Hyperloop One, the Los Angeles firm racing to build the world’s first Hyperloop high-speed transport system, has partnered with Arup, AECOM and Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) to realise its ambitions. The announcement was made today (11 May) as the company, formerly known as Hyperloop Technologies, attempts to prove its futuristic goals have a solid basis in reality and can revolutionise the worlds of transport, business and leisure. In addition to

The Palestinian Museum Hub – the flagship for a planned network of museums – opens on 18 May in the West Bank north of Jerusalem. The US$60m, (€55m, £40m) project has the intention of creating an iconic building to act as a beacon of hope for the Palestinian people. It was first mooted in 1999 but stalled multiple times due to political tensions in the region. Heneghan Peng were appointed

A public park in Denmark, a Chinese arts centre, a three-storey pedestrian bridge in Iran and a library in Spain are among the leisure projects nominated for the 2016 Aga Khan Award for Architecture. The prize awards projects “from slum upgrading to high rise green buildings – that not only exhibit architectural excellence but also improve the overall quality of life.” Since its establishment in 1977, more than 110 projects

The world’s first fully air conditioned stadium has been given the go ahead by the ruler of Dubai, with architecture studio Perkins + Will working on the design of the project. Dubai Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has approved the initial design of the 60,000 capacity Mohammed bin Rashid Stadium after reviewing the project last week. The ground will cost AED3bn (US$817m €717m, £565m) to construct and

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has announced a star-studded shortlist in its bid to celebrate the best building in the world. Zaha Hadid, Bjarke Ingels, Shigeru Ban and David Chipperfield are among the architects in contention to win the first RIBA International Prize. Thirty projects from 50 countries have made the shortlist and will be visited by the RIBA Awards Committee in the coming months. In its inaugural

Rachel Haugh, the co-founder of British architects SimpsonHaugh and Partners, has told CLAD about her studio’s work on Phase One of London’s Battersea Power Station development, which is nearing completion. The huge project to build Circus West – a circa 1m sq ft (93,000sq m) development including new homes, workspaces, shops, restaurants, fitness facilities, cafés and cultural venues by the River Thames adjacent to Battersea’s four iconic chimneys – is

The move to bring a second Major League Soccer (MLS) franchise to Los Angeles has made significant progress after the city council green lit plans for a US$250m (£173.1m, €219.6m) stadium complex for Los Angeles FC. LA City Council “unanimously approved” a final Environmental Impact Report for the development, which will include a 22,000-capacity stadium, restaurants, office space, a conference centre and a football museum. The local office of architectural

Pritzker Prize-winning architect Shigeru Ban has told CLAD about the responsibility he feels as an architect to combine “monumental” public buildings with disaster relief projects around the world. In an exclusive interview, Ban said his post-disaster work with his Voluntary Architects’ Network in countries such as Japan and Ecuador is important to him, because “compared to doctors or lawyers and other professionals who work for people with problems, our job

A vase-inspired mixed-use tower designed by Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) in Melbourne will be referred to Victoria’s planning minister for approval due to the size of the scheme and a conflict of interest among members of the city’s planning advisory committee. The 54-storey tower, which would be located at 582-606 Collins Street, has been designed as a series of four stacked vase-inspired volumes, with a sculptural, mesh-like façade. It will

Pandas are on the agenda for design firm Dan Pearlman, with the Berlin-based practice creating the new panda enclosure for Berlin Zoo, while also debuting a new indoor and outdoor environment for pandas at Everland Resort in Yongin, South Korea. A pair of giant pandas, which can generate millions in revenue every year as visitors travel far and wide to get a glimpse of the endangered species, made their South

Stella McCartney, Thomas Heatherwick, David Adjaye and Antony Gormley are among the designers, artists and architects whose time or work has been auctioned to fund the creation of a new home for one of the world's biggest design museums. The sale, hosted by auction house Phillips, raised over £1.1m (US$1.6m, €1.4m) towards the renovation costs of the Design Museum’s forthcoming building in Kensington, London. A total of 55 pieces were

Guests staying at a luxury boutique hotel in London can enjoy a cocktail in the cramped courthouse cells which once held the Kray twins, two of the most notorious gangsters in the city’s history. The newly-opened Courthouse Hotel in Shoreditch is located in a Grade II-listed building which once housed the Great Marlborough Street Magistrates Court. The themes of crime, punishment and justice are embedded into the hotel’s design, particularly

The world-famous Whistler Blackcomb ski resort is expanding its offering beyond the slopes, announcing a US$345m (€300m, £238m) plan to revitalise and invest in its mountain facilities. To be rolled out in three stages, the ‘Renaissance’ expansion plan will focus first on a US$100m (€87m, £69m) plan to create weather independent, year-round attractions. Ecosign Mountain Resort Planners – who also prepared the first masterplan for Whistler Mountain and Blackcomb Mountain

This week culture and the performing arts came into focus on CLADglobal.com, as we learnt about several exciting developing projects. Dutch architects MVRDV revealed they have received the go ahead for a novel cultural complex in Zaanstad – which will see silhouettes of traditional buildings carved into the exterior – while on the other side of the world, design renderings were released for a Texas concert hall inspired and named

Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha has been announced as the recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement prize at the 2016 Venice Biennale. Da Rocha – whose landmark leisure buildings in his homeland include the Serra Dourada football stadium in Goiania, and the Clube Atlético Paulistano gymnasium and Brazilian Sculpture Museum in Sao Paolo – was nominated for the award by the biennale's curator, Alejandro Aravena. In a

Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) have unveiled the first detailed designs for a new mixed-use district set to bring life to a brownfield urban site in Prague. The lot, located next to Masaryk Railway Station, has stood derelict for several decades. City planners organised a design competition, won by ZHA in 2014, to return the area to active use with a new business and cultural zone. The project will create a

Marks Barfield Architects, the creators of the London Eye, have been tasked with designing a cable car across Chicago that will become an “iconic attraction” for the city. Chicago-based theatre impresario Lou Raizin and real estate investor Laurence S. Geller are behind the ambitious scheme, called The Chicago SkyLine, which has been designed in collaboration with US architects Davis Brody Bond. Speaking at a city event, Raizin and Geller outlined

Latvian wellness consultancy Inbalans Group is working together with Moscow-based international development company Griffin Partners and Jurmula City Council to develop a substantial wellness community in Latvia's Kemeri National Park. The wellness community, located just west of the capital of Riga, will include a five-star hotel with a 1,500sq m (16,146sq ft) spa, due to open in 2018, as well as a wellness clinic comprised of multiple historic buildings with

The potential of VR has won the attention of global studio NBBJ, who this week announced a business partnership with tech startup Visual Vocal to incubate and develop a VR productivity platform that will initially be exclusive to them, before being made available to other architects. The firm claim they are the first design studio to support a VR startup inside their own offices. "NBBJ's decision to launch Visual Vocal

German designers Toni Egger and Felix Tarantik are creating mobile saunas inside the aluminium shells of Swiss ski lift gondolas. The four-person Saunagondel can withstand extreme weather conditions and, with a footprint of two by two metres, is small and lightweight enough to transport from place to place. The sauna is fitted with custom-made silver fir wood interiors and a 4.5 kW electric heater that can reach temperatures of 100

New York’s The Four Seasons restaurant, which on Monday was awarded the Design Icon Award at the James Beard Foundation Awards, will soon close its doors ahead of a move to a new location. The restaurant’s operators have been unable to negotiate an extension to their current lease, and have chosen to leave their home of over 50 years inside Mies van der Rohe’s landmark Seagram building in Manhattan. The

Minnesota’s Bell Museum of Natural History has broken ground on a new US$79.2m (€69m, £54.7m) complex near the State Fairgrounds on the University of Minnesota’s Minneapolis campus. To be renamed the Bell Museum and Planetarium, a 120-seat domed planetarium and theatre will be one of the main new features, in addition to expanded galleries and a host of interactive exhibitions. Minneapolis-based architecture firm Perkins+Will have created the box structure, which

The global foresight manager at international architecture and engineering firm Arup has told CLAD that closer collaboration between architects, designers, developers and investors is essential if the buildings of the future are to successfully boost our health and wellbeing. Josef Hargrave said the increasingly sophisticated demands we make of our buildings necessitate a more holistic approach in how they are designed and developed. “We’re moving from a world where building

Velas Resorts is opening a new location on Mexico’s Baja Peninsula in November that will include a 20-room, 19,375sq ft (1,800sq m) spa and hydrotherapy facility. The US$150m (€130m, £103m) Grand Velas Los Cabos is the fifth property for the family-owned and operated company, and will include 306 suites with private terraces and personal plunge pools as well as five restaurants and a 16,370sq ft convention centre. The two-level spa

MVRDV’s design for a cultural hub in Zaandstad, Holland, featuring a concert hall, cinema, arts space, dance studio, library and architecture centre, has been given the green light by the municipality. The project, called The Cultural Cluster, can now be pushed forwards into the next stage of design. The Dutch architects have completed the preliminary design phase, which visualises a raised cubic volume with variously coloured silhouettes of traditional Zaan

Santiago Calatrava will design a pavilion inspired by a falcon in flight for the Dubai World Expo 2020. The National Media Council of the United Arab Emirates has selected the Swiss-Spanish architect to create its expo showpiece, which will represent the nation to the 25 million visitors expected to attend the architecture festival. Calatrava’s wing-shaped structure is expected to cover up to 15,000sq m (161,500sq dt) in the centre of

Canadian practice Diamond Schmitt Architects have released design details for a new arts complex in Texas inspired by the legendary 1950s pop star Buddy Holly. The Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts and Sciences will be located in the city of Lubbock, where the singer was born. The multi-purpose centre will be a new home for rock concerts, operas, ballets and touring Broadway shows, as well as large-scale social and