Former US president Barack Obama has provided an update on his Presidential Center, promising to “create a campus for active citizenship in the heart of Chicago’s South Side”. The design, which was unveiled in May last year, has been created by Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects in partnership with Interactive Design Architects (IDEA). According to Obama and his wife, Michelle, the US$350m (€293m, £259.5m) Presidential Center – which is now

Bath Rugby moved a step closer to its new home as the Stadium for Bath project confirmed Grimshaw as lead architect. The project brings together Bath Rugby, Bath Rugby Foundation and Arena 1865 to develop the new stadium in the City of Bath, a certified UNESCO World Heritage Site. Globally renowned architecture firm Grimshaw will begin developing designs for the 18,000-capacity stadium, which will replace Bath Rugby’s facilities at the

The National Railway Museum in York has said its £50m (US$67.6m, €56.7m) masterplan still is still being finalised, following local reports revealing new details about the institution’s redevelopment. Marking the most significant redevelopment since its opening in 1975, the museum’s seven-year masterplan hinges on the wider development of the 178-acre (720,000sq m) York Central brownfield site. Designated an Enterprise Zone in 2015, the site’s regeneration will help fund the museum’s

The Pritzker-winning architect Shigeru Ban has completed the dramatic Mount Fuji World Heritage Center in Japan’s Yamanashi prefecture, with a design that mimics the famous dormant volcano. Located 20 miles southwest of the natural landmark, Ban’s 3,400sq m (36,500sq ft) facility is formed by an inverted latticed timber cone, that appears mountainous when seen in the large reflecting pool at the front of the complex. Inside, exhibitions tell the story

The world’s largest frame has opened in Dubai, offering a surreal and symbolic perspective of the emirate’s architectural landmarks. The structure, which measures 150m (492ft) high and 93m (305ft) wide, is formed of two towers in Zabeel Park. The towers are connected by a 100sq m (1,076sq ft) bridge located 48 storeys above the ground, from which visitors can observe the surrounding cityscape. At ground level, the resultant rectangle frames

Construction of the new Museum of Ethnography is underway in Budapest, Hungary. Site clearance has begun in Városliget (City Park) and work started on the foundations of the 31,400sq m (338,000sq ft) building, which will be formed by a gradually curving convex volume with an intricate, partly-golden patterned facade and a grass-covered roof. Hungarian architects Napur won an international design competition for the project in May 2016 – overcoming high-profile

Pritzker laureate Glenn Murcutt and architect Wendy Lewin are designing a museum in the Australian Outback to showcase the world’s greatest public collection of rare opalised fossils from the Age of Dinosaurs. The Australian Opal Centre will be built in the mining town of Lightning Ridge, constructed within a giant void excavated from the earth in 2013. The project is being funded by the New South Wales government, business donations

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has today (14 December) announced the RIBA International List 2018, a new biennial selection of the world’s best new buildings. A number of leisure projects are included in the prestigious longlist, including high-profile museums designed by the likes of Heatherwick Studio, Stanton Williams, AL_A and Bjarke Ingels Group. Libraries, cultural centres, a hotel and a concert hall are also recognised among the 62

The Rugby Football Union (RFU) has named Manchester-based firm Mather and Co to design its new World Rugby Museum at the spiritual home of the sport – Twickenham Stadium. Scheduled to open in early 2018, the new attraction was commissioned by the RFU as part of the redevelopment of the 82,000-capacity stadium’s East Stand. The museum will cover 650sq m (7,000sq m) and will chart the history of rugby from

Three international architecture firms invited to submit designs for a new children’s museum in the Mexico-US border city of El Paso, Texas, will soon learn the outcome of a public vote. Three firms are competing in the contest: the Santa Monica, California-based KoningEizenberg; Norwegian firm Snøhetta; and Mexico’s TEN Arquitectos. El Paso Community Foundation says the new children’s museum will “spark imaginations, curiosity, creativity and critical thinking through immersive, experiential

A starry shortlist has been announced in the international competition to find a design team to create a new art museum in Adelaide, Australia. The Adelaide Contemporary – conceived as a sister museum to the Art Gallery of South Australia – will include an art gallery, a public sculpture park and a meeting place for the city. The competition brief required proposals that "integrate art, education, nature and people" and

A historic pier and aquarium on Manhattan Beach, California, is undergoing a major renovation after reaching its fundraising target. The Roundhouse Aquarium, which was built on the end of the 100-year-old iron pier, will benefit from a complete refurbishment, with the US$4m (£3m, €3.4m) project being led by Cambridge Seven Associates. Michael Greenberg, CEO of the global shoe company Skechers, led the appeal for funds, raising over US$1.5m (£1.12m, €950,000)

The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) has been welcoming the first visitors to its new home this week, located in the heart of the burgeoning design district in Miami, Florida. The striking building, with a facade of metal triangles, was created by Spanish architecture firm Aranguren + Gallegos. To celebrate the opening and take advantage of having twice as much space as in its former home, ICA is offering a

Experience design firm BRC have taken the concept of a theme park attraction and placed it inside a museum setting at the new Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC. A US$500m (€424m, £374.5m) project, the 430,000sq ft (40,000sq m) museum, which opened on 17 November, has been created inside a former refrigerated warehouse built in 1922. A group of high-profile design teams worked on the project, with US firm

British conservation charity the National Trust has announced that architecture practice Allies and Morrison will reimagine and rebuild Surrey’s Clandon Park, a historic Palladian mansion gutted by a fire in 2015. The firm was selected ahead of five other rivals in an international design competition, organised by Malcolm Reading Consultants. However, in an unusual move, one of the other shortlisted practices, Purcell, has joined the winning ticket as conservation architect.

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) have revealed their latest major US project – a sports and entertainment neighbourhood in Texas under a dramatic chequered roofscape. Ambitious plans for the 1.3 million sq ft (121,000sq m) East Austin District were announced today (5 December) by Austin Sports & Entertainment, founded by sports media executives Andrew Nestor and Sean Foley. Located at the home of rodeo in Austin, the new complex is described

Decommissioned Navy equipment could soon be used to create a family-friendly centre dedicated to maritime life after plans were submitted to develop a US$43m (€36.3m, £32m) attraction in Chicago, Illinois. Plans for Navyseum show an interactive, two-storey attraction that will span 130,000sq ft (12,000sq m) and combine a museum with an interactive playspace. Themed experience zones are connected using bridges, tubes, slides, overlook decks, and openings to offer a fun,

A cultural hub designed by Japanese Pritzker-winning architect Fumihiko Maki has opened in Chinese megacity Shenzhen in partnership with the V&A – the first collaboration between a British museum and a Chinese partner. The Sea World Culture and Arts Center (SWCAC), located in Shenzhen Bay, is formed of three white cantilevered volumes atop a deconstructed plinth. A tilted landscaped roof, open to the public, provides panoramic views while pathways extend

With its year as UK City of Culture coming to a close, Hull is wrapping up 12 months of public artworks by using light and sound to turn The Deep aquarium into a giant art installation. From 8 December the iconic aquarium, designed by Terry Farrell and Partners, will be lit up as its architecture and façade receive a virtual remodelling. Called Floe, images will be projected onto the side

Designers GSM Project have delivered three exhibition spaces for the new Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa, allowing visitors to “discover innovations and technology through immersive experiences”. The three galleries include 19 integrated interactive and media displays and a number of large-scale exhibits. The first gallery, ‘Into the Great Outdoors’, showcases more than 100 years of technological developments geared toward conquering and roaming vast landscape – from bicycles to

A vacant plot located along the Harlem River waterfront in New York has been earmarked as the site for a major new residential and leisure development – including a home for the city’s first dedicated hip hop museum. The New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) has announced a raft of ambitious plans for its new Bronx Point destination, including public open spaces, a hi-tech multiplex theatre, education facilities for

With admirers from Steve McQueen to Marlon Brando, Clint Eastwood to George Clooney, Pink to David Beckham – the iconic Triumph motorbike will be celebrated by all thanks to a new attraction opened in Hinckley, Leicester. The Triumph Factory Visitor Experience is laid out across eight themed zones, aimed at engaging its guests with the story of the historic manufacturer and demonstrating its prowess in design and engineering. Edinburgh-based Studio

Artist Asad Raza has created an indoor tennis court with a difference: it sits within a deconsecrated 16th-century church. Rather than an excitable crowd of spectators, players in the San Paolo Converso arena will be surrounded by murals of Saint Paul. Otherwise, though, the space is set up like a typical court – complete with lines, netting, racquets, chairs, a jug of iced jasmine tea and even coaches to practice

Designs for a new gallery dedicated to ancient Egypt have been released by Bolton Museum and exhibition designers Leach Studio. Work is already underway on the £3.8m (€4.3m, US$5m) addition to the museum, in the English town of Bolton, Lancashire, with the venue set to re-open in 2018 following essential roof repairs and electrical works. The Eternal Egypt gallery will showcase Egyptian artefacts, a replica Pharaoh tomb, and explain how

The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London has made an unusual acquisition – a section of a former council estate that’s set to be demolished. The piece of the building that the museum has acquired consists of a three-storey maisonette flat, its exterior walkway and sections of concrete stairway, which was part of Robin Hood Gardens in Poplar, East London. It’s being taken apart and will be delivered to

French architect Jean Nouvel has revealed a preview of the 1,050ft (320m) high tapering tower he has designed for New York, with renderings showing the development that will fill a condo with culture. Building work on the project, called 53W53, has reached the 58th floor, and it is already towering over the adjacent Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), which will be incorporated into the new development. New computer visualisations illustrating

Plans have been unveiled in China to build the world’s highest planetarium – set to open at the Tibet Museum of Natural Sciences in 2019. Dubbed “the roof of the world”, the museum in the provincial capital of Lhasa, sits 4,000m (13,123ft) above sea level, passing through the three permanent exhibition halls of the Natural Science Museum, the Science Museum and the Cultural Exhibition Hall. It also features a theatre