The International Association for Sports and Leisure Facilities (IAKS) has planned an “unprecedented sharing of expertise, insight and discussion” on the design, development and operation of leisure centres and swimming pools this week. International architects, engineers, government officials and leisure centre operators will converge in Dublin from 9-10 February to discuss topics such as state of the art sports facility design, creating sustainability, future-proofing and encouraging inclusion. Facilities used as

Mandarin Oriental will open a new hotel and branded residences in Honolulu in 2020. The new Hawaiian hotel will be the anchor of Mana ‘olana Place, a 36-storey, mixed use tower with gardens and public plazas, which is being developed by Los Angeles-based Salem Partners. It will include a Spa at Mandarin Oriental that will offer holistic rejuvenation and relaxation, with eight treatment rooms. Further leisure options include a comprehensive

Boutique hotelier Ian Schrager has won the 2017 Pioneer Award for “his outstanding impact on the hospitality industry” and his longstanding support for design-led hotels. The prestigious accolade is awarded each year by the the International Society of Hospitality Consultants (ISHC) to celebrate the recipient’s active involvement in the industry, their contribution to hospitality, and their “personal qualities.” In its award citation for Schrager, the association said: “For over five

Lord’s Cricket Ground has become the first purpose-built cricket stadium in Britain to run on 100 per cent renewable energy. As part of the sustainability strategy devised by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) – the owner of Lord’s – the ground has met its 2020 emissions target already and reduced its electricity consumption by seven per cent since 2010. The ground’s new Warner Stand – which will be complete in April

French architecture studios Sockeel and Olgga have joined forces to revamp the stadium of football club ULS Dunkerque into a beautiful and accessible facility for the community in the historic beach town. The duo have won a design competition for the “demolition and reconstruction” project, which will see the aging Stade Marcel-Tribut re-designed and expanded by 2,000 seats to hold 5,000 spectators. Work will begin in September 2017 when the

The Hammer Museum will increase its exhibition space by 60 per cent, announcing plans for a 40,000sq ft (3,700sq m) expansion and renovation of its existing Los Angeles home by 2020. LA-based architecture firm Michael Maltzan (MMA) will head up the project, which will feature two new major galleries, with one specifically for works on paper, emphasising the museum’s growing collection of photographs and drawings. The multi-year plan will enhance

Toronto's urban waterfront has been transformed with the temporary addition of five mysterious installations in the parks, bridges and squares along Queens Quay. The large works of public art, dubbed ‘Ice Breakers,’ have been added to animate the city’s public areas during the cold winter months. The initiative is a collaboration between community group Waterfront BIA and the annual Winter Stations competition – which creates installations in the lifeguard posts

US National Football League (NFL) franchise the Green Bay Packers has revealed it is nearing completion on the first phase of its very own sports-anchored leisure district. The club has selected sports architects Rossetti to masterplan the 34 acre Titletown District – located just west of its 81,400-capacity Lambeau Field stadium – with a design strategy focused on “the vibrancy of the public realm,” particularly on match days. Designed as

W Hotels Worldwide has announced it is planning to to open a property in Melbourne, Australia, in 2020 as part of an ambitious and controversial mixed-use scheme. The lifestyle hotel brand, now part of Marriott International, has partnered with real estate firms Daisho Development Melbourne and Cbus Property to open the W Melbourne within Collins Arch – the forthcoming mixed-use AU$1bn (US$765.5m, €713m, £613.5m) luxury development designed by SHoP Architects

Legendary South Florida retreat The Surf Club has been reimagined by Four Seasons and is slated to open early 2017. In the 1930s, the property was a favourite destination for world leaders, artists and Hollywood film stars, and now the iconic club has been brought back to life by architect Richard Meier and Paris-based architect and designer Joseph Dirand with 77 guest rooms, 119 private residences and a 15,000 square

Creating buildings that inspire love is about more than just arranging and inventing forms, argues Peter Zumthor in an exclusive interview with CLAD. The influential Pritzker Prize-winning architect – who also runs through the latest on the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and his forthcoming projects in Korea, Germany, Switzerland and the UK – explains how his gift is to “see what’s ugly and doesn’t work in the

Danish architecture firm Kvorning Design & Communication have unveiled designs for a new visitor centre in Delphi, Greece, with experiences above and below ground chronicling the history of the Vagonetto-Fokis Mining Park. The attraction, which has allowed visitors to follow the lives of miners and visit a real underground gallery since it opened in 2003, will open its new visitor centre in September. The museum’s exhibits are inspired by the

Here are some of the stories that appeared on CLAD this week, from Foster + Partners’ Mecca hotel to Paulo Mendes da Rocha’s RIBA Gold Medal. Monday • Construction has begun on a large-scale public space in central Hong Kong, designed by landscape architects Gustafson Porter + Bowman, bringing dense tropical vegetation to the heart of the concrete jungle. Read here. • Luxury hotel operator Aman will open a location

Italian architect and ‘vertical forest’ pioneer Stefano Boeri has unveiled his design for a pair of towers in Nanjing, east China, covered by 1,100 trees and 2,500 cascading plants and shrubs. The Nanjing Green Towers complex will house a museum, a green architecture school, a private club and offices in one of the buildings, and a Hyatt hotel with rooftop pool in the other. A 20m high podium will support

German studio GMP Arkitekten have won an international competition to add a retractable roof to Verona’s first century Roman amphitheatre. City officials want to add the new roof to the historic open-air structure – which once hosted Roman sports and ceremonies, but is now primarily a concert venue – in order to better preserve the structure and protect spectators from bad weather. The design competition was launched in March 2016

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation’s deputy director is to step down from his role in order to launch a new independent design studio with his brother. Ari Wiseman, who took up his role in January 2010, will start the studio with artist brother David, which will be dedicated to the creation and exhibition of projects with galleries, museums and other artists; and programmes that foster dialogue about design

Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta has been announced as the winner of a competition to design a new hotel on Helsinki’s Hakaniemi waterfront. The decision was announced on 1 February 2017 during a press conference held by the competition organisers; the City of Helsinki, Finnish real estate company AB Invest and the Finnish Association of Architecture. The winning design is for Hilbert’s Hotel, which is named for David Hilbert’s 1924 paradoxical

Dutch design agency NorthernLight is working on the redevelopment of Sochi’s Olympic Vilage, which is turning its former media centre from the 2014 Winter Olympics into a science and art park. The redevelopment of Sirius Park, which has been at the heart of Russia’s talent development programme, will take place in two phases, ultimately becoming the country’s largest educational attraction at 50,000sq m (538,000sq ft). Phase one of development will

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has presented Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha with the 2017 Royal Gold Medal for architecture. Given in recognition of a lifetime’s work, the Royal Gold Medal is given to a person or group of people who have had a significant influence “either directly or indirectly on the advancement of architecture”. Da Rocha is famous for his numerous cultural buildings in Brazil, particulalry

Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava has unveiled his £1bn landmark for London’s Greenwich Peninsula – which will have a Cathedral-like winter garden at its heart. Peninsula Place is Calatrava’s first major scheme in London. As an architect famed for his monumental, city-shaping structures, the huge scale of the building – 1.4 million sq ft – is no surprise. Calatrava will transform North Greenwich Underground station into a new leisure

Twenty-five is the magic number for the long-awaited Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation (MOXI), which will launch on the 25 February after receiving US$25m (€23.2m, £19.8m) in capital funding. The project also took more than 25 years to complete, after being first proposed in 1990 when the Children’s Museum of Santa Barbara incorporated as a non-profit organisation. The 25,000sq ft (2,300sq m) MOXI broke ground in 2014. The signature

St Louis could become home to a purpose-built 20,000-capacity soccer stadium after a Missouri-based consortium official submitted a bid for the city to host a Major League Soccer (MLS) expansion franchise. According to the group – SC STL – the HOK-designed stadium would “complete one of the great corridors of sport, culture and entertainment”. The venue is earmarked to be situated within one mile of the Busch Stadium and Ballpark

The Municipality of Rotterdam has announced that engineering firm BAM Bouw en Techniek (BAM) has been awarded the contract for the construction of the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen. Designed by Dutch architects MVRDV, the building will store the art collection of Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, opening it up for public use, and will provide storage facilities for private art collectors. The founders of MVRDV – Winy Maas, Nathalie de Vries

The Nanaimo Deep Discovery Association (NDDA) has showcased plans for a new CA$40m (US$30.6m, €28.5m, £24.5m) attraction in British Columbia, Canada, designed to connect people with the ocean environment and deep-sea technology. The facility, according to the NDDA, would be a unique, educational, ocean experience attracting visitors with a range of displays and activities, some static, some “virtual”, some “interactive”, and some “living”. NDDA president Lorne Hildebrand is behind the

Architecture practice Michaelis Boyd have designed an eight-storey boutique hotel in the heart of Brooklyn, described as “a sincere love song” to the industrial heritage of the New York neighbourhood. The 150-room Williamsburg Hotel has opened on the corner of Wythe Ave and North 10th St – a site once home to wooden water tower factory. Brick, glass and Corten steel have been heavily used in construction to honour the

The football association of Turkey has lifted the lid the country’s huge stadium-building drive, and how it can help the nation win the right to host the world’s biggest tournaments. Eighteen modern grounds have been constructed in the country since 2007, with a further 12 to open in the next few years and several set for completion in 2017. This is the result of a concerted push by the government

An expansive new complex for for the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, designed by David Chipperfield Architects, has topped out in China. Set in an area of natural beauty among the forests and hills of Anji County, Zhejiang province, the museum buildings will be spread across eight low-rise pavilion buildings, the shells of which have now been completed. With a total area of 54,000sq m (581,250sq ft), the museum will