The International Spy Museum (SPY) has announced plans to relocate to a new, larger property next year. The 16-year-old attraction, which houses extensive collections of spycraft artefacts and highlights the global history of tradecraft, will move to a 140,000sq ft building on L’Enfant Plaza near the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Designed by architects Rogers, Stirk, Harbour + Partners, the new facility will be twice the size of the current

Swiss architectural firm Herzog and de Meuron have released new renderings of their Kulturforum (Culture Forum), an extension of the Berlin-based Neue Nationalgalerie. The future structure, which in 2016 was selected to become the city’s Museum of the 20th Century, will be a stylistic hybrid, taking inspiration from public and private buildings like warehouses, barnyards, and railway concourses as well as the nearby Matthäus-kirche (Matthew's Church). Likening the Kulturforum to

The Arts District in El Paso, Texas is to welcome a new addition in the form of the El Paso Children’s Museum, which will sit between the El Paso Museum of History and the El Paso Museum of Art. Norway-based architectural practice Snøhetta have been selected to design the new museum, which will aim to engage children and families from El Paso, Ciudad Juarez, the American southwest, and the nearby

The National Veterans Memorial and Museum, a project championed by the late statesman and astronaut John Glenn, will open on the banks of the Scioto River in Ohio on 27 October. Conceptualised by architectural firm Allied Works, landscape specialists OLIN, and interiors consultancy Ralph Applebaum Associates (RAA) the museum – which some are calling the country’s latest national treasure – spans 53,000sq ft and includes exhibition spaces, a cafe, and

Architect Bill Bensley is working on a national cultural heritage site in Yên Tu Mountain – considered to be the cradle of Trúc Lâm Zen Buddhism in Vietnam – as part of the Vietnamese government’s strategic development plan for the area. Designed with attention to historical detail – Bensley has created the entire Yên Tu Village in 13th-century style and using 13th-century techniques where possible – the village will include

The history of Alberta, Canada, is now on display at the newly rebuilt Royal Alberta Museum (RAM) in the state capital of Edmonton, following seven years of planning and development. The museum building – now the largest in western Canada – is somewhat of an exhibition itself, with glazed walls that glow and then dissolve as the evening wears on and interior windows that allow views into its research laboratories,

MLK Boston – a non-profit which supports cultural programmes focused on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr – has unveiled the final designs for a memorial to the late activist and his wife, Coretta Scott King. The competition, first announced in December 2017, received 126 submissions; five made the final cut. Once chosen, the winning design will stand near the Massachusetts State House, in the 50-acre Boston Common. Among

Rotterdam-based architectural firm MVRDV has completed construction on the Imprint, a two-building, 9,800-square-metre indoor theme park and nightclub located less than a kilometre from Incheon Airport in Seoul, South Korea. Visually, the Imprint is a windowless structure comprising 3,869 glass-fibre reinforced concrete panels. According to Winy Mass, MVDRV’s co-founder, these features were introduced in order to create a façade that would imitate other buildings in the area. “By placing, as

A unique new art gallery that is buried in a sand dune is close to completing construction on the coast of Bohai Bay in northern China. Spanning a total area of 10,000 sqf (930sq m), the museum will accommodate a number of galleries of varying size, multiple studios and a café when it opens later this year. Operated by Chinese contemporary art institution UCCA in partnership with museum architects OPEN

American billionaires Mitchell and Emily Wei Rales are to reopen the Glenstone Museum, showcasing their extensive collection of post-war art, in Maryland, US next month following renovations and an expansion. The museum, located on the grounds of a former hunt club near Washington DC in Potomac, has undergone a serious overhaul. The attraction now boasts additional exhibition space, two cafés, a bookstore and a total of 230 acres of landscaped

Princeton University has selected Sir David Adjaye and Cooper Robertson to lead on the redesign and expansion of the school’s historic art establishment. The collaborators will spearhead the development of new exhibition halls, as well as classrooms and office spaces for the museum's 100-person staff. First instituted in 1882, the Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is one of the oldest institutions in the US. Its wide-ranging collection, which comprises more

Photographs of Scotland’s first design museum, the V&A Dundee, have been released ahead of its 15 September opening. The building was designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, who commented: “The big idea for V&A Dundee was bringing together nature and architecture, to create a new living room for the city. I’m truly in love with the Scottish landscape and nature.” “I was inspired by the rugged cliffs of the north

French architects Titan have built a replacement visitor centre at the home of former French leader Georges Clemenceau after the original was destroyed by Cyclone Xynthia in 2010. The house's new entrance pavilion has been designed to blend into its coastal surroundings – clad entirely in sand-coloured concrete – and houses a museum shop and educational space. Clemenceau, who was French president during the First World War and one of

The V&A Dundee has released new images of its interiors ahead of its eagerly anticipated, official opening on Saturday 15 September. The museum is Scotland’s first dedicated design museum and was designed by Kengo Kuma. V&A Dundee focuses on the international importance of design, as well as presenting a history of Scotland’s design achievements. The Scottish Design Galleries feature 300 exhibits drawn from the V&A’s collections of Scottish design, as

The House of Hungarian Music by Sou Fujimoto – the architect behind such projects such as The Serpentine Gallery and the Musashino Art University Museum – is set to undergo construction on the shore of Városliget Lake in Budapest’s City Park. The building, part of an expansive national cultural initiative, will utilise transparent glass walls and a mushroom-shaped, perforated roof, to mimic the free-flowing, airy, and barrier-shattering attributes of music.

A hotel, a new atrium, outdoor play and exhibit areas and a ‘Neighborhood of Play’ – a residential project with retail units, sculptures and street fixtures are all planned for US attraction the Strong National Museum of Play’s reinvention. The museum has entered the first phase of a 100,000q ft (2,290sq m) expansion, which has a total fundraising goal of fundraising goal of US$60m (€52.5M, £47m). US$20m (€17.5m, £15.7m) from

Canadian science museum Telus World of Science, based in the city of Edmonton, has announced that two new spaces designed by architectural practice Dialog have opened. The Zeidler Dome – an immersive theatre and planetarium – and the S.P.A.C.E (Stars, Planets, Astronauts, Comets, Etc.) Gallery – a space exploration gallery – are now open to the public. Frank Florian, director of planetarium and space science at Telus World of Science,

Kirk Johnson, museum director of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington DC, has announced its David H. Koch Hall of Fossils will reopen on 8 June 2019. Colloquially known as Fossil Hall, the room was closed for a US$129m (€113.2m, £101.4m) renovation in 2014. The project has returned the museum’s wing, which first opened in 1910, to its original architectural majesty. High ceilings, skylights and ornate moulding

The Kengo Kuma-designed V&A Museum of Design Dundee, Scotland’s first dedicated design museum, is set to open its doors in less than a month. Opening on 15 September 2018, the V&A Dundee will be the lauded Japanese architect’s first building in the UK. The structure is now complete and new stills from released drone footage, taken by Rapid Visual Media, show its contours and sculptured outline off to the wider

American architectural practice Cooper Robertson have made a swathe of in-house promotions, including the appointment of a new director of architecture. The architects, noted for their museum and cultural work, have name Erin Flynn as director of architecture. Flynn has an extensive 20-year background in cultural and museum architecture as a project leader on notable commissions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Fowler Museum at UCLA Planning

The first ever museum dedicated to telling the story of American comedy has opened in Jamestown, New York, US. JRA provided complete master planning, design, project management and art direction for the 37,000sq ft (3,400sq m) National Comedy Center, which took seven years to complete at a cost of around US$50m (€43.2m, £38.6m). As well as featuring 50 exhibits exploring comedy history – from vaudeville to viral memes – the

Architecture and design practice Sam Jacob Studio will give London’s Cartoon Museum "greater flexibility" in displaying its collection, having been appointed to design its new home. The museum, which showcases a collection of cartoon and comic art dating back as far as the 18th century, was founded in 2006 and is "dedicated to preserving the best of British cartoons, caricatures, comics and animation". Following a 25-year lease deal agreed with

Amos Rex, a new art museum in Helsinki, is set to open in August 2018, following the refurbishment of the Lasipalatsi Building in the centre of the Finnish capital. The €50m (US$58m, £44.7m) project, designed by Finnish architects JKMM, will house 2,200sq m (23,600sq ft) worth of gallery space created beneath the remodelled public Lasipalatsi Square. The new gallery’s roof, meanwhile, is formed of numerous domes, which contain angled rooflights

Tate St Ives is the only leisure building to find its way onto the shortlist for the 2018 RIBA Stirling Prize for the UK’s best new building. The Cornish museum – designed by Jamie Fobert Architects with Evans & Shalev – is one of the six projects today (19 July) revealed to be in the running for the prestigious prize. The other nominees include student housing, an office building, a

New Zealand's government has suspended NZ$25m (US$17m, €14.5m, £12.3m) financing for a convention centre in Wellington, New Zealand, with the plans on hold until Sir Peter Jackson can reach an agreement with the city over his proposed movie museum project. The country's government had agreed the financial package to help pay for the NZ$165m (US$111.6m, €96m, £85.6m) development, which would also feature Jackson's museum, however, the Ministry of Business, Innovation

The Buffalo Museum of Science in Buffalo, New York, has celebrated the opening of its new digital planetarium, following the redevelopment of its Kellogg Observatory. The observatory, which reopens to the public for the first time in nearly two decades, has undergone major renovations. Part of the museum's history for close to a century, the observatory – along with its historic Lundin telescope and rooftop area – have undergone an

Plans have been lodged by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) to build a vertical gallery and bird hide in a 19th-century botanical garden in the country's Highlands. London-based architects Denizen Works are behind the proposal for Inverewe Garden, which was first opened in 1862 and features more than 2,500 exotic plants and flowers. The 20m-tall (65.6ft) tower is designed as a "landmark and orientation point to encourage more people