Hospitality firm Artistry Hotels Partners has partnered with Urban Architecture Studio and design firm WATG to launch an independent boutique hotel brand that “will deliver distinctively luxurious, artful and imaginative experiences” throughout the US. In a statement, the company said it wants to create “art through architecture” by creating distinctive, vibrant and multi-sensory hotel experiences. Each hotel will be designed to be individual and reflective of the personality of its

Evian Spa will expand its presence in the Asian market with a new spa on the 86th floor of Lotte Hotel Group’s Lotte World Tower in Seoul, South Korea. Lotte Group, South Korea’s fifth-largest conglomerate, is building the 555m-high (1,821ft) tower, which will be Seoul’s first super-tall skyscraper and the sixth-tallest building in the world. Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, the 123-storey tower will include department stores, cultural facilities,

A funding campaign to build a self-sustaining cricket ground of international standard in Rwanda is gathering momentum. Cricket is Rwanda’s fastest growing sport and has been used as a tool in recent years to bring people together in the country, which was torn apart by genocide in 1994. Despite the burgeoning interest, there are a lack of cricketing facilities in the country, and so the Rwanda Cricket Stadium Foundation (RCSF)

Here are some of the stories that appeared on CLAD this week, from the winner of the 2016 Stirling Prize to new openings by Amanda Levete, Steven Holl and Coop Himmelb(l)au. Monday • Three architecture studios have been shortlisted in the design competition to create a Science Island for the Lithuanian city Kaunas. Read here. • Four of the six winners of this year’s Aga Khan Award for Architecture are

Officials have broken ground a new US$70m museum dedicated to the Statue of Liberty on the monument’s home of Liberty Island. Designed by Nicholas Garrison, principal for FXFOWLE, the 26,000sq ft museum is a key part of the beautification plan for Liberty Island, with the building blending into its surroundings, seemingly rising out of the ground with its grass roof. The museum was designed in such a way so as

The St Pierre Park Hotel, Spa and Golf Resort on the Channel Island of Guernsey has redeveloped its spa and fitness centre to the tune of £2.5m (US$3.2m, €2.9m). Owned, operated and designed by Hand Picked Hotels – which bought the property last year – the spa includes a new indoor pool and wet area with mood LED lighting, an infinity wall, and floor-to-ceiling windows. A two-tier volcanic stone sauna

The French Tennis Federation (FTF) has described itself as "outraged" after a court suspended the development of a new stadium at Roland Garros just days after the project had been given the green light. While the French Council of State cancelled suspension of the construction work that had been implemented earlier on in the year, a different court – Tribunal de Grande Instance – has taken an alternative view and

The University of Iowa will today (7 October) unveil its flagship new arts centre, designed by Steven Holl Architects. The 126,000sq ft (11,700sq m) Visual Arts Building contains galleries, workshops, teaching spaces for Art History and an outdoor rooftop studio. Carvings into the zinc-clad concrete volume form seven terraced ‘cutout’ light courts and multiple balconies, infusing the interior with light. A campus route threads through the largest of these courts,

The Global Wellness Institute’s Wellness Communities Initiative has written a white paper to address critical issues surrounding the fast-growing wellness real estate market – estimated by the GWI to be a US$100bn (€90bn, £81bn) global marketplace. The initiative focuses on communities developed with proactive health and wellness, ecological sensitivity and social connectivity in mind, and the paper seeks to define what makes something a wellness community, what the minimum criteria

Newport Street Gallery – Caruso St John Architects’ conversion of almost an entire street of listed industrial buildings in south London into a free public gallery for artist Damien Hirst’s private art collection – has won the 2016 RIBA Stirling Prize for the UK’s best new building. The presentation of the prestigious trophy took place at a special ceremony on Thursday evening (6 October) at the headquarters of the Royal

The recently-opened German Gymnasium in London has won two prizes at the first Blue Badge Style Awards, which celebrates hospitality facilities in the UK that use good architecture and design to ensure they are accessible to guests with disabilities. The restaurant, created by design studio Conran and Partners, was the winner of the Blue Badge Style Best High End Restaurant. The judges praised the design team for managing to create

The world’s largest green building conference and expo has begun in Los Angeles. Sustainability, clean energy, green technologies and health and wellness in the built environment are among the subjects in the spotlight at this year’s Greenbuild International Conference and Expo, which is taking place at the LA Convention Center until 7 October. The event, which is presented by the US Green Building Council (USGCB), is expected to attract 20,000

Acclaimed leisure architect Bing Thom has died in Hong Kong at the age of 75. Bing suffered a brain aneurism and passed away on 4 October, his studio Bing Thom Architects (BTA) confirmed in a statement. The architect – who was born in Hong Kong before moving to Canada as a child – was renowned for his placemaking schemes and his drive to improve urban environments. Past and ongoing leisure

Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas will debut in the US in 2019 with its first urban location, Six Senses New York, a luxury Bjarke Ingels-designed hotel being developed by HFZ Capital Group in New York City. The flagship urban location is located between Manhattan’s popular High Line and the Hudson River on 10th Avenue, encompassing the entire block between 17th and 18th streets in the heart of Chelsea. The overall

The first phase of a contemporary art museum designed by architecture studio AL_A on Lisbon waterfront opens today (5 October). A curving, low-rise new structure and the recently renovated Central Tejo power station together form the new home for the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT), which explores contemporary culture through visual arts, new media, architecture, technology and science. Four distinct gallery spaces sit beneath the undulating roof of

Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art has reopened its East Building following a three-year, US$69m (€61.5m, £54.2m) renovation process. The I.M. Pei-designed building gains an additional 12,250 sq ft (1,140sq m) of floor space, split between two new galleries to house the works of Alexander Calder and Mark Rothko, and a new rooftop terrace. Katharina Frithsch’s Hahn/Cock – a giant blue sculpture of a cockrel – sits on the new

Conrad Smith, the co-founder of architecture studio ReardonSmith, has died suddenly after suffering a heart attack. Confirming the news, the studio’s co-founder Patrick Reardon spoke of his sense of shock and loss. “Conrad touched all our lives as an extraordinary colleague, business partner and a dear friend; he was an exceptionally talented architect but, above all, a very special person,” Reardon said. “We will all miss him in so many

A collection of some of Thailand’s finest contemporary art has found a new home at a new museum in the city of Chang Mai, which boasts an eye-catching mirrored façade. The exterior of the newly-opened MAIIAM Museum of Contemporary Art is clad with thousands of small mirrored tiles that reflect light; creating an atmosphere of lightness and occasionally giving the building the illusion of invisibility. Architects (all)zone were inspired by

Ben van Verkel and his firm UNStudio have won one of the largest urban projects in Western Europe: the redevelopment of Amsterdam’s Oosterdokseiland island. The 225,000sq m (2.4 million sq ft) scheme, located to the east of the city’s main station, will see the practice create a social hub designed to “encourage encounters” between the public and workers in the district. In total, 72,500sq m (780,300sq ft) of space will

US National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise the Washington Wizards is creating a new training facility that will double as a concert venue and events arena. While competing teams in Brooklyn, Chicago and Toronto have previously merged practice venues with residential accommodation, the Washington team claims it is the first in the NBA to actively create a mixed-use leisure facility. According to The Washington Post, the plans outlined by the Wizards

Spa operator Raison d’Etre will open a two-storey, 4,600sq m (49,514sq ft) LivNordic Spa at the Katara Beach Club in the Katara Cultural Village in Doha, Qatar. Set to open in Q1 2017, the Katara Beach Club by LivNordic Spa & Wellness will be on two club floors, with the ground floor for men and the first floor for women. Designed by Gillian Docherty of Studio HBA in Dubai, the

The Coop Himmelb(l)au-designed Museum of Contemporary Art and Planning Exhibition (MOCAPE) has opened in Shenzhen, China. The megastructure consists of two institutions, a modern art gallery and an architecture-focused meeting and exhibition space, connected by a shared plaza, multi-use conference rooms, exhibit space, auditoriums, a library and lobby. The two institutions are united beneath a transparent facade, which creates a vast column-free space for exhibiting art in the museum section

The Japanese government has approved a 150bn yen ($1.5bn, €1.3bn, £1.1bn) contract allowing work to begin on Kengo Kuma’s 2020 Tokyo Olympic Stadium. Construction is scheduled to begin in December. The government-funded Japan Sport Council (JSC), which is overseeing the project, estimates that construction will be completed at the end of November 2019 – five months behind the original schedule. New Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said she would closely monitor

Four of the six winners of this year’s Aga Khan Award for Architecture are leisure projects. The prestigious prize, which is given every three years, celebrates designs that improve quality of life and address the needs and aspirations of communities in which Muslims have a significant presence. A shortlist of 19 projects – derived from over 300 submissions – was considered by a Master Jury, with each building investigated by

Three architecture studios have been shortlisted in the design competition to create a Science Island for the Lithuanian city Kaunas. SMAR Architecture Studio, SimpsonHaugh and Partners, and Donghua Chen Studio will now negotiate with Kaunas City Municipality, which will decide the design concept it wants to proceed with. Each of the winners will receive an honorarium of €15,000 (US$16,800, £13,000.) The centrepiece of the 44 acre Science Island – the

The Six Senses Zil Pasyon resort, located on the private island of Felicite in the Seychelles, has opened. Designed by the Six Senses Architecture and Design team along with Richard Hywel Evans of London-based Studio RHE, the resort features contemporary architecture and interiors, and has been designed to “embrace the untouched picturesque landscape of the island,” the company said. It features 28 one-bedroom pool villas and two two-bedroom pool villas

The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London has won the Rosa Barba International Landscape Prize; one of world’s leading awards for landscape architects. The park's designers, Hargreaves Associates, were named the winners of the €15,000 accolade following the decision of a jury chaired by James Corner; one of the creator’s of New York’s High Line elevated park. The competition was organised by the Architects’ Association of Catalonia and the Catalan