Wang Jianlin’s public feud with Disney continues to heat up with the Wanda chair’s latest multi-billion Wanda City to open its doors tomorrow (23 September). Located 500km (311m) west of the recently opened Shanghai Disney Resort, the US$5.2bn (€4.64bn, £4bn) Hefei Wanda City has been described as the “first Huizhou culture theme park in the world.” A tribute to the culture of the Anhui province, which dates back more than

Mandara Spa will operate a spa at the Lotte Hotel in Saint Petersburg, Russia, set to open in mid-2017. The five-star property is situated near Saint Isaac’s Square, and constructed on the historically significant location of Yakunchikova’s mansion, built in 1849. The original building design was drawn up by the French architect Adrian Robin and has reportedly housed famous historical figures such as John Quincy Adams, the first US ambassador

New York’s American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) has been granted first approval for its US$325m (€288.8m, £248.6m) expansion intended to expand the institution’s role for scientific research and education. AMNH was given the approval when a joint committee composed of members from the Community Board 7 committees on preservation and parks and environment voted in favour of the Gilder Center plans, which will create a new six-storey addition to

British football club Everton is working with US design firm Meis Architects to create a vision for a proposed new stadium. Meis Architects founder Dan Meis told CLAD that the studio was working with the Premier League club, but couldn't comment further on the plans at this early stage of the project. The Liverpool-based club has long made clear its wish to relocate from its current home at Goodison Park

Italian architect and spa designer Alberto Apostoli has created a wellness centre in the south of France that evokes a medieval crypt. Atrium - Spa & Beauté has been built on one of the mazy streets of Mâcon, the historic gateway town to Burgundy. The client wanted a spa and sauna complex that reflects the history and religious background of the town – typified by the adjacent Church of Saint

Golf course architect Tom Doak has designed “North America’s first reversible course” for the Forest Dunes resort in Michigan. Called The Loop, Doak’s design features two distinct layouts that use the same 18 greens and fairways. Players move clockwise on one day, and counterclockwise the next. The course – developed on a relatively flat, sand-based stretch of land to the west of the resort’s pre-existing course – is due to

London mayor Sadiq Khan has ordered a review into Thomas Heatherwick’s proposed £185m Garden Bridge project, which will investigate whether taxpayers have had value for money for their contribution. Dame Margaret Hodge MP, the former chair of the UK’s Public Accounts Committee, will conduct the review. She will focus on the procurement process around the project, and analyse whether the required standards have been met around transparency and openness. According

Disney chair and CEO Bob Iger has said that the operator’s new Shanghai venture has “ample expansion possibilities” following a strong opening three months. Disneyland Shanghai, which opened on 17 June this year, has enjoyed a strong start to life as a visitor attraction, with the company reporting 95 per cent occupancy rates and visitors staying two hours longer on average than expected. “We've had a fantastic opening for Shanghai

The long-awaited opening of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C. will take place this Saturday (24 September), with US president Barack Obama in attendance. A three-day festival of music, literature, dance and film will accompany the opening of the museum, which is dedicated to exploring the story of America through the lens of the African American experience. Obama will lead the museum’s dedication ceremony

Plans are in the works to develop a multi-million pound aquarium project in Southampton, combining undersea creatures with a showcase of the region’s strengths and its links to the high seas. Combining an aquarium setting with a maritime center exploring Southampton’s position at the centre of a global story, the development promotes itself as championing “Storylines of Science, Technology and Life: Voyages of Discovery.” The site will also include a

A group of Japanese architects, including Fumihiko Maki and Kengo Kuma, are petitioning UNESCO to recognise the gymnasium building designed by Kenzo Tange for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics on its World Cultural Heritage list. The high-profile team today (21 September) launched a campaign to have the Yoyogi National Gymnasium listed before the Olympics return to Tokyo in 2020. The facility – which hosted swimming, diving and basketball events at the

Australian architects Crone Partners and Japanese studio Kengo Kuma & Associates will build a luxury hotel for Wanda in Sydey’s Central Business District. The pair have won an international architecture competition to design the Wanda Sydney, whose Chinese developer wants it to become one of Australia's most luxurious hotels. Located in the city’s Circular Quay, the building will feature a pixelated facade of sandstone, cascading green walls and large windows

London architects Weston Williamson+Partners (WW+P) have won a contract worth £2.2bn (US$2.8bn, €2.5bn) to build a new “legacy” rail link across Dubai in time for the emirate to host the 2020 World Expo. The Dubai Metro 2020 will form a 15km route between Nakheel Harbour & Tower and the world fair site. The line will connect many of Dubai’s most popular mixed-use and leisure developments, including The Gardens, Discovery Gardens

James Pallotta, the American investor in charge of Italian football club AS Roma, has claimed construction work on a new stadium for the team could begin next March. Plans to build an 52,000 home ground inspired by the colosseum of ancient Rome have been in the pipeline for four years, with little sign of a breakthrough being made due to what club president Pallotta described as “some problems due to

The founders of Dutch architecture studio MVRDV believe their project for Rotterdam’s Museum Boijmans van Beuningen offers a new model for how museums can take full advantage of their vast cultural collections. Winy Maas, Nathalie de Vries and Jacob Van Rijs – who are transforming what was an art storage depot into an attraction in its own right – told CLAD that rethinking the art storage facility as something that

Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects have won an international architecture competition to design “a new public centre” for the city of Stavanger, Norway. Their successful proposal for Breiavatnet Lanterna envisions a large-scale urban redevelopment of the city’s park and the addition of a 101m (331ft) high rise of flexible space for restaurants, cafes, performing arts spaces, exhibitions, green terraces and offices. Multifunctional leisure facilities will be placed around a large amphitheatre

Pavegen, the British clean-tech company, has launched an innovative flooring system that creates energy from footsteps. The technology, called V3, was unveiled in New York today (19 September) by the company and London mayor Sadiq Khan, who is in the US on a trade mission. The multi-functional paving provides multiple options to integrate renewable energy production into urban spaces. According to Pavegen, the technology has implications across sectors, including sport,

A £5m (US$6.5m, €5.8m) proposal to reopen Turkish baths in Newcastle, UK, has moved a step closer with the council approving planning permission. Charity Fusion Lifestyle is behind the project, which will see the baths and pool re-established in the north-east city by 2018. The venue will be kitted out with new health and wellbeing facilities, a spa and bistro cafe. Work is expected to begin in early 2017 to

London architects Studio Bednarski have completed one high-profile European bridge and won a competition to build another, with their founder telling CLAD that both will be agents of urban reinvigoration. The £10m (US13$m, €11.6m) sliding Inderhavnen Bridge in Copenhagen has finally opened to the public after a five-year construction period beset by delays and the bankruptcy of the first contractor. The architects said “quiet sophistication and grace of motion” were

Renowned street artist Phlegm has created an eight-storey mural in Toronto as part of a giant revitalisation project bringing art to the city’s busiest intersections. The enormous untitled artwork was created by Phlegm over the course of a month-long residency at the midtown Yonge and St. Clair junction, which saw him dramatically suspended 12-storeys in the air outside the 1 St. Clair West building. Small images of the cityscape were

Designer Mathieu Lehanneur’s famous marble sculpture, which mimics the look and feel of rippling water, has gone on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London as part of the city’s ongoing design festival. The piece, called Liquid Marble, evokes a surreal vision of the sea by using 3D movie-making software to reproduce the visual effect of the water’s surface on a piece of hand-polished black marble. Liquid Marble

Here are some of the stories that appeared on CLAD this week, from a trio of mini forests being installed across London to Thomas Heatherwick’s latest high-profile landmark. Monday • Architect Asif Khan is bringing tiny forests to the streets of London for the city’s design festival. Read here. • Sports architects Populous are aiming to secure 10 major projects in China over the next five years as the nation

Australia’s top venue for tennis and concerts, the multipurpose Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, will be refurbished and expanded so that it can host bigger shows and sporting events. Cox Architecture studio, who originally designed the arena, and contractor and developer Lend Lease, will oversee the project, which will include the addition of a new “eastern pod” main entrance. The venue – famous for hosting the main fixtures at the

Oslo studio Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter have completed work on the Norwegian Mountaineering Center, which is designed to resemble a snow-topped peak. Reiulf Ramstad won a design competition for the project in 2009 with their vision for a site that captures the experience of mountaineering through form. Located on the harbourside of Åndalsnes in Norway’s mountainous Romsdalen Valley – the completed structure resembles a angular mountain, with pixelated white shingle cladding

Swiss architect Peter Zumthor has been chosen to build the multi-million Euro extension to the Fondation Beyeler art museum in his home city Basel. An international jury composed of prominent figures from the worlds of art and design – including architects Jean Nouvel, Annabelle Selldorf and outgoing Tate director Sir Nicholas Serota – unanimously selected Zumthor to lead the project, which will add new exhibition and educational facilities to the

David Marks, chair and designer of the recently-launched i360 vertical cable car in Brighton, UK, has apologised to its visitors after the observation pod broke down three times in the space of five days. Dubbed a “vertical pier”, the 531ft (161m) tower opened its doors at the start of August – a project 11 years in the making. A spokesperson told CLAD that the breakdowns happened when the tower’s automatic

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels has said that modern-day stadiums lack individuality and called for more design studios to be given the opportunity to design sports facilities. Speaking in an interview with Rolling Stone, the BIG founder said “stadiums are just a total dinosaur”. "It's the same three or four global offices that have designed all the stadiums,” he said. “Then it becomes this self-fulfilling prophecy, where you have to be