A social club founded by Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood for London’s high society has been redesigned by the HKS Hospitality Group as a family-friendly centre focused around health and wellness. Wood’s Harringdon Club – once a popular haunt for celebrities, young royals and fashionistas – was purchased by Sicilian hospitality entrepreneur Luca Del Bono, who has transformed the interiors of the listed Georgian-era music hall into the Mediterranean-themed South Kensington

An Elemis spa will be a central part of the new Domes Noruz Chania lifestyle hotel on the Greek island of Crete, set to open this month. The 350sq m (3,767sq ft) features traditional artwork motifs and natural materials, and employs various shades of blue in its design. Natural light and diffused, indirect lighting are used to sustain a sense of relaxation, and the wall tiles reference the patterns found

The first venue within Hong Kong’s emerging West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) has been completed on time and on budget. The M+ Pavilion is a flexible small-scale arts space created by a trio of young local designers. The site is designed as an accompaniment to Herzog and de Meuron’s forthcoming M+ building – a new home for Hong Kong’s museum for visual culture, art, design and architecture. The new pavilion

Philippe Starck has revealed a new leisure concept centred around wellness and healthy living. 'Villa M' is a restaurant, hotel and training space exclusive to medical professionals, caregivers, patients, students and innovators working in the world of health and fitness. The building is being developed by health insurance company Groupe Pasteur Mutualité in the centre of Paris. The French designer’s concept is to allow visitors to learn about and medical

A safari park opening later this year in Dubai will feature misting machines, cool-water pools and rocks fitted with air conditioning to keep temperatures down. Design and construction firm Cape Reed are creating the 120 hectare (296.5 acre) site for the Dubai Municipality, and have had to think innovatively in order to ensure the park’s thousands of animals are kept in cool enough conditions in the desert climate. The park

Interior designer Reinhard Strasser has created a new Alpine retreat in the Austrian mountains, featuring a high-altitude hypoxic chamber which can be used by professional athletes. The hotel, called Blumen Haus Lech, will launch in the village of Lech in December 2016. It is being funded by British businessman Andrew Flowers, who wants to “raise the bar for boutique hotels in Austria” and offer a luxury stopover for skiers in

Long-running plans to build a permanent home for the Universal Hip-Hop Museum (UHHM) in the US have moved a step closer to reality, after architects BrandNu Design unveiled renderings showing what the project could look like. A disused courthouse in The Bronx, New York, has been proposed as the site of the museum – the first time a specific building has been suggested. BrandNu’s proposal for the 38,000sq ft (3,500sq

Studio MMK, who have offices in the US and South Korea, will design a music-led cultural complex on an island in Seoul after winning an international architecture competition for the project. ‘Nodeul Dream Island’ will be one of the firm’s first built projects. Located on the Han River, the island will host concerts, festivals, exhibitions and other cultural events. The Seoul Metropolitan Government had invited architects, landscape architects and urban

Here are some of the most popular stories that appeared on CLAD this week, from an apple-inspired spa to an architectural addition to Unesco’s World Heritage list. Monday • Renzo Piano has released re-worked designs for his ‘Paddington Pole’ mixed-use development in London. Read here. • A contractor has been appointed to build a multi-level indoor Urban Sports Park for skaters in Folkestone, UK. Read here. • Two architecture competitions

A new 1,500sq m (16,146sq ft) Spa Du Royal at the recently refurbished Art Nouveau landmark hotel Royal Savoy Lausanne in Switzerland has opened. Le Spa Du Royal features eight treatment rooms, a wet zone with indoor and outdoor pools, vitality pools, and several hammams, saunas and steam rooms. A special “Ladies Only” spa features relaxation and treatment rooms, and the spa also includes a fitness room, hairdresser and spa

Tourism officials have launched an art installation on the hills of Snowdonia, with giant mirrored letters spelling out the word ‘EPIC’ as part of a campaign to promote Wales as the home of great adventures. Designed by Cardiff-based design firm Wild Creations, the four-metre-tall (13.1 foot) lettering has appeared in Pen y Gwryd in North West Wales and was commissioned by VisitWales as part of its Year of Adventure Campaign.

The 2016 Archikids Festival begins in London this weekend with a host of free activities planned to engage children with architecture, engineering and design. Children aged 5-11 and their families are invited to tour some of the capital's iconic buildings, including the Gherkin by Norman Foster, and take part in a series of architecture challenges between 10am-5pm BST on both days. Tasks include experimenting with different materials and shapes to

Exhibition designs for a museum dedicated to the world’s only preserved Nordlandsjekt – a 17th century Norwegian cargo ship – have been unveiled by design firm Kvorning. Located in Bodø lake in north-western Norway, Anna Karoline, will be centred around the vessel of the same name, which will form the centrepiece of the museum as part of a wider exhibition looking at jekt shipping heritage. The ship has spent the

New images have been released of the completed handball arena for the Rio Olympics and Paralympics, which will be dismantled after the Games so that the materials can be used to build four schools. The temporary 12,000-seat stadium – designed by Brazilian practices Oficina de Arquitetos and Lopes, Santos & Ferreira Gomes in collaboration with London studio AndArchitects – will be used officially for the first time when sport’s biggest

Dramatic new drone footage has been released to showcase the architectural features of Herzog and de Meuron’s hotly-awaited Elbe Philharmonic building in Hamburg, Germany. The shimmering complex will house three concert halls, a Starwood Westin hotel and spa, 45 private apartments and an indoor public plaza when it officially opens on 11 January 2017. To whet appetites for the curtain-raising, a new website has been set up taking viewers on

The rebuilding of a disused ice rink in Schierke, Germany has officially started, with architecture studio GRAFT transforming the site into a multi-use sports arena with a unique roof structure. The Nature Rink, located at the foot of the snow-topped Harz Mountains, is one of the country’s oldest natural ice stadiums. It is being renovated at a cost of more than €7m (US$7.7m, £5.8m) enabling it to host ice sports

Reality television star and socialite Paris Hilton, will open her own eponymous luxury hotel chain, Forbes is reporting. The 35-year-old granddaughter of Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton will open the first locations in Dubai, New York and Las Vegas. Hilton has been working with Century Properties in the Philippines for the past few years, designing its Paris Beach Club for the Azure Urban Resort Residence, and her second Paris Beach

The City of Los Angeles has selected a design team led by local architects Gruen Associates to design 12 miles of the LA River Greenway. Mayor Eric Garcetti and the city’s engineering bureau have commissioned the studio to create new green space and pedestrian and cycle routes from Canoga Park to Elysian Valley, with “a next-generation, L.A.-specific design aesthetic.” The greenway design must also include shade elements, stormwater capture features

Italian collective the Network of Architecture (noa*) have completed their apple-inspired spa and wellness centre for a boutique hotel in Italy’s Passiria Valley. The outer structure of the Applesauna wellness building is totally green, and is experienced as a hill. It evolves into a “mystical and intimate space” as guests move inside to use the sauna, showers and relaxation area. A key element of the design is the cycle of

The village of Woodhall Spa – one of only 22 spa towns in England – is one step closer to seeing its vision of restoring an original spa from the 19th century. Following a well collapse in 1983, the baths fell into a state of disrepair and have since been derelict, leaving the mineral-rich waters unused. Local developer GN Construction has conceived a vision to resurrect the baths and create

The UK should use Brexit as an opportunity to create an immigration policy which stimulates its creative industries, according to Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) director Patrik Schumacher. Talking to CLAD, Schumacher said that leaving the European Union (EU) could facilitate “a more tailored approach” to immigration that gives architects and designers from outside the EU more opportunity to move to the UK. The architect – who said “he didn't like

Bootcamp fitness studio operator TRIB3 has launched a new design concept which will bring mobile gyms to local parks, schools and open spaces across the UK and overseas. The compact gyms are built within a shipping-style container. At the touch of a button, a hydraulic system opens up the gym within ten minutes, revealing a mini studio with treadmills and workout mats. The concept was created by TRIB3 and designed

German architect Wolfgang Frey has made a strong commitment to sustainable practice by creating his own forest as a means of repaying his carbon dioxide debt. The site, located on China’s Xishan mountain, covers 12.4 acres and has been planted with more than 6,000 trees. Frey – who has advised Chinese government ministers and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on issues of sustainability – has several ongoing leisure and housing projects

MVRDV have revealed their design for Paradise City; a 9,800sq m (105,500sq ft) entertainment plaza in Seoul, South Korea. Located close to Incheon Airport, the complex will feature a boutique hotel, food-court, galleries, a spa, retail space and a nightclub. It will open in time for the 2018 Winter Olympic games, and will act as a tourist hotspot for visitors to the city – with a mono-rail link connecting it

Brazilian designer Isay Weinfeld has been tasked with designing the new home for the Four Seasons restaurant in New York, which has just closed its iconic Manhattan home of 56 years. The Four Seasons’ owners are relocating from the Seagram Building after being unable to negotiate an extension to their current lease. They are widely expected to move the restaurant south, to a spot on Park Avenue. After winning a

Starwood Hotels & Resorts has announced it will debut its W Hotels brand in Scotland at the 12-storey ‘ribbon’ building designed by Jestico + Whiles in the heart of Edinburgh. The striking building – which has proven controversial due to its eye-catching steel facade and mooted location in the centre of the historic city – is set to complete in 2020. It will be the centrepiece of the Edinburgh St

Interior designers Studio Proof have revamped Amsterdam’s famous Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky to evoke the atmosphere and stylistic flourishes of the 1920s. The hotel, which was established by enterprising tailor Wilhelm Krasnapolsky in 1855, is one of the city’s oldest and has become a landmark in Dam Square. It is now part of the NH Collection’s portfolio of five star hotels across Europe. Studio Proof were tasked with refreshing the hotel’s