Plans to renovate the Sydney Opera House in Australia are threatened after the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd refused to back the estimated AUS$900m (£433m, €466m, US$630m) project claiming there was better use for the money. The announcement came the day after the New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees said the restoration was under "active consideration" by the budget committee. If the seven-year-long renewal project was to go ahead, the opera

A gala event has been held to mark the closure of the Marlowe Theatre in Canterbury, Kent, which is set to undergo a £25.6m revamp after the local authority approved plans for the redevelopment of the venue. Canterbury City Council (CCC) voted in favour of the proposals on 19 March, which will include a new 1,200-seat auditorium with improved acoustics and sightlines, as well as a second, smaller performance space

Manchester City Council has made a bid to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in order to secure funding towards the restoration of the historic Heaton Hall. The council has earmarked the restoration of the hall as the final part of a three-phase programme of improvements at Heaton Park in North Manchester, which has already seen the renovation of four of the park's other historic listed buildings including the Dower House

Plans for the construction of a new book storage facility near Swindon, Wiltshire, have been unveiled by Oxford University as part of a new modernisation scheme at the Bodleian Library. The university has already acquired a 15-acre (6.1-hectare) site at South Marston on the outskirts of the Wiltshire town for the new high-density facility, which will house eight million volumes of low-demand items. It is expected that work on the

SMG Europe is to take over the management of the Whitley Bay Playhouse theatre after North Tyneside Council (NTC) approved plans to enter into an operating agreement with the company. It is hoped that the deal will secure the future of the venue, which has been closed since August 2007, although will reopen in the autumn following an extensive £8m refurbishment programme. The revamp of the Playhouse theatre has included

Italy's newest art gallery, Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (MAXXI) in Rome, is set for a 2009 launch. Zaha Hadid Architects have designed the museum to be reminiscent of an ‘urban campus’, a building that goes beyond interior spaces to include the entire city. The project includes two museums – MAXXI art and MAXXI architecture – which will revolve around a full-height grand hall that connects with a

The refurbishment of the Liverpool's Grade II-listed Royal Court Theatre has been allocated an architect following a public display of seven shortlisted designs. London-based Allford Hall Monaghan Morris' (AHMM) £10m proposal for the 71-year-old building was chosen and includes an enlarged entrance space for the 1,250-seat theatre – a 20-year-old rock music venue – with a digital screen and rooftop restaurant and bar. The middle two floors will also be organised

The Tower Theatre Company (TTC) has unveiled plans to build a new theatre on a site confirmed by Museum of London Archaeology as being the location of London's first purpose-built playhouse. An excavation of the site in Shoreditch, which is currently occupied by a disused warehouse, has uncovered what is believed to be the inner wall of The Theatre, a polygonal theatre built by James Burbage in 1576. Trustees of

Construction work on a new building to house Belfast’s ageing Lyric Theatre is now underway. The £18m new build — designed by architects O’Donnell & Tuomey — will be constructed at a new location in order to provide a theatre almost four times the size of the original 1968 site. The Lyric’s new home will comprise a 394-seat main auditorium, a 150-seat studio theatre, a rehearsal room, riverfront foyers and

The Scottish Government has been called upon to help provide funding for the creation of a new landmark building on Dundee's waterfront that could house a proposed Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum. Kevin Keenan, chair of the Dundee Waterfront Board (DWB), wants to see an iconic 'anchor' building developed as part of the wider regeneration of the city's waterfront, in order to capture the public's imagination and to act as

The Ulster Hall, a historic 150-year old cultural venue in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has reopened following an extensive multi-million pound refurbishment scheme lasting two years. It is the first scheme to be completed as part of a series of major renovation projects taking place at buildings across the city, with St Malachy's Church, the City Hall and the Ulster Museum set to reopen later this year. Work on the £8.5m

Southampton City Council (SCC) has launched a search for a development partner to take on the transformation of the city's former Tyrrell and Green department store as part of plans for a new cultural quarter. At the heart of plans for the mixed-use development, which has been designed by Assael and could cost up to £50m, is the creation of a new arts complex. A hotel, restaurants, cafés and education

Plans to create a new seafront contemporary art venue in Hastings, East Sussex, have been formally submitted to the local authority by the Jerwood Foundation. If Hastings Borough Council (HBC) approves the scheme, the Jerwood Gallery will house the foundation's collection of 20th and 21st century British art, as well as acting as a regional venue for the Jerwood Visual Arts programme. The proposed building, designed by HAT Projects, will

A planning application has been submitted for the redevelopment of Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum in Gloucester. The 100-year-old museum, which attracts more than 60,000 visitors each year, will undergo a £5m revamp which will add more than 300sq m of new temporary exhibition space and a new dedicated gallery to house the museum's collection of Dutch, Italian and British masterpieces. Fundraising for the project has begun, with Gloucestershire-based Summerfield

Victoria's new AUD$74.5m (£33.64m, 37.6m euro, US$47.75m) purpose-built music facility, the Melbourne Recital Centre (MRC), has opened in Australia – 30 years after being planned. The facility, designed by Ashton Raggatt McDougall (ARM) architects in collaboration with UK-based Acoustic Engineer Raf Orlowski of Arup Acoustics, offers a 1,000-seat concert hall called Dame Elisabeth Murdoch Hall. It is accompanied by a second 150-seat performance space, with a 100-seat dining area and

Scarborough Borough Council (SBC) has approved in principle proposals to take over responsibility for the redevelopment of the resort's open air theatre in order to ensure the scheme goes ahead despite the downturn. The revamp of the theatre is currently included in a development agreement with Benchmark Leisure, which was appointed by the council in December 2002 to transform 55 acres (22.3 hectares) of land in the town's North Bay

Plans put forward by seven shortlisted architects for the refurbishment of the Grade II-listed Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool have been put on public display until the end of the month. Designs for the revamp of the 1,250-seat theatre, which has one of the biggest revolve stages outside the West End of London, can be viewed until 27 February in the Architruck, the Royal Institute of British Architect's (RIBA) purpose-built

David Chipperfield Architects has revealed its winning design for an extension to the Kunsthaus Zurich art gallery in Zurich, Switzerland. The early 20th century building will continue to house the Old Masters, Giacometti collection, Swiss art and popular large-scale exhibitions, whereas the new 20,500sq m (220,660sq ft) extension will display classic modernism and art starting from the 1960s, as well as the Bührle collection. Photograph: courtesy if David Chipperfield Architects

A 13m (43ft) rooftop wind turbine has been installed at Colston Hall in Bristol in a bid to develop a renewable energy source for the 2,000-seat concert venue, which is currently undergoing a multi-million pound refurbishment. EDF Energy's Green Fund has contributed £30,000 towards the £47,000 sustainable energy scheme, which also includes 25 solar panels, and aims to generate 27,000kWh of green electricity each year. Bristol City Council (BCC) has

Designs for the €450m (US$582m, £399m) Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Centre in Athens, Greece have been revealed by Italian architects Renzo Piano. The 187,800sq m centre, to be built on a 42-acre (17-hectare) waterside site in Stavros Niarchos Park, will house the Greek National Opera and the National Library of Greece. The project is funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, and once completed in 2015 will be handed over to

Property developer Montpellier Estates is to take legal action against Leeds City Council (LCC) after losing out in the race to build a new multi-million pound entertainment arena. In November, LCC's executive announced that the new 12,500-seat venue would be built by the council itself on a 5.1-acre (2.06-hectare) site at Claypit Lane, which is part-owned by Leeds Metropolitan University. Proposals for the new arena put forward by two developers,

Masterplans for the regeneration of Calgary's east village in Alberta, Canada, are being designed by London-based architect Broadway Malyan on behalf of the Calgary Municipal Land Corporation (CMLC). The East Village Project includes new arts and cultural facilities, a promenade and an urban beach as well as a new residential development for 12,000 residents, which will be built on the 55-hectare (135-acre) city centre site. There will also be new

The DCMS has announced the latest group coastal towns that will benefit from its Sea Change grant scheme. Southport, Great Yarmouth, Bridlington and Hastings are to receive £12m between them in order to “boost regeneration through investment in culture and heritage”. Barbara Follett, culture and tourism minister, said: “In these difficult economic times it is more important than ever before to make sure we continue to invest in the regeneration

One of the oldest museums in Britain, the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archeology at Oxford University, is to close the public until November 2009 as part of a major redevelopment project. First opened in 1683, the museum is undergoing a £61m revamp including the creation of a new 8,812sq m (94,852sq ft) exhibition hall, which will double the amount of available display space at the attraction. The museum has

The National Theatre on London's South Bank has commissioned architects Haworth Tompkins to produce a masterplan for the development of the Grade II-listed building. Haworth Tompkins beat architects Dixon Jones, Levitt Bernstein, Allies & Morrison and David Chipperfield to win the commission. The masterplan is expected to build on Haworth Tompkin's previous refurbishment work on the theatre's studio annex, completed in November 2007. It is likely the plans will include

The 20-year masterplan for the £700m leisure-led regeneration of Edinburgh's harbour front has been submitted to the city council by developer Forth Ports. The detailed framework for the 26-hectare site, designed by architect RTKL Associates, includes two urban villages at Leith Docks, two piers, a landmark cultural venue such as an international concert hall, up to five new hotels and new leisure, restaurant and retail space around Ocean Terminal. Plans

Hadrian's Wall Heritage (HWH) has acquired 150 acres (60.7 hectares) of land at Camp Farm in Maryport, Cumbria, as part of plans to establish a new museum at the World Heritage Site. The £11.5m scheme will involve the excavation of the former Roman fort at Maryport, as well as an adjacent vicus, a civilian settlement that spread outside the fort walls and comprised more than 170 buildings. It is hoped