Some of the 1,600 objects previously exhibited in the Triennale di Milano have found a permanent home in Milan's newly-opened Italian Design Museum. The museum, which was made possible by the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, opened on 9 April to coincide with Milano Design Week 2019. Sitting under the artistic direction of Joseph Grima, the museum is aiming to become "the leading international centre dedicated to Italian

Following the tragic destruction of Notre Dame's 19th-century spire, the French prime minister, Édouard Philippe, has invited architects to put forward ideas for its restoration. "The international competition will allow us to ask the question of whether we should even recreate the spire as it was conceived by Viollet-le-Duc," Philippe said of the project. "This is obviously a huge challenge, a historic responsibility," he added. Viollet-le-Duc, who counted Victor Hugo's

A new home for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) – worth an estimated US$650m (€574.6m, £497.3m) – has cleared a major hurdle having had its plans approved. Designed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, a former Pritzker Prize winner, the new building’s plans were approved at a county vote, which also cleared US$117.5m (€103.9m, £89.9m) in taxpayer funding for it. The museum’s design has received criticism for its

Cultural space developments in the Gulf region continue apace with the opening of a new US$434m (€383m, £328.7m) museum in Doha, Qatar. Designed by French architect Jean Nouvel, the museum resembles a desert rose and has been described as representing a kind of fantasy. "To imagine a desert rose as a basis for a design was a very advanced idea, even a utopian one," said Nouvel. He continued: "To construct

British design practice Hugh Broughton Architects have completed an £8.5m (US$11.2m, €10m) refurbishment of Painted Hall at the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich. Also known as the English 'Sistine Chapel', the renovated space features a restored Baroque fresco as well an adjoining undercroft that houses a cafe, art gallery, and visitor centre. Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the scheme was reportedly one of the largest open-access renovation

The V&A Museum of Childhood (MOC) in East London has chosen architecture firm AOC to design the new interiors for its £13.5m (US$17.8m, €15.7m) overhaul project. Working alongside base build and exterior architects De Matos Ryan, AOC will open up and modernise the Grade 2-listed building in Bethnal Green in London’s East End, creating three new galleries and more space so that the museum can display a significantly larger amount

The Museo Regional de Tarapacá in the Atacama Desert, Chile, has been reimagined by architect Daniel Libeskind’s practice Studio Libeskind. The new 3,760sq m (40472.3sq ft) building will allow for a larger showcase of the existing museum collection and provide a modern update to the original, which was completed in 1892. Over 6,000 years of northern Chile’s history – including the pre-Hispanic history of the Atacama Desert, the colonial history

The Kengo Kuma-designed Odunpazarı Modern Museum (OMM) is slated to launch in Eskisehir, Turkey – the former "Turkic World" capital of culture – in June. The 4,500 sq m museum, which takes its cantilevered, stacked appearance from the town's Ottoman-era houses and traditional wood market, will unfold over three floors and comprise exhibition galleries, workshop areas, event spaces, a cafe, and a shop. Founded by Turkish billionaire and art aficionado

A new interactive exhibition space, courtesy of US design studio Snarkitecture, has opened in the thriving Hudson Yards development in Manhattan, New York. Called Snark Park, the new 6,000sq ft (557sq m) space will put on three major experiences per year, starting with its first installation, Lost and Found – a grid-like ‘forest’ made up of columns of various heights that emerge from the ground which aims to encourage visitors

A new cultural centre that incorporates an art museum, science centre, a book mall, and a youth centre has finished construction in Shenzhen, China. Designed by architects Mecanoo, the Longgang Cultural Centre is located along a long, narrow strip in the city and is comprised of four angular red buildings, each housing one of its four main elements. The art museum showcases a number of public artworks on its upper

The Transport Museum of Hungary is building a new home in Budapest and has chosen New York architecture practice Diller Scofidio + Renfro to design it, following a competition. The firm beat out rivals including AL_A, Caruso St John, David Chipperfield, and Foster and Partners among others for the museum's new home, which will be based on a former rail maintenance depot site in the Kobanya region in east Budapest.

A new visitor centre is in the offing for London's famous replica of the Golden Hinde warship, which was captained by British naval officer Sir Francis Drake – the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. The centre has been designed by London-based architectural practice SPPARC and will feature an accessible education facility exploring the vessel's history, as well as an exhibition space and viewing galleries. SPPARC's dual-level, 1,125 sq m

Scandinavian architecture practice Snøhetta have revealed the first renderings of their proposed design for the Bolzano Museum Quarter in South Tyrol, Italy. The cultural attraction, which – if greenlit – will be picturesquely situated atop Virgolo mountain, will also serve as a satellite facility, housing artefacts from the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology and the Municipal Museum of Bolzano as well as exhibition spaces for Otzi the Iceman – a

Construction on the Universal Hip Hop Museum (UHHM) – the first institution of its kind in the US – is expected to begin by the end of 2019 in the Bronx, the birthplace of hip hop music. Supported by a team of acclaimed rap stars and disc jockeys, among whom are LL Cool J, Ice-T, and Kurtis Blow, UHHM will celebrate the genre's enduring resonance and cultural significance with various

Turkish design bureau Melike Altinisik Architects (MAA) have been selected to build a museum of robotics with components that "construct themselves". Located in Seoul, the future Robot Science Museum (RSM), which will have a globular as opposed to orthogonal form to provide a "wide range of possibilities for connection with urban orientation and public spaces", will rise four storeys and comprise three exhibition areas, a museum shop, offices, and a

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York has announced that it will close this summer and reopen with expanded exhibition spaces on 21 October 2019. Designed by New York architecture practice Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) in collaboration with Gensler, the MoMA's extensions will feature more than 40,000 sq ft (3,716 sq m ) of galleries – allowing for the inclusion of both new and re-choreographed exhibits. The

Construction of the main structure of the second outlet of the Chinese Museum of Natural History in Zhejiang is complete. Designed by David Chipperfield Architects, the museum is built into a sloping hillside in the city of Hangzhou and comprises an inner courtyard as well as several low-rise pavilions with exhibition halls and galleries. The galleries have been rendered in red ochre in order to match the clay earth of

Project teams have announced the completion of the Tianjin Binhai Exploratorium, a science and industry museum designed by Bernard Tschumi Architects (BTA). Featuring chimney-like spires and a bronze-coloured facade of perforated aluminium that resembles the iconic mudbrick fortresses and mosques of Timbuktu, the Exploratorium will mainly house galleries of exhibits on Tianjin's industrial past. The 33,000 sq m structure, BTA's first large-scale project in China, will also comprise offices, retail

The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London has released details of its redevelopment plans, which entail a new entrance, new public galleries in the building’s East Wing and a new learning space. Jamie Fobert Architects (JFA) have designed the plans with help from architectural conservation specialists Purcell. Three windows in the current facade turned into doorways, taking pressure off the existing main entrance and allowing for disabled and non-disabled access

The Horniman Museum and Gardens has selected British architects Studio West Egret (SWE) to develop a master plan to expand its estate. SEW will lead the design for a number of as-yet-undescribed projects, which – when complete – will help the South London institution work towards its goal of attracting a million visitors a year by 2023. First founded in Edwardian times, the museum currently boasts a collection of more

New York-based architecture practice Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R) have released the first concept designs for the long-anticipated London Centre for Music. Set to become the newest addition to London's Culture Mile – an array of institutes and landmarks situated around St. Paul's Cathedral – the Centre for Music will feature a 2000-person capacity, surround-seating concert hall designed by Nagata Acoustics; a multi-tiered foyer with extensive public galleries and event

Polish firm FAAB Architektura have revealed plans to extend the Museum of Pawiak Prison (MPP) in Warsaw. The renovated building, which will occupy the former grounds of the largest Nazi-run internment centre in Poland, will take the shape of a three-storey polyhedron and feature new exhibition spaces, a library, shop, information centre, and an observation deck. To enter the museum, patrons will mount an elevated ramp, which will run alongside

British architecture firm Foster + Partners have unveiled plans to design Mullin Automotive Park in the heart of England's picturesque Cotswolds region. The proposed £150m (US$192.5, €168.2m) motoring museum, which – if greenlit – will take shape at Enstone Airfield near Great Tew, will comprise a showroom and a main concourse plus a number of pavilions, lodges, green spaces, and interlinking test-drive roads. According to the architects, the idea behind

Architecture firm Hotei Russia have offered to design a replacement for the Azure Window, a limestone formation which famously appeared in the Game of Thrones television series and collapsed in 2017. The Russian architects' conceptual designs for the new landmark – dubbed "The Heart of Malta" – depict a polygonal structure connected to the mainland by an overwater promenade. According to the group, the new building will also feature "mirrored

American architecture studio Perkins + Will have released renderings of Destination Crenshaw – an outdoor cultural museum set to rise in South Los Angeles. Designed in collaboration with Studio MLA, the community-driven attraction will be both a memorial and a public art space, celebrating the distinctive and varied contributions made by African-Americans to Los Angeles over the past century. Spanning 1.1 miles (1770 metres) between 48th and 60th streets in

A former union club for naval officers in Berlin is to be converted into a new city museum for the German capital. Designed by architectural practice Adept, Stadtmuseum Berlin at 'Marinehaus' will be "a cultural pivot that anchors the museum in the neighbourhood through exhibitions, workshops and as a community centre for the locals", according to the architects. Renderings show that the 7,800sq m (84,000sq ft) building's existing floors will

BIG and Heatherwick Studio were among the winners on day one of the World Architecture Festival Awards in Amsterdam. The Audemars Piguet Hotel des Horlogers – designed by architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), has been named the best building in the Future Projects Leisure Led Development award category at this year’s World Architecture Festival (WAF). The hotel, which is being constructed alongside the BIG-designed Audemars Piguet luxury watch museum