Plans to renovate the Sydney Opera House in Australia are threatened after the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd refused to back the estimated AUS$900m (£433m, €466m, US$630m) project claiming there was better use for the money. The announcement came the day after the New South Wales Premier Nathan Rees said the restoration was under "active consideration" by the budget committee. If the seven-year-long renewal project was to go ahead, the opera

The first sod has been cut on the £13.6m redevelopment of Bath’s Holburne Museum of Art. When it reopens, the Holburne will house a collection of fine and decorative arts, and will be fully accessible for the first time. A new garden café will also be built. The scheme has already received £10.6m of funding, comprising grants form the Heritage Lottery Fund, Lord and Lady Sainsbury’s Linbury Trust and Bath

Italy's newest art gallery, Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (MAXXI) in Rome, is set for a 2009 launch. Zaha Hadid Architects have designed the museum to be reminiscent of an ‘urban campus’, a building that goes beyond interior spaces to include the entire city. The project includes two museums – MAXXI art and MAXXI architecture – which will revolve around a full-height grand hall that connects with a

The Dreamland Trust is to unveil its plans to establish the world's first heritage amusement park in Margate, Kent, on the site of the former Dreamland Amusement Park. Levitt Bernstein Architects, together with Paris-based theme park designer Jean-Marc Toussaint, is behind designs for the proposed £12m attraction, which will be built around the Grade II-listed scenic railway, one of the oldest rollercoasters in Britain. The trust, which administers the Save

North Somerset Council (NSC) has approved plans for two new visitor attractions to be established in Weston-super-Mare, which it said will contribute towards the transformation of the town's seafront. Plans for the redevelopment of the 104-year-old Grand Pier, which was severely damaged by fire in July last year, were given the green light by the council's West Area committee, as were proposals for a new 40m (131ft) observation wheel. A

The architectural firm in charge of redesigning National Wildflower Centre in Knowsley, near Liverpool, has been selected by environmental charity Landlife. Ian Simpson Architects won the international open competition along with Adams Kara Yatlor Engineers and Hoare Lea Engineers to create a new educational attraction around wildflower gardens. The competition was funded with a £100,000 grant from the Northwest Regional Development Agency. The attraction, which originally opened in 2001, is

Southampton's oldest museum has been awarded a £3.5m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in order to carry out restoration work that will safeguard the attraction's future. Tudor House, which dates back to the late 15th century, is set to undergo an extensive refurbishment programme that will enable the Grade I-listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument to be removed from the 'Heritage At Risk Register'. The former Tudor merchant

Science Oxford Live, a new cultural centre for science and enterprise in Oxfordshire, has opened to the public following a £250,000 refurbishment. The ground floor of the venue, which has been closed for the last two months while work has been carried out, offers a meeting area, a chill out refreshment area and a permanent exhibition space for adults and older children. A discovery zone for children and families also

A new museum, designed to act as a symbolic reminder of the Asian tsunami in which more than 200,000 people were killed, has been opened by Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Banda Aceh. Situated on the northern tip of Sumatra, the province of Aceh was devastated by the 2004 disaster, and is considered to be the nearest land point to the epicentre of the earthquake that triggered the destructive

A £1m Concorde Visitor Centre is to open at Manchester Airport’s Aviation Viewing Park. Work on the 68m x 38m glass, steel and PVC structure was due to be completed last July, but was delayed to December last year following the discovery of a colony of protected newts. The now-grounded Concorde G-BOAC is the central attraction at the park, which attracts 250,000 visitors a year. The new development will also

Architects have been appointed for the proposed redevelopment of Helsinki Zoo, on Korkeasaari Island, in Finland. The project is intended to improve the zoo's profile internationally and to develop the island as a centre for education and research concerning nature and conservation. The winning design, called Beluga, was created by French architect group Beckmann-N'Thepe and comprises new animal enclosures and viewing rooms, greenhouses, auditoriums, an outdoor theatre, a reception, offices,

Proposals to build a £35m museum at the site of the 16th century Mary Rose warship in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard have been met with approval by the city council. The permanent museum — designed by architects Wilkinson Eyre and interior designers Pringle Brandon — will house the ship within a structure akin to a black, wooden, jewellery box. Almost 70 per cent of the artefacts (19,000) recovered from the Tudor

New revised plans have been announced to build a £200m tourism and leisure attraction on the site of three former mines in Northumberland. According to Widdrington Regeneration Partnership (WRP), the joint venture behind the scheme, the development will now include a holiday village with chalet accommodation, an indoor leisure complex with a 50m swimming pool, a man-made sailing lake, a 150-room luxury hotel, a health spa and a championship golf

A decommissioned German U-boat has opened to the public as a visitor attraction on Liverpool Docks. One of only four remaining in the world, the vessel was acquired by Merseytravel when its previous owner, the Historic Warships Museum in Birkenhead went into voluntary liquidation. The ship has been completely restored and cut into four sections with glass panels at the end of each section to allow visitors the chance to

David Chipperfield Architects has revealed its winning design for an extension to the Kunsthaus Zurich art gallery in Zurich, Switzerland. The early 20th century building will continue to house the Old Masters, Giacometti collection, Swiss art and popular large-scale exhibitions, whereas the new 20,500sq m (220,660sq ft) extension will display classic modernism and art starting from the 1960s, as well as the Bührle collection. Photograph: courtesy if David Chipperfield Architects

Designs have been unveiled for a landmark oil & gas museum and exhibition centre set to be built in Al Ahmadi, Kuwait for the Kuwait Oil Company. The 8,800sq m exhibition and display centre has been designed by UK-based Architect Morgan Professional Services (MPS) and will be arranged over three floor levels with a viewing tower above. Nine interactive exhibition spaces will form an integral part of the building and

The Tempe Historical Museum in Arizona, US, is closing its doors to undergo a US$4.1m redevelopment. Weddle Gilmore Architects (WGA) has been selected as the architectural consultant for the project which will see the main gallery and entrances completely refurbished. According to museum officials, the redevelopment will redefine the exhibit area to feature flexible spaces with changing exhibits; integrate new technology with innovative interpretation; increase programming space; and create a

A new £18m visitor centre is set to be built at the Giant's Causeway World Heritage Site after the scheme was approved by the Northern Ireland Executive's environment minister, Sammy Wilson. Plans for the new centre, which was designed by Dublin-based architects, heneghan.peng, were submitted by the National Trust in June last year to replace a previous facility destroyed by fire eight years ago. Moyle District Council is also involved

The design competition for the development of the Brunel Museum in Southwark, London has been won by London-based de Rijke Marsh Morgan Architects (dRMM). The focus of the brief was to make the attraction’s 15m-diameter vent shaft and former stairwell to the Thames Tunnel accessible again since its closure in 1865. Alex de Rijke, director at dRMM, said: “Our proposal consists of several ambitious site-specific responses, inspired by the Brunel

A new 24m (78.7ft) pedestrian bridge has opened at Caernarfon Castle in North Wales in a bid to improve visitor access to the site. Designed by Ramboll Whitbybird Bridges Team in partnership with Cadw, the Welsh Assembly Government's historic environment agency, the S-shaped bridge will act as the main entrance to the castle, which is one of the most visited ancient monuments in Wales. Alun Ffred Jones, the Welsh minister

A scheme to redevelop a historic pumphouse in Llanelli, South Wales, has been handed a funding boost worth £1.8m from the Welsh Assembly Government. Development proposals for the preservation and restoration of the Grade II-listed building form part of a wider £250m regeneration of the town's North Dock and waterfront areas. The project, which will be carried out by Bendigo 9-10, will see the pumphouse transformed into a new restaurant

Work has got underway on a three-month project to create new visitor facilities at the Angel of the North in Gateshead, north east England. Gateshead Council agreed to proposals in early 2008, which included the creation of new parking and toilet facilities at the visitor attraction, along with new footpaths. It is expected that work will be completed by April, and will see the new facilities located well back from

Science Oxford has closed for two months to allow work to get underway on a £250,000 refurbishment of the centre, which is expected to take two months. The project includes the upgrade and relocation of the children's science gallery, as well as the integration of a refreshment area into the ground floor adult exhibition space, and the installation of new audio-visual equipment in the first floor performance room. Leicester-based museum

A planning application is to be submitted as part of a £6m project to transform the General Offices at a former South Wales steelworks into a new visitor attraction. The scheme to redevelop the Grade-II listed building at The Works:Ebbw Vale is a joint venture partnership between Blaenau Gwent County Borough Council and the Welsh Assembly Government. Once the administrative centre of the steelworks, the General Offices building is the

Plans for the redevelopment of the 104-year old Grand Pier in Weston-super-Mare have been submitted to North Somerset Council (NSC), five months after the attraction was severely damaged by fire. Bristol-based architect, Angus Meek, was appointed in October by pier owners, Kerry and Michelle Michael, following a design competition for the new pavilion, which will replace the one destroyed in July's blaze. Since the original concept design was unveiled, several

Russia-based MT Development has announced that it will be building a new RUS16.8bn (US$620m, £406m, 472m euro) leisure attraction in the capital Moscow. To be called Freestyle Park, the 280,000sq m (3 million sq ft) sport and leisure destination is expected to attract five million visits annually. The attraction aims to cater for all ages by providing a range of events, from extreme sports to gaming facilities. Activities will include

Developer Dubai Properties is building a £255m museum, dedicated to Middle Eastern modern art as the centre piece of its £8bn Cultural Village project in Dubai, UAE. The 25,000 sq m Museum of Middle East Modern Art (MOMEMA), designed by Amsterdam-based architects UN Studio, will include exhibition spaces, art galleries, leasable workshop spaces, an auditorium and an amphitheatre for live performances and international festivals. MOMEMA will also feature a 60-room