s main galleries will follow the themes of creating and using knowledge, moving and

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has launched an open design competition for a visitor centre at Langley Vale Wood; an ancient forest site in Surrey, England. UK conservation charity the Woodland Trust (WT) has partnered with RIBA to select an “innovative and imaginative” design for the 300sq m (3,200sq ft) structure, which will welcome 180,000 annual visitors to the 640-acre woodland site. “The visitor hub will provide our