The first renderings have been released showing what the Madison Square Garden Company’s (MSG) striking spherical entertainment venue will look like in London. Designed by Populous, the MSG Sphere London has been conceived as the conglomerate’s first international arena, and an “iconic venue that will feature game-changing technologies and pioneer the next generation of transformative, immersive experiences.” It will host concerts, live shows, expos, esports and other large-scale events. MSG

The developers of EuropaCity in Paris have provided a first glimpse at the eight key leisure buildings that will be constructed for the €3.1bn (US$3.8bn, £2.7bn) project. Following a competitive six-month competition process, several established and emerging architecture practices from France and further afield have been selected to work on the accommodation and attractions that will form the cultural heart of the vast scheme – which has been masterplanned by

A much-hyped movie museum in the home city of famed director Sir Peter Jackson could be in need of a reshoot, with the movie mogul calling for a temporary cut on the long-delayed project after locking horns with the city council. Located in a prime tourism spot, opposite the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, the proposed Movie Museum development includes the visitor attraction occupying two floors of the

SMAR Architecture Studio have won the international design competition to create a Science Island attraction in Kaunas, Lithuania. The practice, with offices in Australia and Spain, were selected ahead of SimpsonHaugh and Donghua Chen Studio for the prestigious €25m (US$30.6m, £21.8m) project, which will be officially known as the National Science and Innovation Centre. Expected to open a year in advance of Kaunas’ tenure as European Capital of Culture 2022,

Experimental New York design studio Snarkitecture are returning to Washington D.C.’s National Building Museum, three years after their enormous ball pit became a huge attraction for the institution. The museum has announced the New York collective will create a sprawling Fun House in its Great Hall for the 2018 edition of its annual Summer Block Party, from 4 July to 3 September. The freestanding structure will recall and re-imagine the

London architects Sergison Bates have won the international competition to convert the Citroën Yser Garage in Brussels – once Europe’s largest car factory – into a new branch of the Pompidou Centre art museum. The firm, along with Zurich studio EM2N and Brussels practice Aarchitecten, have been selected ahead of the likes of Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Christ & Gantenbein and OMA for the high-profile commission – the largest new

A dramatic drone video released by international design studio Ennead Architects has offered a glimpse at their planetarium for the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum taking shape in the Chinese city. The footage provides a sweeping overview of the 38,000sq m (409,000sq ft) structure as it rises from the ground in the city’s Lingang district. Construction began on the project in November 2016, and completion is scheduled by 2020.

US architect Steven Holl has won an international design competition for the new Angers Collectors Museum and hotel, inspired by the medieval Apocalypse Tapestry displayed in the French city. Collaborating with Parisian real estate firm Compagnie de Phalsbourg, Holl’s design for the museum is inspired by the historic Chateau d’Angers – built by King Louis IX in the 13th century – with the architect planning to create a new cultural

The official groundbreaking has taken place for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art – Star Wars creator George Lucas’ long-awaited cultural venture in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park. The 300,000sq ft (27,800sq m) museum will celebrate the art of visual storytelling – from comic art, paintings and illustrations to photography, filmmaking and drawings – with collection galleries, exhibition spaces and two theatres displaying original works of art, digital technologies and daily

The latest design proposals for David Chipperfield’s 1,000-capacity concert hall in Edinburgh – the city’s first in 100 years – have been publicly revealed for the first time. The venue, situated behind the historic Dundas House at 36 St Andrew Square, will be the permanent home of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) – with a “world class” auditorium and recital and recording space “to rival the best in Europe.” In

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) have revealed their competition-winning design for the National Theatre of Albania, a 3-in-1 cultural venue shaped like a bow tie. Designed in collaboration with British consultancy Theatre Projects, the 9,300sq m (100,000sq ft) venue has been commissioned to host local and touring theatre companies in the Albanian capital, Tirana. Situated adjacent to the historic Skanderbeg Square, the National Opera and the National Art Gallery, the project

The architecture studio of Kengo Kuma have won another major cultural project, this time for an art museum in Busan, South Korea’s second-largest city. Planned for one of the small villages in Gijang county, the 3,500sq m (37,600sq ft) complex will, according to the practice, provide “a contrast between the extra-contemporary aspects of such a museum and the bucolic character of this site.” This approach – which will see the

The Istanbul Modern, Turkey’s leading contemporary art gallery, has closed its doors on the banks of the Bosphorus, where a new home will be built on the same site. The museum – in the trendy harbourside area of Karaköy with its Ottoman architecture, modern shops and ancient mosque and baths – is to be demolished and a new building by Pritzker prize-winner Renzo Piano will take its place. Although Renzo

The executive director of the Arkansas Arts Center (AAC), situated in Little Rock’s historic MacArthur Park, has announced details of a striking expansion for the attraction, designed by architects Studio Gang. Todd Herman revealed that 127,000sq ft (11,800sq m) of renovated and new spaces will be created for the centre to strengthen the connections between the visual and performing arts in an inclusive space that welcomes a diverse community. “This

One of the largest ongoing leisure developments on the planet, EuropaCity in Paris, will feature a dramatic indoor/outdoor cinema embedded into the landscape, courtesy of a competition-winning design by UNStudio. The Dutch practice have been selected as the architects to realise the Centre Culturel Dédié Au 7è Art – one of eight key buildings within the wider EuropaCity masterplan created by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). Described by UNStudio as “a

Rem Koolhaas and OMA’s plans to renovate the largest museum building in Russia have been unveiled. The New Tretyakov Gallery houses an extensive and important collection of Russian art, including work from Malevich, Kandinsky, Chagall, and Soviet artists such as Aleksandr Deyneka and Vera Mukhina. The 61,000sq m (657,600sq ft) building, which includes multiple exhibition halls, was originally designed by architects N.P. Sukoyan and Y.N. Sheverdyaev in the 1960s, and

The French government has unveiled an ambitious plan to renovate Paris’s landmark Grand Palais and create a cultural boulevard linking the historic site with the Champs Elysees and the River Seine. First built for the Exposition Universelle world fair in 1900, the giant glass vault of the Palais had a strong impact on the country’s Art Nouveau movement and has become one of the French capital’s best-known icons, as well

Three firms have been commissioned to develop a “world-class” Science City attraction in central Patna, India. Exhibition designer GSM Project, architect Flying Elephant Studio and project management firm Gleeds have been selected for the project by the government of Bihar following a call for tender. The 30,000sq m (323,000sq ft) Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Science City, named after India’s former president, will promote “the past, the present and

The Madison Square Garden Company (MSG) has announced ambitious plans to bring a vast, spherical music and entertainment venue to London, and claims it will “change the nature of live events.” Making the announcement at a presentation in New York, MSG’s executive chair and CEO, James L. Dolan, confirmed the company intends to make the UK capital the home of its first international property, and has completed the purchase of

Members of the public are invited to have their say on 39 design proposals for the transformation of London’s Old Street roundabout to create a new ‘iconic gateway’ and public space. Zaha Hadid Architects, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and HawkinsBrown are among the studios in contention for the high-profile scheme, which is being developed by Islington Council in partnership with the Mayor of London, Transport for London (TfL) and Hackney

Award-winning Mexican architect Frida Escobedo has been commissioned to design the 2018 iteration of the Serpentine Pavilion. The Serpentine Pavilion programme, which began in 2000, sees an architect who has never built in the UK create a temporary summer pavilion and café space in Kensington Gardens. Zaha Hadid, Herzog & de Meuron, Jean Nouvel, Sou Fujimoto, SANAA, Bjarke Ingels Group and Diébédo Francis Kéré – whose tree-inspired 2017 structure has

A formal opening has been held for the Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre (SAASCC) in Kuwait – a mammoth cultural district for the country described as the largest museum project in the world. A dramatic light show on Monday (5 February) marked the launch of the attraction, which has been designed by local architects SSH and British creative agency Cultural Innovations. Situated on a 13-hectare site in the Al-Sha’ab

London’s Westminster Abbey, one of the UK’s most visited tourist attractions, is undergoing work on a new museum, marking the first addition to the visitor experience at the historic site since 1745. The £23m (US$32m, €26m) museum, named the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries, will be located inside the triforium – a loft-like space above the arches of the nave of a church – some 70ft (21m) above the Abbey's floor.

The Serpentine Pavilion programme – one of the highlights of the UK's architectural calendar – is coming to Beijing in 2018. A major international agreement has been struck between Chinese retail giant WF Central and the Serpentine Galleries, which organises the long-running annual pavilion showcase in London’s Kensington Gardens. The inaugural pavilion has been designed by Chinese firm JIAKUN Architects, and it is set to open in May on the

British architecture studio SimpsonHaugh have completed a renovation of one of Belgium’s most important cultural landmarks, the Queen Elisabeth Hall in Antwerp. The concert venue had its soft launch over a year ago – and has since picked up a nomination for Cultural Building of the Year – but has only just officially opened. It is located within the Elisabeth Centre, a 19th-century Art Nouveau cultural complex that includes Antwerp

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

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,