The new home for the Aspen Art Museum (AAM) is now complete, and ready to open to the public on Saturday 9 August. Designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Shigeru Ban, the 33,000sq ft (10,058sq m) museum and gallery is the new home for the Aspen Art Museum, which had outgrown its old place of residence. As Ban’s first permanent museum in America, the backdrop of the building is the

From a shortlist of six architectural practices, Goldsmiths College, London, has announced that Assemble - a London based architecture collective - will be designing their new £1.8m ($3.1m, €2.2m) gallery in South East London. Housed in Grade II listed swimming baths, Assemble’s design for the gallery will incorporate the original black steel water tanks as part of the new exhibition space, while creating new gallery spaces tacked onto the outside

To commemorate the centenary of the First World War, a monumental pillar of light was shot into the air last night, eerily hung amongst London’s famous skyline. Together with the nation's Lights Out initiative, which saw households and businesses across the UK extinguishing all but one of their lights at 10pm last night (4th August), acclaimed artist Ryoji Ikeda’s latest installation lit up a corner of Westminster and spread 15km

Nestled in the fjords near Tromsø, Norway, plans have been unveiled for a rare floating hotel – in the shape of a giant snowflake. The floating ice crystal, known as the Krystall Hotel, will be rooted to the ground by an underwater concrete pillar. The aim of the structure is to be as self-sustaining as possible and have minimal impact on the environment, whilst offering an experience of 5-star luxury.

Bjarke Ingles Group (BIG) has been commissioned to design a new form of enclosure at Givskud Zoo, Denmark – Zootopia. Zootopia is based on the concept of man and nature becoming one; it is a hybrid of a traditional zoo and a safari, which will be split into four different sections, three of which will be themed around the continents of Africa, Asia and the Americas, with a central plaza

A large part of Eastbourne Pier was reduced to a burned out shell yesterday (30 July) after a blazing inferno tore through the Grade II-listed structure, destroying a significant amount of the visitor attraction. More than 60 firefighters tackled the fire, which is believed to have broken out in the 144-year old pier’s arcade building. Crews from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) from Eastbourne, Hastings and Newhaven were also

Mocked up for his project called ‘The Art of Diving,' Bulgarian-based designer Kristian Terziev has designed a new diving centre-cum-public space to showcase diving to the world. The centre, which would be located in the Bulgarian coastal city of Tsarevo, is space to reflect on the themes of water sports whilst being in close proximity to the ocean. As a working diving centre, the project allows divers to benefit from

A 760m (2,493 ft) long pedestrian walkway leading to the historic island of Mont Saint Michel - which boasts a castle, commune and abbey - was opened to the public on 22 July. Dietmar Feichtinger Architectes, an Austria-based practice, has designed the jetty to replace the 135-year-old structure that was there before. After nine years of research and three years of construction, the finished article is finally ready to be

George Lucas’ legacy project – the US$300m (€220m, £179m) Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (LMNA) – has revealed that Beijing-based MAD Architects has been selected as principal designer for the project, while Chicago-based Studio Gang will work on the landscape. In addition, VOA Associates, based in Chicago, will serve as the executive architect and lead the implementation of MAD’s design. Pending approval by the Chicago Plan Commission, Lucas' 95,000sq ft

Tayto Park – one of Ireland’s most popular tourist attractions – has had a planning application for a €25m (£19.8m, $33.6m) expansion and world-class roller coaster approved by the local council. Meath County Council granted permission to develop a new entrance, car parking and visitor facilities as well as the roller coaster and additional new rides. The wooden roller coaster, to be designed and built by US wood-coaster specialists Gravity

Aberdeen City Council is looking for construction firms to carry out a £30m (US$50.9m, €37.8m) revamp of the Scottish city’s art gallery. The local authority’s approved plans include the construction of a new rooftop gallery and the extension of the gallery’s iconic war memorial. “It's great to see the next step towards expanding the Art Gallery has been taken,” said council chair Dustin Macdonald in a statement. The council has

London's Imperial War Museum (IWM) has marked the centenary of World War One with the reopening of its museum following the completion of the first phase of a larger £40m (US$68.3m, €50.5m) revamp of the entire facility. Opening to the public tomorrow (19 July), the first phase of the IWM's refurbishment was made possible with £6.5m (US$11.1m, €8.2m) in funding form the Heritage Lottery Fund (HFL) and £5m (US$8.5m, €6.3m)

De Matos Ryan – a London based architectural firm – has been granted planning permission to go ahead with a £4.1m revamp of The York Theatre Royal, UK, while nearby Newcastle's Theatre Royal is also getting a makeover, albeit behind the scenes. After a large fundraising effort, the York project is now set to move forward with an onsite start date of March 2015 and a provisional completion date of

Rome’s long-awaited €250m, (US$340m, £198m) Cinecittà World theme park – designed by multiple-Oscar-winning production designer designer Dante Ferretti – will finally open its doors to the public on 24 July after a decade of delays. Conceived as Italy’s take on Universal Studios, Cinecittà World comprises 20 attractions, including roller coasters, dark rides and a flight simulator. Incorporating elements of science fiction, Bollywood, spaghetti westerns and many other themes from more

Despite Germany’s attempt at crushing Brazil’s spirits in the 2014 Fifa World Cup, the nation's love of football has not been completely kicked to the wayside as plans have been unveiled for the world’s first Football Entertainment Centre to be built in Rio De Janeiro, allowing Brazil’s football legacy and love affair with the beautiful game, to continue. To be constructed in the form of a giant football which will

The Mall of the World – a giant indoor ‘city’ under construction in Dubai – will have its own version of Oxford Street and Broadway, as well as galleons, waterfalls, a theme park, wellness district and a host of other leisure activities and attractions. The ‘city’, which has a giant retractable dome, is Dubai’s vision for a climate-controlled leisure district, including luxury hotels with more than 20,000 bedrooms, shops, entertainment

The trend for new theme parks in China has continued with the announcement of the US$1.6bn (€1.2bn, £934m) Poseidon Ocean Kingdom in Harbin, Heilongjiang. Scheduled to open in July 2016, the park – backed and funded by the Malaysia-based KWZone Group – will be themed around stories of the Greek sea god Poseidon and will cover 1sq km (0.4sq m). Taylor Jeffs of US-based GGE, which is designing the visual

London’s AT Design Office has released designs for a floating city in the China Sea, and the plans look set to become reality as China's government looks to maximise its tourist footprint. Space is a premium on any continent, especially so in China and the proposed floating city would be built to appeal to tourists and residents alike, offering an array of attractions and plenty of green space. Commissioned by

Concept images have been released for the planned AU$428m (US$402m, €295.7m £235m) WA Museum in Perth, Australia. Planned to be built by 2019 and opened in 2020, the facility’s first conceptual image of the interior shows a blue whale skeleton hanging overhead. Backers have also produced the results of a year-long project looking at the scope, cost and delivery details before a tender phase of development. The new facility will

A planned super city in South Korea that will cost an estimated US$275bn (€202bn, £160bn) will include a host of leisure features including a theme park, casinos, luxury hotels, a 50,000 seat concert hall and a medical-themed ‘healing town’. Dubbed ‘City8’, the giant metropolis will create an estimated 930,000 new jobs and aims to attract 134 million tourists annually. Other features for the proposed city – to be built on

Glasgow Science Centre’s ill-fated tower is set to reopen in the Scottish city more than four years after visitors were last allowed to use it. The 127m (416ft) rotating tower – which offers a 20-mile view of the Glasgow area on a clear day – has spent more than 80 per cent of its existence closed since opening in 2001, having been plagued by a number of structural problems making

Employment within the UK creative industries sector – which includes museums, galleries and architecture – has increased five times faster than the national average since 2011, according to the latest figures published by the Department for Culture Media and Sport. The Creative Industries: Focus on Employment report builds on the findings of the Creative Industries Economic Estimates published in January this year which revealed the creative industries contribute more than

Redevelopment plans for London’s Crystal Palace have hit a wall as negotiations with the site's investors – Chinese ZhongRong Group and Bromley Council – have taken significantly longer than expected. Speaking to the Architects’ Journal, Green Party spokesman in Crystal Palace Tom Chance said: ‘We understand that the negotiations are stuck in a catch 22 situation – that the council wants more detail on the plans before they sign off

Wuhan, the capital city of central China, could be the home of the world’s tallest pair of buildings by 2018, as part of an ambitious mixed-use scheme. Chetwoods Architects, a UK based firm, have submitted proposals for the world’s tallest towers and are awaiting final approval from Wuhan’s mayor. The new Phoenix Towers, standing at 3,280ft (1 km) tall, would take up seven hectares of a yet-to-be developed 47 hectare

A huge 200,000sq ft (18,580sq m) aquarium will open in late 2015 as part of a US$175m (€128m, £103m) entertainment complex in Arizona, US, with work to start in August later this year. A part of the Odysea in the Desert leisure complex, OdySea Aquarium will cover 16 acres of land and will sit over two floors, accommodating up to 15,000 visitors daily and creating around 250 permanent jobs. The

China’s latest piece of ‘duplitecture’ – architectural replicas of tourist areas and attractions around the world – will be a CN¥10.8bn (US$1.7bn, €1.3bn, £1bn) recreation of Queenstown in New Zealand, alongside imitations of Davos in Switzerland and a Scottish-style town. The planned ski resort will be built with a “Queenstown-type feel” and will sit near another “mini-Queenstown” which will feature a scenic man-made blue lake, ski fields, a forest train,

Dubai city officials and architect Fernando Donis are at loggerheads following the unveiling of plans for a unique new attraction in Dubai. Donis, a Mexican architect, won the Dubai Municipality competition to design a new public monument in 2009 and now, five years later, new images have been released of the redesigned structure. The “Dubai Frame” will be 150m (492ft) tall and 100m (328ft) wide, with a walkway between the