A new museum exploring the life of Isambard Kingdom Brunel has opened its doors to the general public in Bristol. Called Being Brunel, the £7.2m (US$10.1m, €8.2m) museum explore the life of the man who is known as one of the greatest minds in the history of engineering, hailed as the “genius who built Britain”. The new attraction, designed by local firm Alec French Architects, is made up of six

A planning application for a new Welcome Pavilion to be built at Liverpool's Albert Dock has been submitted to the city council. Designed by K2 Architects, the structure represents the first phase of a masterplan to upgrade the dockland attraction – home to the largest group of Grade I listed buildings in the country – to the evolving needs of visitors, who travel to the landmark for its mixture of

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 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

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has issued a license for the establishment of the country’s first ever Museum of History of Science and Technology in Islam. Issued by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH), the license will see the museum established at the Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh. The project, said a release, will be developed in collaboration with the Institute of Arab and

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

A museum designed as a ”timeless treasure chest” showcasing Israel’s natural history is ready to open on the Tel Aviv University Campus. Architecture firm Kimmel Eshkolot have designed the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, whose collections include five and a half million animals and plants telling the story of biodiversity in Israel and the Middle East during the past century. The building’s block-like form, attached to a large wooden-panelled shell

The Museum of Modern Electronic Music (MOMEM) is nearing completion in Frankfurt, Germany, and is turning up the volume on the plans with the launch of a pop-up museum this April ahead of a full launch at a later date. The museum was conceived to tell the story of the electronic music movement and its impact on youth culture – as art, design, fashion and technology – throughout Europe from

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

A planning application has been submitted for a classic car museum in Oxfordshire, UK, with American vintage car collector and philanthropist Peter Mullin behind the £35m (US$48m, €39.5m) plans. Mullin, founder of the M Financial Group and Chairman of its subsidiary, M Financial Holdings, is an avid car collector, establishing in 2010, the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California and also serving as the President of the American Bugatti Club.

In a bid to protect its World Heritage status, the City of Liverpool and Historic England have drawn up a heritage action plan, created to navigate the threat posed by a proposed development of the city’s waterfront, which could see it struck from the Unesco register. Granted outline planning permission in 2013, the £5.5bn (US$7.7bn, €6.22bn) Liverpool Waters 30-year development scheme from The Peel Group would “undoubtedly cause substantial harm

The RIBA Stirling Prize-winning Hastings Pier, designed by architecture studio dRMM, has been put up for sale. Property agent GVA has been instructed to offer the iconic structure to the market after the Hastings Pier Charity, which runs the asset, entered administration in November 2017. The 280m-long (918ft), Grade II listed Victorian pier, originally opened in 1872, was virtually destroyed by fire in 2010, but was eventually rebuilt by dRMM

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

An interactive museum dedicated to the art of spycraft, designed by the studio of David Adjaye, opens in New York tomorrow (16 February) – “empowering visitors to seek the truth, form their own opinions and question everything.” Guests will enter the enigmatic world of code-breakers, spycatchers, hackers and undercover agents at SPYSCAPE, which has been developed in collaboration with investigative journalists, former directors of intelligence agencies and station chiefs. Conceived

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

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.

London’s National Portrait Gallery has appointed architecture firms Jamie Fobert and Purcell to deliver the British institution’s £35.5m (US$50.2m, €40.2m) transformation. Called ‘Inspiring People: Transforming our National Portrait Gallery,’ the plans from the London-based practices mark the largest ever development for the Victorian-era National Portrait Gallery since it opened in 1896. The decision follows an international selection process to find the best candidates, with Jamie Fobert – who recently celebrated

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

The Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) has announced it will prioritise the care and conservation of the only three museums designed by the legendary Le Corbusier. As part of its Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative, the CGI will host two workshops in India, where two of the three museums are located – the Sanskar Kendra Museum in Ahmedabad and the Government Museum and Art Gallery in Chandigarh. The third, the National Museum

Sweden’s National Heritage Board has hit out at David Chipperfield's proposed design for the Nobel Center headquarters and museum in Stockholm. The project, first announced in 2014, has navigated a complex series of legal challenges, with its opponents taking issue with its size and close proximity to many of the Swedish capital’s oldest landmarks and museums. Even the country’s king has voiced his doubts over its proposed location on the

The National Museum of African American History and Culture has been named the design of 2017 by London’s Design Museum, making it only the second building to receive the accolade. The project, shortlisted after winning the architecture of the year category, was chosen ahead of a stair-climbing wheelchair, an ink manufactured from air pollution and a high-performance hijab by Nike. Designed by Adjaye Associates, The Freelon Group, Davis Brody Bond

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,

V&A Dundee, Scotland’s first design museum, will open to the public on Saturday 15 September 2018, it has been revealed. New images of the Kengo Kuma-designed building have been released to coincide with the announcement, as have details of the museum’s inaugural exhibitions. Standing at the centre of the £1bn (US$1.3bn, €1.1bn) transformation of the city’s waterfront, once part of the docklands, V&A Dundee has been designed to evoke the

Kengo Kuma’s extensive pipeline of public projects just got even longer, with his firm winning an international competition to design an aquatics centre on an artificial quay in Copenhagen’s harbour. The municipality has selected Kengo Kuma Associates to create the 5,000sq m (53,800sq ft) Danish Water Culture Center, ahead of four other shortlisted teams – BIG, 3XN Architects, AART Architects and ALA Architects. The project will be built on Christiansholm