The evolution of London’s Science Museum is now well underway, with several ‘starchitects’ being named to design its new galleries, while a new exhibition space is now set to open on 25 October. Universal Design Studio’s Communication Gallery The impending gallery, designed by Universal Design Studio, is the first in the UK to be entirely dedicated to the history of information and communication technologies. Boasting 2,000sq m (21,528sq ft) of

Following a six month nationwide competition, four multidisciplinary architecture and design teams have been chosen to reveal their design concepts for Washington D.C's first elevated park. The four finalists are as follows: Balmori Associates / Cooper, Robertson & Partners, OLIN / OMA, Stoss Landscape Urbanism / Höweler + Yoon Architecture and Wallace Roberts & Todd (WRT) / NEXT Architects / Magnusson Klemencic Associates. The 11th Street Bridge Park Competition, has

Mayor of London Boris Johnson, has opened a major design competition for a new £400m (US$650m, €503m) educational and cultural quarter at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, east London. Billed as the ‘Olympicopolis’, the project will be situated on the former 2012 Olympics site showcasing London’s ‘exceptional art, dance, history, craft, science, technology and cutting edge design’. Although visitors to the park are already able to enjoy its parklands, waterways,

A development group led by tennis coach Judy Murray, mother of star Andy Murray, has been dealt a blow after a prominent member of Stirling Council’s planning office said that it could not support plans for the creation of the Park of Keir sporting hub in Scotland. Led by Murray and the King Group, the project is also backed by her son Andy and former Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie,

Nearly a year ago the UAE won the right to host the World Expo in Dubai in 2020, and now the master planners behind the original bid have been selected to design the host venue at the 438 acre (1.77sq km, 0.68sq m) Dubai Trade Centre-Jebel Ali. A consortium of HOK and Arup professionals has been merged to create the team behind the design of the 2020 host venue. The

Muf Architecture/art has won a competition to design a new interactive gallery for the Science Museum, London. From a shortlist of several renowned architectural firms, including David Kohn and Grimshaw, Muf has been chosen by the museum to design the £4m ($6.4m, €5m) new space. Due to open in 2016, the new gallery aims to build on the success of the current ‘Launchpad’ children’s gallery and create a larger, more

Colombia’s answer to Brazil’s Christ the Redeemer is nearing completion as Monumento Santisimo – the centrepiece of a new US$23m (€17.7m, £14.2m) eco-park in Floridablanca in the north of the country – starts to take shape. Slightly differentiating itself from the famous Brazilian statue built in the 1920s, Monumento Santisimo comprises a large statue of Jesus Christ with his left hand over his chest rather than outstretched. At around 40m

Frank Gehry’s designs dating back to 2003 for a $395m (£245m, €305m) performing arts venue at the World Trade Centre have been axed after the project's management made a u-turn on the plans. As part of Daniel Libeskind's masterplan for the World Trade Centre and Ground Zero site, Gehry’s performing arts centre has been the slowest to materialise. Now, more than a decade later, the board behind the centre have

A US$300m (£183.3m, €231.7m) museum for the Oscars has come up against problems, with Los Angeles City Planning department expressing concern over potentially explosive gas pockets under the proposed site. The department has released a draft environmental impact report on the project, which highlights deposits of methane and hydrogen sulphide gas that could potentially harm construction workers and ultimately visitors. The planned Academy Museum of Motion Pictures – which will

As part of the London Design Festival 2014 (LDF), Zaha Hadid Architects will unveil a temporary installation in the John Madejski Garden at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). The structure, named Crest, will be stretched across the pool in the V&A gardens from the 13 to 21 September, the duration of the LDF. Made of thin aluminium, the form will explore the relationship between different elements, such as the

Thomas Phifer and Partners (TPP) has been chosen, from a shortlist of eleven architectural practices, to design Warsaw’s new Museum of Modern Art and TR Warszawa Theatre, Poland. The New York-based practice has beaten other architectural heavy weights to the win the commission, including Foster + Partners and UNstudio. The new museum will be located in Warsaw’s Defilad Square, at the foot of the Palace of Culture and Science. TPP

A competition has been launched to find a landscape design team for the RAF Museum’s revamp. The attraction is undergoing a £23m renovation as it builds up to the centenary celebrations of the Royal Air Force in 2018. The winning team will help achieve the master plan designed by architecture firm Wilkinson Eyre in 2011. The four-phase renovation of the site in Hendon, London, is known as the Centenary Programme

Work has started on Copenhagen’s House of Culture and Movement (Ku.Be.) in Denmark, aimed at engaging the local population in a healthy and active lifestyle. Set to become a new major attraction in the Frederiksberg district, Ku.Be. will feature a range of facilities mixing the function of a community centre with exhibition and performance spaces, as well as a playground, park and health centre. Masterminded by ADEPT, a Danish architecture

Macedonia’s capital of Skopje is undergoing a major revamp, but some are calling the controversial makeover – intended to attract more tourists to the country – a “crime” against heritage and culture. Skopje, which became the capital of Macedonia in 1991 after the breakup of Yugoslavia, is trying to make a name for itself on the international stage, using eye-catching architecture to entice visitors from abroad. The €500m (US$656m, £395m)

A prototype design for an attraction, conceived by Hong Kong’s OVA Studio, could recreate the world’s oceans, using projected imagery on LED screens to bring the Bahamas, Maldives, Great Barrier Reef and more to a uniquely designed swimming pool. The pool would be housed inside a glass dome and both pool and dome would be lined with LED screens. These would display live feeds from underwater cameras positioned in oceans

The well established British brand of London Dry Gin, Beefeater, has recently opened its new visitor centre and exhibition space in London. Following a competition held in 2008, Lee Boyd Architects and Four-by-Two design consultants made the winning bid to construct an extension that has tied two of the Beefeater sites’ original buildings together; creating a new point of entry and allowing visitors to move freely inside the distillery without

The Le Rosey school in Switzerland is set to open its new concert hall and centre for art and culture – designed by Bernard Tschumi Architects (BTA) – on the 2 October 2014. After a long construction process, the new venue, constructed by BTA and Swiss-based Fehlmann Architects, will cover 8,000sq m (26,246sq ft) and boasts a number of features. A rectangular auditorium sits under the circular steel dome, with

Design and production group Kingsmen Creatives has landed a US$25.2m (€19m, £15.1m) contract to design and build the interiors for KidZania Singapore. Kingsmen, which worked on the recently opened KidsSTOP Science Centre also in Singapore, will handle construction and maintenance of fit-out works for the ‘edutainment’ centre set to open in 2015 at Sentosa Island’s Palawan beach. The Mexico-based KidZania brand encourages children aged four to 14 to learn about

Louis Vuitton’s museum project, designed by Frank Ghery of architecture firm Ghery Partners, is nearing completion almost eight years after plans for the €100m (US$132m, £80m) Paris-based attraction were first revealed. Set to open in October, the 126,000sq ft (11,705sq m) Louis Vuitton Foundation – designed to resemble “a cloud of glass” – includes 11 exhibition galleries dedicated to Vuitton’s private collection alongside a space for temporary exhibitions in addition

A giant inflatable turtle the size of a house has been installed in Australia's Sydney Harbour to mark the launch of an underwater art exhibition at the city’s aquarium. The 15m (49ft) long turtle is covered in a black and white coral reef pattern, with organisers looking to raise awareness of the Great Barrier Reef, which is deteriorating at a rapid rate thanks to a combination of pollution and seabed

Three years behind schedule, significantly over budget and with no lack of controversy, the Picasso Museum in Paris finally looks set to open. The French culture ministry announced the long-awaited unveiling would take place on 25 October, exactly 133 years since Pablo Picasso was born. Musée Picasso closed to the public in 2009 for the renovation of the 17th-century building and an ambitious expansion that would double the exhibition area.

Designed by Tim Greatrex, the new House of Vans Park entertainment hub has opened to the public after over a year of work. Located in the tunnels under London's Waterloo Station, the 30,000sq ft (9,144sq m) venue will showcase an art gallery, a VansLab artist incubator space, cinema, live music venue, café and bars, gifting suite, plus a skater built and designed concrete bowl, mini ramp and street course. Two

Plans have been announced to convert a section of canal in the heart of Rotterdam, the Netherlands, into a wave simulator to be home to surfing, kayaking, scuba diving and a host of other aquatic sports and activities. The artificial river RiF010 – being built by Waveloch at a cost of €3.3m (US$4.4m, £2.6m) will be able to generate a 1.5m (4.9ft) wave while creating naturally-purified water inside the canal

The Palace Museum – housed in Beijing’s, Forbidden City – is to set up an architectural institute equipped for research, training and restoration on China’s ancient architecture. The new unit will operate as a scientific base and will be devoted to multiple fields, with training including the inheritance and development of traditional architectural skills, the adoption of modern technologies in relation to ancient architecture and the training of professionals for

Sydney, Australia, is seeing returns on the commitment it’s made to public art in recent years, announcing details of three prestigious works to launch the City Centre Public Art Plan. The works will be produced by Japanese architect Junya Ishigami, British artist Tracey Emin and Australian artist Hany Armanious. The AU$9m ($8.4m, £5m, €6.3m) initiative tops off Sydney’s regeneration programme, central to which is the new light rail project and

The RIBA and Bristol City Council have announced the launch of a competition to find an architect for ‘Bristol Arena’; a new 12,000 capacity, multi-use indoor entertainment space in the south west UK city. The site, located on a former diesel depot next to Temple Meads railway station, is currently owned by The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) and is set to become part of a wider development, called Arena

Latin America is poised to become a major market for the attractions industry in the coming decade, with recent football World Cup host Brazil a particularly promising market, according to Forrec senior creative Gordon Grice. During a wide-ranging briefing at Attractions Management headquarters, the industry veteran with over 25 years’ experience expressed excitement over the emerging market, which although still very young, has the potential to develop at pace. “Right