After drawing the ire of the Egyptian government when it created a replica sphinx last year, a Chinese theme park in Shijiazhuang has added to its collection, creating a 1:1 replica version of Paris’ Louvre Pyramid. Not sharing quite the same iconic locale, the replica Louvre Pyramid – the original of which first opened in 1989 – sits in the overgrown field of the unique amusement park/movie set in Shijiazhuang,

The Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science has closed its doors for the first time in more than 50 years ahead of its US$275m (€212m, £168.5m) move to a new location in downtown Miami in early 2016. The new three-storey, 250,000sq ft (32,225sq m) facility – currently under construction in a prominent location on the Miami waterfront alongside the city’s 40-acres Museum Park and Perez Art Museum Miami –

South Korea’s government is planning to fast track the development of a W93.4bn (US$78.9m, €70.8m, £51.8m) national aviation museum, according to the country’s Ministry of Transport A competition will be held in October this year to choose the architect and the museum will open some time in 2018. The transport museum will be built on the site of the Gimpo International Airport, just outside Seoul, and will celebrate South Korea’s

Croatian-Austrian design collective numen/for use have unveiled a new installation at Aut. Architektur und Tirol museum in Innsbruck comprised of a series of interactive, explorable, stitched safety nets. The temporary exhibition, which closes on 10 October, uses elastic strings tethered to the ceilings and walls of the exhibition space, forming a fluid tunnel for intrepid visitors to traverse through. The architect’s design uses dispersed structural support to allow for an

The first phase of Sydney’s new linear park, inspired by New York’s High Line, has opened to the public for the first time. The AU$15m (US$10.5m, €9.3m, £6.9m) first phase of the Goods Line in central Sydney, designed by Aspect Studios and Choi Ropiha Fighera (CHROFI), opens up a new pedestrian and cycle network from the Australian city’s railway square and ultimo neighbourhood to the iconic Darling Harbour. The eco-friendly

Architect Kengo Kuma has unveiled plans for his first project on US soil – the expansion of Portland’s much-loved Japanese Garden. Expected to cost US$35m (€31.2m, £22.7m) raised largely from donations, the designs for this project will preserve the existing gardens while adding new buildings, including a ‘cultural village’ of several buildings organised around a central courtyard. Work is about to get underway and completion is slated for early 2017,

Alaska’s Anchorage Museum has announced plans for a US$17.5m (€15.7m, £11.2m), 25,000sq ft (2,300sq m) expansion to create new spaces for its permanent art collection. Designed by Anchorage-based McCool Carlson Green, the Rasmuson Wing is being privately financed by Ed Rasmuson, members of the Rasmuson family and the Rasmuson Foundation who own the Rasmuson Centre which the museum is a part of. The development will add a storey on to

SO-IL has revealed its design for an art gallery in Brooklyn, New York, which explores the relationship between both exterior and interior, and light and dark. The four-storey Artes Amant – expected to complete by 2017 – is a haven for modern art, where artists can create, display and store their work. The designs for the 1,320sqm (14,250sq ft) Artes Amant began with the inside, looking first at the functionality

Currently undergoing a US$125m (€112m, £80m) redevelopment to celebrate its 20th anniversary, the Peterson Automotive Museum in Los Angeles has said it will open on budget and in line with its original schedule. Set to reopen on 5 December, having closed in October 2014, the museum is being clad with a new exterior by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. The exterior will comprise a stainless steel shell following multiple contours in

More than 100,000 visitors have visited an unusual seaside-inspired installation at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, causing online ticket sales to be ceased to ensure current ticket holders can be accommodated. The temporary exhibit, entitled BEACH, has been installed in the museum’s famous Great Hall and is the work of architecture practice Snarkitecture. The Brooklyn-based firm’s 10,000sq ft (929sq m) interactive architectural exhibit – made from a mishmash

The largest aquarium in South America, AquaRio, will open its doors to the public in March 2016, offering the chance of seriously close encounters with the site's inhabitants. Designed by marine biologist Marcelo Szpilman, the 22,000sq m (237,000sq ft) development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is spread over six storeys (including a basement level) and will be home to 8,000 animals across 350 species of shark, sea turtle, sting ray

Rumours that urban artist Banksy is behind a pop-up visitor attraction in Weston-super-Mare, England, were given further credence today (20 August) as Dismaland’s website went live, revealing a cavalcade of counter-culture contributors. Dismaland, a twisted version of a Disney theme park, has been installed at the town’s Tropicana lido, which has been derelict since 2000. According to the website, hosted at dismaland.co.uk, “Dismal Land is a festival of art, amusements

26 high-profile names have been selected from a field of nearly 500 as the architectural elite battle it out for the chance to convert a flour mill in Qatar into an art gallery. The three-stage Doha Art Mill development had 489 entries total from 56 different countries across five continents, with Renzo Piano, David Chipperfield and Atelier among the 26 names on the long-list. Selected on the basis of two

Having recently chosen Chicago, Illinois, as the host location for Barack Obama’s presidential library, The Barack Obama Foundation is now launching a competition to find an architect for the US President’s legacy project. The presidential library – a repository for preserving and making available the papers, records, collections and other historical materials of every President of the US since Herbert Hoover in 1929 – will be developed in partnership with

Banksy has reportedly created a twisted version of a Disney theme park, which the anonymous street artist is planning to open this weekend as a pop-up visitor attraction in Weston-super-Mare, England. The subversive theme park-cum-art exhibition has been built over the past several months under the guise of a movie set at the 10,200sq ft (950sq m) abandoned Tropicana lido. Signs at the site indicated Grey Fox Production were shooting

A former salt depository has become one of Ibiza’s most prominent art galleries after renowned New York-based collector Lio Malca converted the former warehouse into a contemporary arts venue. Known as La Nave, the 8,000sq ft (743sq m) conversion on the south-east coast of Ibiza – founded by the Colombian-born Malca who also runs a modern and contemporary art gallery in New York – debuted with an exhibition profiling Brooklyn

Singapore’s National Gallery will open to the public at the end of this year with a new S$532m (US$379.6m, €344m, £243.7m) development housing the world’s largest public collection of Singaporean and Southeast Asian art inside two of the country’s most historical buildings. Designed by Studio Milou Singapore, in partnership with CPG Consultants, National Gallery Singapore is housed within two heritage buildings in the city’s Civic District. Taking up the former

Adjaye Associates have submitted plans for the proposed US$122m (€110m, £79.1m) Studio Museum in Harlem – an institute promoting the work of artists of African descent. The five-storey museum by British-Tanzanian architect David Adjaye will be built on the existing site of New York’s Studio Museum, marking the 50th anniversary of the institution which also champions local artists. The plans offer 70,000sq ft (6,500sq m) of space, 10,000sq ft (929sq

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has launched a new architectural competition centred around culture and heritage at the heart of the 600-year-old South Korean capital’s city centre. The international contest asks entrants to develop a comprehensive blueprint and masterplan for central Seoul and provide a creative design for the site of the former National Tax Service Building. The new city centre will be a space that 'integrates cultural heritage, with contemporary

An ambitious group of architects are planning to construct a replica of the fictitious ancient walled city of Minas Tirith from JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth writings and have launched an ambitious fundraising campaign online to bring the fantasy city to life. In fiction, Minas Tirith is built into a mountainside, rising up the gradient and culminating in the Citadel at its summit. On each of the city’s seven levels, which

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

Experience designers Thinkwell Group have created a new 25,000sq ft (2,300sq m) addition to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood, a finale to the backlot attraction and the culmination of a two year project exploring how films and TV shows are made. The new aspect of the Los Angeles attraction, known as ‘Stage 48: Script to Screen’, provides cutting-edge technology to create a hands-on look at the world of filmmaking,

Ground has been broken on what will be Vietnam’s tallest building – the 460m (1,509-ft) Vincom Landmark 81 – featuring 25 separate rooftop gardens and an observation deck as part of the development. A collaboration between Atkins and Arup, the 81-storey development will come up in Ho Chi Minh City’s Vinhomes Central Park. In addition to the rooftop gardens, many of which will be accessible to the public as visitor

Shigeru Ban’s latest project – the Oita Prefectural Art Museum – has opened in Japan, becoming an artistic piece in its own right to inspire the local community, acting as a “cultural catalyst.” Located on the southwestern island of Kyushu, the building’s timber-lattice clad structure – in reference to the region’s history of producing fine wood crafts – covers three floors and is designed so the external walls, comprised of

The architect of a project originally conceived as a “world-class women’s history museum" in London's East End, but now being marketed as a museum dedicated to Jack the Ripper, has said his firm was completely unaware of the plans to change the museum’s purpose. Andrew Waugh, director of architecture firm Waugh Thistleton, said he had worked with former museum founder –former Google executive Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe – on the designs, which

Appointment of a main contractor to build a AU$50m (US$36.4m, €33.2m, £23.3m) aquarium in Cairns, Queensland, will be announced later this month, after a detailed design and engineering phase was finally completed. Designed by Peddle Thorp Architects in association with Architects Ellick and Partners, the three-storey, 10,000sq m (107,600sq ft) development will be home to more than 5,000 living creatures endemic to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and surrounding Wet Tropics

Marks Barfield Architects’ i360 in Brighton, UK, will no longer feature a wind turbine on the tower, after concerns were raised that high winds could cause the structure to move. Developers i360 have applied for planning permission to remove the wind turbine from the design, despite initial plans to use it as an energy source for the cable car which will transport passengers to top of the tower. Chief engineer