ACTVENTURE, the multi-million-dollar leisure and lifestyle mega-destination underway on the Sunshine Coast of Australia, is eyeing a rollout to the United Arab Emirates. US practice Thinkwell Group designed the plan for the AU$400m (US$305m, €280.7m, £243m) Queensland venture, with Canadian waterpark specialist WhiteWater West working on the waterpark. Members of ACTVENTURE’s advisory board – including Talal Najibi, executive chair of Najibi Investments, WhiteWater CEO Geoff Chutter, Joe Zenas, CEO of

David Beckham has launched his long-awaited Major League Soccer team in Miami today (29 January). The former England captain had exercised an option in his contract with former side LA Galaxy to buy an expansion franchise in 2014. The team, which has yet to be named, will play at a new 25,000-seat stadium in the city's Overton neighbourhood. Designed by sports architects Populous, the ground will be lighter and airier

Montage Hotels & Resorts has announced plans to open and operate a spa resort in Sonoma County, at the heart of California's wine country. Montage Healdsburg – a property owned by Ohana Real Estate Investors and developed by The Robert Green Company – will feature 130 guestrooms and will have a focus on wellness and food. Exact resort details are yet to be confirmed, but facilities include a large Spa

Four Seasons will open a flagship hotel and spa in Philadelphia, US, in Q3 of this year. Set in the historic city’s tallest tower – the 60-storey Comcast Technology Center – the new Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia at Comcast Center will include 219 bedrooms on the 48th to 56th floors. Above the hotel, the 57th-floor spa will include seven treatment rooms and an indoor infinity pool. The tower – a

Finnish architecture and firm Futudesign has won an invited competition to transform part of Eliel Saarinen’s Helsinki Central Railway Station into a hotel. Developer Exilion Management and hospitality operator Scandic Hotels are seeking ideas for how to breathe new life into the underutilised eastern administrative wing of the station, which was completed in 1914. Futudesign’s winning proposal, called ‘Hermes’, takes advantage of the grand, high interiors originally designed by Saarinen

The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) has announced it will prioritise the care and conservation of the only three museums designed by the legendary Le Corbusier. As part of its Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative, the CGI will host two workshops in India, where two of the three museums are located – the Sanskar Kendra Museum in Ahmedabad and the Government Museum and Art Gallery in Chandigarh. The third, the National Museum

Sweden’s National Heritage Board has hit out at David Chipperfield's proposed design for the Nobel Center headquarters and museum in Stockholm. The project, first announced in 2014, has navigated a complex series of legal challenges, with its opponents taking issue with its size and close proximity to many of the Swedish capital’s oldest landmarks and museums. Even the country’s king has voiced his doubts over its proposed location on the

Marriott International will operate a luxury hotel at Water Street Tampa – a US$3bn (€2.4bn, £2.1bn) mixed-use development currently under construction in downtown Tampa, Florida, US. The 519-room, 26-storey hotel will be operated under the JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts brand and will be designed by Nichols Brosch Wurst Wolfe & Associates with interiors by Champalimaud Design. Construction on the hotel is set to start in early 2018, with a

The National Museum of African American History and Culture has been named the design of 2017 by London’s Design Museum, making it only the second building to receive the accolade. The project, shortlisted after winning the architecture of the year category, was chosen ahead of a stair-climbing wheelchair, an ink manufactured from air pollution and a high-performance hijab by Nike. Designed by Adjaye Associates, The Freelon Group, Davis Brody Bond

Steven Holl Architects and arts collective Kamen have won an international design competition to create a 2 million sq ft (200,000sq m) mixed-use district on a former paratrooper airfield in Moscow. Fuksas Architecture and Zaha Hadid Architects were among the rival firms in contention for the vast scheme in Tushino, which will include housing, social spaces and schools alongside spas, pools, cafés and lounges. The site, situated near the Moscow

The Chinese mainland has its first Hard Rock Hotel, complete with a huge vinyl mosaic, hundreds of red guitars hanging from the walls and a golden dragon made from drumsticks and 1,680 cymbals. Hong Kong practice CL3 Architects, led by William Lim, were commissioned by developer Mission Hill Properties to design the Hard Rock Hotel Shenzhen, combining the brand’s trademark references to rock and roll with local design flourishes. Vibrant

Design initiative Young Architects Competitions (YAC) has joined forces with the Italian government to launch ‘Art Prison’, an ideas contest for the refurbishment of a fortress on a remote island in southern Sicily. The fortress of Santa Caterina stands over the peak of Favignana, an isle in the Mediterranean Sea. It was once a prison but has stood abandoned for more than a century. Over time, it has become a

The Global Wellness Institute has released its first report on wellness real estate and communities, Build Well to Live Well. The organisation estimates that the global wellness real estate market was worth US$134bn (€108bn, £94bn) in 2017, and projects it will grow six per cent a year, to US$180bn (€145bn, £126bn), by 2022. The US is the largest market, worth US$52.5bn (€42bn, £37bn), followed by China, Australia and the UK,

One of Scandinavia’s best-known design studios, Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, have joined global firm Perkins+Will in a strategic partnership. In a joint statement, the two practices said the move will allow Perkins+Will to diversify its global talent, expand its cultural and civic practice and reinforce the caliber of its design portfolio, while Schmidt Hammer Lassen will be able to expand into new geographic markets, grow its client base, “and apply

One of Scandinavia’s best-known design studios, Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, have joined global firm Perkins+Will in a strategic partnership. In a joint statement, the two practices said the move will allow Perkins+Will to diversify its global talent, expand its cultural and civic practice and reinforce the caliber of its design portfolio, while Schmidt Hammer Lassen will be able to expand into new geographic markets, grow its client base, “and apply

German architect Ole Scheeren has completed the much-anticipated Guardian Art Center on the doorstep of Beijing’s historic Forbidden City. The building is a hybrid cultural institution, featuring museum galleries, conservation facilities, restaurants and a hotel. It also claims to have the world’s first custom-built auction house. The centre’s lower portion is a series of nested stone volumes that echo the scale and materiality of the adjacent traditional hutong courtyard houses,

A design team led by Norwegian practice Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter has won an invited competition to create a vast cultural hub, topped by a timber tower enclosed in glass, next to Oslo’s historic railway station. The project, called Fjordporten, will be the largest mixed-use complex in Norway. It has been conceived to revitalise the area around the main train station and offer travellers “new spatial and qualitative experiences.” The base

Architects Chad Oppenheim and Arthur Casas have collaborated to create a dynamic hotel nestled between dilapidated 1950s apartment buildings on Rio de Janeiro’s Copacabana beach. The Emiliano Rio has a distinctive façade of sculptural weatherproof panels which can be opened and closed from the bedroom balconies, resulting in a constantly shifting elevation. “Through these simple yet powerful spatial manipulations, the hotel optimises its beneficial attributes while subverting its negative forces,”

Dutch architects MVRDV have added to their extensive list of future projects after winning an international design competition for a major mixed-use complex in Moscow’s city centre. The scheme, called Silhouette, will consist of luxury apartments of various configurations and sizes, a sports centre, flexible workspaces, an events space and a public sky deck. The design of the 52,000sq m (560,000sq ft), 78m (256ft) tall building is inspired by the

A series of theme parks has been announced, to open in Mexico, with the first coming to Mexico City later this year at a cost of MX$550m (US$29.4m, €24m, £21.1m). Coming to the municipality of Iztapalapa on the east side of the Mexican capital, entertainment investment firm Grupo Diniz are behind the franchise, called Kataplum. Covering 27,000sq m (290,000sq ft), theme park attractions will be split into three areas covering

Luxury wellness hotel operator Six Senses will open its first city hotel in Singapore this year as part of a restoration of two buildings in the heart of the city-state’s Chinatown. Six Senses Singapore is split across two buildings within walking distance of each other, Six Senses Duxton and Six Senses Maxwell, and will celebrate local Singapore culture and history while adding a touch of playfulness to the heritage properties,

After transforming a historic Scottish bank building into a bar, architecture studio Jestico + Whiles have unveiled their latest hospitality conversion project: a steak and gin restaurant built within Manchester’s Victorian-era Corn Exchange. Conceived as a hidden speakeasy serving 60 types of gin, Alston Bar & Beef will see diners must enter via a discrete entrance into a modest lobby, which is decorated by a large hand-painted mural created by

One of the Asia Pacific’s most flexible stadiums will open this Sunday (19 January) in Perth, Australia, with an open day welcoming fans into the 60,000 capacity landmark. The AU$1.6bn (US$1.2bn. €1bn, £925m) Optus Stadium – collaboratively designed by architecture firms Hassell, Cox and HKS – is owned by the state of Western Australia and can accommodate athletics, cricket, football, Australian rules football, rugby league and union, and huge concerts

V&A Dundee, Scotland’s first design museum, will open to the public on Saturday 15 September 2018, it has been revealed. New images of the Kengo Kuma-designed building have been released to coincide with the announcement, as have details of the museum’s inaugural exhibitions. Standing at the centre of the £1bn (US$1.3bn, €1.1bn) transformation of the city’s waterfront, once part of the docklands, V&A Dundee has been designed to evoke the

Canadian rapper, producer, actor and entrepreneur Drake is turning his attention to the restaurant business. The rapper, singer and songwriter is opening a high-end restaurant and sports bar in his hometown of Toronto, in a development on the corner of Yonge and Wellington Street. Called Pick 6ix and run by Drake’s OVO brand and record label, the restaurant is due to open in the very near future, with an official

Danish architects COBE and Norwegian beer maker Lervig have unveiled plans for a major waterfront visitor centre and brewery in Stavanger, Norway. Located on a former industrial pier, the 11,000sq m (118,400sq ft) building has been conceived as “a unique attraction for locals and visitors”, with a harbour bath, roof garden and street-food market all incorporated into the mixed-use scheme. COBE have described the design concept as “part architecture, part

Kengo Kuma’s extensive pipeline of public projects just got even longer, with his firm winning an international competition to design an aquatics centre on an artificial quay in Copenhagen’s harbour. The municipality has selected Kengo Kuma Associates to create the 5,000sq m (53,800sq ft) Danish Water Culture Center, ahead of four other shortlisted teams – BIG, 3XN Architects, AART Architects and ALA Architects. The project will be built on Christiansholm