A new NZ$30m (US$22m, €18m, £16.5m) luxury spa and wellness centre in Rotorua, New Zealand, will incorporate Maori culture in its design. Due to open in late 2019, the Wai Ariki Hot Springs and Spa will be set on Rotorua’s lakefront and is being developed by Pukeroa Oruawhata Group. The facility will form just one element of the wider health and wellness vision for the group’s 11-hectare site, and will

A Gothenburg warehouse will be transformed into a 16,500sq m (177,600sq ft) mixed-use hub, with Dutch architects MVRDV on design duties. Working in collaboration with BSK Arkitekter, the practice will convert the multi-storey industrial structure into Magasin 113 – “a lively cultural development with both private and public functions.” The project is located in the heart of Frihamnen RiverCity – the largest urban development project in Sweden, and indeed Scandinavia

A new leisure development next to London’s Tower Bridge is set for completion this month, featuring an Ivy restaurant and a brand new theatre established by acclaimed director Nicholas Hytner. Designed by architects Squire and Partners, One Tower Bridge has a prominent riverside location on Potters Fields Park, adjacent to the Grade I listed Tower Bridge. The masterplan – conceived as a “lasting new piece of the city”, which articulates

The International Well Building Institute (IWBI) has officially launched the WELL Community Standard – designed to help set up a new global benchmark for healthy communities. A rating system centered on human health and wellness, the new standard takes into consideration evidence-based research and has been developed through consultation with physicians, scientists and public health professionals, as well as architects, city planners and engineers. The programme builds on the principles

A major adventure resort offering a wide variety of physical, thrilling and wellness activities, a 100-bedroom hotel and 400 luxury lodges on a 480-acre (194-hectare) Welsh site will be project managed by AECOM. Afan Valley Adventure Resort will offer a mix of healthy and exhilarating pastimes, including water sports, mountain biking, survival training, trampolining, surfing and zorbing, in response to rising demand for British holidays with a stronger emphasis on

The future of the Expo 2020 site after the international event closes in April 2021 will be revealed next week, with a “reputational, social, physical and economic” legacy plan. The development proposals will be unveiled during the annual Middle East real estate exhibition, Cityscape Global, which takes place 11-13 September at the Dubai World Trade Centre. It will be the first time the vision for the project has been made

Almost 2,000 people have attended a private opening event for the Little Ceasers Arena; a 20,000-capacity sports and entertainment venue located in the heart of Detroit. Politicians, athletes, media personalities and business and civic leaders attended the event on Tuesday (5 September) to take a first look at the hotly-anticipated venue – the new home of National Hockey League (NHL) franchise the Detroit Red Wings and National Basketball Association (NBA)

Dubai development giant Nakheel is preparing to unveil a range of leisure projects worth more than AED3.2bn (US$871.2m, €727.5m, £666.9m) at the forthcoming Cityscape Global 2017 conference in the emirate. The company will launch six new residential, retail and hospitality developments for four of its communities in Dubai – including one of its its best-known locations: the tree-shaped Palm Jumeirah. Nakheel chair Ali Rashid Lootah said: “The Nakheel name is

Hospitality giant Hilton has announced an agreement with real estate firm Ithaafushi Investment to manage its new-built resort in the Maldives. Spanning three islands on the South Male Atoll, the Waldorf Astoria Maldives will be the second hotel in the Maldives for Hilton and will join 10 other Waldorf Astoria properties which are already open, or currently under development in the Asia Pacific. While few design details have been released,

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has launched a competition seeking “inspiring and innovative” ideas for the reuse of surplus gasholder bases – huge containers storing natural gas – across the UK. Once prominent across Britain, in recent years the numbers of gasholders in active use have dwindled. Now the National Grid Company, which manages the land they are built on, plans to dismantle them and find a new

The long-delayed and even longer-awaited Louvre Abu Dhabi has finally been given its launch date, with the Jean Nouvel-designed cultural institution opening to the public on 11 November. A string of setbacks dating back by more than decade have delayed the AED4.3bn (US$1.2bn, €1bn, £914m) project, which anchors the under-development Saadiyat Cultural District – where one day the Zayed National Museum designed by Foster and Partners and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi

The long-delayed and even longer-awaited Louvre Abu Dhabi has finally been given its launch date, with the Jean Nouvel-designed cultural institution opening to the public on 11 November. A string of setbacks dating back by more than decade have delayed the AED4.3bn (US$1.2bn, €1bn, £914m) project, which anchors the under-development Saadiyat Cultural District – where one day the Zayed National Museum designed by Foster and Partners and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi

Construction has begun on a 75,000sq m (807,300sq ft) green-terraced, mixed-use building located in Amsterdam’s Central Business District – the latest leisure project from Dutch architects MVRDV. The studio’s design for developer OVG Real Estate – which was selected by the Municipality of Amsterdam in 2015 following an international competition – includes shops, bars, restaurants, cultural facilities, apartments, offices and a sky bar spread across a sprawling forested man-made valley.

A group spa industry veterans have come together to create a new hospitality and real estate company, Civana, based around sustainable wellness through an affordable travel and lifestyle platform. Led by Kevin Kelly – who was former Canyon Ranch president and chief branding officer, and most recently was CEO and co-owner of California’s Two Bunch Palms – Civana will bring together wellness programming, sustainable design and hotel asset and property

Dutch architecture studio Mecanoo have been named the winners of an urban design competition to totally transform a business district in Shenzhen, China. Twelve staggered skyscrapers, an elevated pedestrian network and a vast green urban park form the key elements of the 1.36 million sq m (14 million sq ft) development Mecanoo will now design for the area around Shenzhen North railway and metro station. Mecanoo’s proposal – featuring retail

Plans for a multi-million pound hotel complex complete with a rooftop swimming pool, nightclub, restaurants and retail outlets have been unveiled for Newcastle city centre. Local firm Space Architects are designing the scheme, which will encompass nine existing neoclassical buildings – seven of which are Grade II listed – along the city’s Grey Street The studio have been tasked with creating a new visitor attraction for the North East region,

Architect Frank Gehry has been commissioned to develop the design for a model railway museum in Massachusetts, which will feature miniature work from a host of the world’s leading designers. According to The Boston Globe newspaper, Gehry visited the city of North Adams last week to visit the site earmarked for the 83,000sq ft (7,700sq m) Extreme Model Railroad and Contemporary Architecture Museum. Architecture practice Gluckman Tang had been developing

Boutique hotel group The Hoxton has debuted its fourth property, with the new opening inside an 18th century Paris townhouse once home to Louis XV’s main courtiers. The Hoxton, Paris – located on Rue du Sentier in the French capital’s 2nd arrondissement – occupies three buildings and has 172 bedrooms, two courtyards, a modern French brasserie, an intimate bar, seven meeting rooms and a communal pantry kitchen. The building, originally

The city council of Australia’s Gold Coast has fast-tracked the building a AU$60.5m (US$48.1m, €40.3m) art gallery to add to its fast-developing cultural precinct. Designed by ARM Architecture, the colourful, twisting gallery is expected to be built to the south of the city’s Evandale Lake. The building will feature up to five floors of exhibits and halls and a rooftop bar. According to the Gold Coast Bulletin, work is likely

Luxury goods giant LVMH have announced a €60m (US$71.4m, £55m) plan to turn Paris’s 19th-century leisure park, the Jardin d‘Acclimatation into one of France’s top three theme parks. Work to restore the historic sections of the park and to build 17 new attractions - much of which will be themed around the steampunk genre - will begin on September 4 and is expected to last until May 2018. The park

Chinese architecture practice Studio Zhu-Pei have completed work on a ‘hovering’ garden installation in a Chinese sculpture park, which allows visitors to wander the grounds over, under and around huge stacks of plants and flowers. New images of the project, called Yi Garden II, reveal how an abandoned two-storey concrete frame has been used as the foundation for a seemingly gravity-defying arrangement of greenery in the grounds of Quanzhou National

A major modern art museum will open its doors in Jakarta, Indonesia, on 4 November. The opening is set to coincide with the Jakarta Biennale and Museum MACAN will stage a variety of events to engage the city and promote its burgeoning art sector. The passion project of Indonesian philanthropist and collector Haryanto Adikoesoemo, the multi-million dollar Museum MACAN – which stands for Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara –

Singapore-based wellness design firm A.W. Lake has acquired a 16-hectare (40-acre) property in Colorado, which will be the site of its new headquarters in the US. Located 20 miles outside of Fort Collins, the mountaintop property borders more than 325,000 hectares (800,000 acres) of national forest land. “After spending almost two decades in Asia, I’m thrilled to be back in the US and to expand our business here,” said company

Hospitality giant Four Seasons has opened a new hotel in Kuwait City, created by architects Gensler and designers Yabu Pushelberg. The 284-room Hotel Kuwait at Burj Alshaya is located in one of two soaring glass towers in Kuwait City. The second tower, set to open in 2018, will provide high-tech corporate headquarters for employees of hospitality company Alshaya’s retail franchise business. The hotel’s design concept has been crafted around a

Edmonton’s Telus World of Science in Canada is about to enter the next phase of its CA$40m (US$31.9m, €26.7m, £24.7m) Aurora Project – the year-long construction of a new planetarium theatre with higher screen resolution than any other planetarium in the world. The renamed Zeidler Dome Theatre, formerly the Margaret Zeidler Star Theatre planetarium, will include a projector and screens capable of 10K resolution, more than double that currently on

An architecture competition has been launched to design of Australia’s first purpose-built Pride Centre for the LGBTI community. Located in Melbourne, the Victorian Pride Centre (VPC) will be a gathering place for Victoria’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex communities, and will “celebrate, bolster and protect equality, diversity and inclusion.” The centre will provide flexible and multi-use spaces including a theatre, gallery, café/bar, prayer room, library and health service, in

Conran and Partners have redesigned the 267 guest rooms at the Andaz London Liverpool Street, two decades after the architecture practice first worked on the hotel – originally built in 1884 as one of the city's original railway hotels. The renovation – commissioned by Andaz owners Hyatt – has updated the rooms to reflect changes in the surrounding City of London and the district of Shoreditch, and includes contributions from