A sand sculpture theme park is set to open on disused land near Brighton Marina after Brighton and Hove City Council approved the temporary use of the former Black Rock swimming pool site. A council initiative invited developers to come forward with ideas for temporary uses and the Brighton Sand Sculpture Festival (BSSF) was selected as offering the best chance of boosting the city's economy. Other proposals considered were a

Musée du Louvre in Paris, France and Fine Arts Museums in San Francisco, US are set to collaborate on a series of exhibitions over the next five years. The international accord includes plans to share significant works of art from both museums' collections with audiences in San Francisco and Paris. The partnership will see collaborations on publications, art conservation projects and public education programs. The two institutions will work together

A luxury integrated resort - Desaru Coast - is set to open on the eastern coast of Jahor, Malaysia in 2015. Destination Resorts and Hotels (DRH) - established by Khazanah Nasional Berhad, an investment-holding arm of the government of Malaysia - is developing the 3,900-acre resort. Desaru Coast will launch in phases and will feature an array of luxury hotels and golf residences as well as theme and water parks,

Hemingway Design has been appointed to design the new Dreamland theme park in Margate, Kent. Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway, who made their name as fashion designers, have been tasked with creating the park’s overall scheme. Stage one of the project to transform the site into a £10m heritage park is expected to open next year. Nick Laister, chair of The Dreamland Trust, said: "Wayne and Gerardine have created some truly

The Asian Civilisations Museum is set to invest S$5.5m (US$4.5m, £2.8m, 3.5m euro) in expanding its building in Empress Place, Singapore. A new wing, which is expected to open in 2015, has been funded by the Hong Leong Foundation (HLF) and is being designed by Singaporean architects GreenhilLi Consultants. Surrounded by a light-filled atrium, and connecting to galleries on three floors, the new wing is a departure from the 19th

A new US$550m leisure district - The Linq - on the Las Vegas Strip is gearing up for its launch in 2013. Owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment Corporation, The Linq will span more than 200,000sq ft (18,580sq m) and is comprised of retail, dining, beverage and entertainment experiences. The project was designed by Washington D.C-based firm David M. Schwarz Architects and the architect of record is Las Vegas-based Klai

The Parrish Art Museum in Long Island, New York, US is set to unveil its new building on 10 November 2012. Spanning a 14-acre (5.7 hectare) site in the town of Water Mill, the new 34,400sq ft (3,195sq m), Herzog & de Meuron-designed museum will be twice the size of the existing facility in Southampton and about three miles away from it. It will be the first art museum built

RIBA Competitions has launched a two-stage Design Ideas Competition for the Great Fen Visitor Centre in Cambridgeshire. The competition is being promoted by the Great Fen - a partnership which comprises the Environment Agency, Huntingdonshire District Council, Middle Level Commissioners, Natural England and The Wildlife Trust. Great Fen plans to establish a £2m visitor centre at New Decoy Farm in Cambridgeshire and the competition is open to design teams based

The View from The Shard (VTS), a new visitor experience located at the top of Europe's tallest building in London, will open to the public on 1 February. Details of the attraction's design were revealed for the first time today (25 October) by Anders Nyberg, VTS chief executive. The tall attraction will take people on a journey to 244m (800ft) above London, almost twice as high as any other viewing

Wellcome Collection in central London has unveiled a major £17.5m development project which will increase the attraction's available gallery space. Stirling Prize-winning architects Wilkinson Eyre will transform the venue, bringing new areas into public use and adding a dramatic new spiral staircase and interconnected galleries. The works were commissioned by the collection's owner, Wellcome Trust, as it strives to meet the demands posed by an increase in visitor numbers at

Detailed plans for the first phase of Rafael Viñoly's Battersea Power Station masterplan have now been submitted to Wandsworth Council. The project in Nine Elms in London was granted outline planning consent in 2011 and the new application provides a detailed specification for the first stage of the development. The application covers the details of the scale of the buildings and structures, the external appearance and the landscaping within Phase

Norway's 90m euro (£73m US$116) contemporary art museum, the Astrup Fearnley Museum in Oslo, has opened to the public. The museum, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, is located on the edge of a fjord and is divided into two halves by water. Renzo Piano's previous work includes Beyeler Museum in Basel, the extension of the Morgan Library in New York and the Shard in London. The museum covers an

Construction work is to begin on Abu Dhabi Louvre, the first Louvre museum outside Paris, at the beginning of 2013. Ahmad Al Fahim, executive director of marketing at Tourism Development and Investment Company (TDIC), told the Gulf News that a construction company would be announced at the end of December. The museum is to be located on the Saadiyat Island's Cultural District complex, which will also feature a Frank Gehry-designed

The world's first indoor Angry Birds-themed activity park will open to the public in December, at the Vuokatti ski resort in Sotkamo, Finland. Based on the popular mobile game, the Angry Birds Land includes a number of themed rides and a large play area, and encourages visitors to exercise and play. The activity park will be constructed within the 8,700sq m (sq ft 93,600) Incap industrial estate and will form

A consortium which includes US-based entertainment giant Paramount Pictures has unveiled plans to create a £2bn visitor attraction on the North Kent coast in the UK. Plans for the 872-acre development site, on the Swanscombe Peninsula, include a Paramount-branded entertainment resort and leisure district as part of what is being billed as "Europe's leading entertainment destination". The entertainment district will feature Europe's largest indoor water park, theatres, live music venues,

Image: The Minnesota Children's Museum The Minnesota Children’s Museum is in line for a US$26m (£16m, 20m euro) revamp, which will include a physical adventure gallery, an entire floor dedicated to imagination and creativity and numerous galleries with content incorporating the latest research on early learning. Meyer Scherer & Rockcastle of Minneapolis have been appointed as design architects, who have more than 30 years’ experience designing spaces for children, including

Image: MACBA is located in the San Telmo district Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Buenos Aires (MACBA) - a new contemporary art museum - has opened its doors to the public in the San Telmo district of the Argentinian capital. Vila Sebastian Arquitectos are behind the attraction's design, which comprises a glass façade measuring 15m x 12m (49ft x 39ft) that brings together activities from all floors. Museum activities are spread

Image: The museum will feature thousands of artefacts The new £35m Mary Rose Museum will open to the public in early 2013, slightly later than originally expected. Located at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, the new Wilkinson Eyre-designed attraction was first slated to open in autumn 2012, although no exact date had been set. Construction work on the iconic museum - undertaken by Warings Group - has been completed but the final

Image: The Rijksmuseum first opened in July 1885 Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum has announced it will open its doors to the public in April 2013 following the completion of a renovation and restoration programme lasting nearly 10 years. The new-look attraction will explore the history of the Netherlands from the Middle Ages to the present, with the EUR375m (US$471m, £297m) project led by architects Cruz y Ortiz. First opened in July 1885,

Image: Work is expected to start later this year New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced new funding towards New York Aquarium's new Ocean Wonders: Sharks! development in Coney Island, US. Bloomberg - along with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) president and CEO Cristián Samper - also unveiled designs for the project, which have been drawn up by The Portico Group. The city's Public Design Commission backed plans for the

Plans to build a new £10.7m Dunfermline Museum and Art Gallery have been given the green light by the City of Dunfermline Area Committee. A public consultation will now begin on the plans which have been designed by architecture firm Richard Murphy Associates in partnership with Fife Council. Plans for the building include a landscaped entrance for the combined library, museum and art gallery and purpose-built museum exhibition and gallery

Image: Bolliger and Mabillard designed GateKeeper Cedar Park - the amusement park and resort in Sandusky, Ohio, US - has announced plans to build one of the longest winged rollercoasters in the world ahead of its 2013 season. GateKeeper is currently scheduled to debut in May and will feature one of the longest drops of any winged coaster in the world, with the ride spanning 3.5 acres (1.4 hectares). Swiss

Image: The galleries' gold iridescent steel roof More than 2,500 objects from the Louvre's collection of Islamic art will go on show across nearly 3,000sq m (32,292sq ft) of new gallery space at the Paris attraction on 22 September. The opening of new Islamic Art Galleries - designed by architects Mario Bellini and Rudy Ricciotti - is the first major addition to the Louvre since I M Pei's glass pyramid

Image: The new galleries open on 18 November Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) is to unveil its newly-renovated contemporary wing on 18 November - the first phase of a US$24.5m (EUR19.9m, £15.6m) upgrade programme. A total of 16 galleries have been revitalised and will showcase works from the contemporary collection by Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol, as well as new and existing artists. The project has featured a new exhibition

Image: The theme park will have five themed areas A groundbreaking ceremony has been held to mark the start of work on the 230-hectare (568-acre) Adventure World Warsaw theme park in Grodzisk Mazowiecki near the Polish capital city Warsaw. Companies involved with the scheme include JoraVision, Vekoma Rides Manufacturing and AGS Architects - all based in The Netherlands, as well as Poland-based RCK and Imtech. German water ride manufacturer Hafema

Image: Hepworth Wakefield has been shortlisted Belfast's £18.1m Lyric Theatre and West Yorkshire's £35m Hepworth Wakefield gallery have been named among six UK buildings shortlisted for the 2012 RIBA Stirling Prize. Dublin, Ireland-based O'Donnell + Tuomey were responsible for the " crafted and careful reincarnation " of the theatre on a suburban site in the heart of the Northern Ireland capital. Meanwhile, David Chipperfield Architects oversaw the design of the

Image: Plans include a 'European' piazza Calderdale Council has secured a £7m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund towards the £19m transformation of Piece Hall in Halifax, West Yorkshire into a modern heritage attraction. Plans for the Grade I-listed Georgian building include a visitor centre charting the history of the building as well as learning facilities, retail space and a conference and venue area. There will also be European-style piazza,