MVRDV are nearing completion on a reflective “hollowed-out” library in Tianjin, China. The 34,200sq m (368,000sq ft) building – which has just topped out – is built around a mirrored spherical auditorium which, coupled with the main atrium, forms a giant eye that looks out at passers-by. Designed with the Tianjin Urban Planning and Design Institute (TUPDI), the Tianjin Binhai Library is being constructed as part of a larger plan

Russia’s State Hermitage Museum is to open a satellite site on the Barcelona waterfront in 2019. Designed by architect Íñigo Amézola, the US$43m (€38m, £29.2m) outpost, to be constructed in the Port of Barcelona, will cover 15,500sq m (166,000sq m) and will have seven galleries split over five storeys, as well as a large entrance hall, restaurant, cafeteria and auditorium. Renderings of the building show a cube structure sat within

A host of architects and designers from the UK and around the world have rallied behind the campaign to keep Britain in the European Union ahead of a landmark referendum today (23 June) which will decide the country’s future in the politico-economic union. David Chipperfield, Rem Koolhaas, Richard Rogers, David Adjaye, Ron Arad and Thomas Heatherwick are among the individuals who have openly called for voters heading to the polls

Miami-based AIC Hotel Group – whose properties include Miami Beach’s iconic Eden Rock Hotel and Nobu Hotel, as well as several Hard Rock properties – has launched a new adults-only, all-inclusive brand, Unico Hotels, with the first location set to debut in Riviera Maya on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. The brand is designed to reflect each property’s locale and native culture, and the nomenclature will play on the latitude and longitude

Universal has offered a first-look at its “next-generation” Volcano Bay, promising to redefine the waterpark experience with everything from the queue line to the park’s immersive theming. Volcano Bay, which suffered a minor setback this month following a fire at the construction site, will open by 1 June 2017, according to officials.

The new home of American National Football League (NFL) franchise the Minnesota Vikings has been completed six weeks ahead of schedule in Minneapolis. Contractor Mortenson Construction has symbolically handed over the keys to the U.S. Bank Stadium to the Vikings and the building’s owner, the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority (MSFA). Designed by HKS Architects, the 70,000-capacity stadium cost US$1.1bn (€974m, £749m) to build. The 1.75m sq ft (162,600sq m) structure

Toronto citizens will soon be able to take an intergalactic journey on their way to work, thanks to a sci-fi tinged public art installation that will encourage placemaking in one of the city’s burgeoning neighbourhoods. Artistic collective Blue Republic will create a pair of 15ft (4.5m) alien characters to stand guard over the cafes, offices and a new residential development on Redpath Street. The group won the contract after coming

A video has been released providing an insight into the design process behind Shigeru Ban’s Aspen Art Museum (AAM), which opened to the public last year. The film, released by Redsquare Productions, features interviews with Ban and the museum’s director Heidi Zuckerman about the museum’s striking design and its impact in the city.

International architecture and design practice The NRA Collaborative have outlined their masterplan for a sweeping new entertainment district in Brisbane, Australia. The proposed precinct, called Brisbane Live, would create an area around the city’s Roma Street featuring entertainment venues, commercial buildings, hotels, residences, restaurants, a retail zone and 12 hectares of parkland. At the heart of the design is a 17,000-seat arena able to host a multitude of events from

Hard Rock International, in collaboration with glh Hotels, has unveiled plans for the Hard Rock Hotel London, to be located at Marble Arch on Hyde Park at the crossroads of Oxford Street and Park Lane. The 900-room hotel is a conversion of the existing Cumberland Hotel, and is scheduled for completion in 2018. It will include the brand’s Rock Spa, which features a concept based around signature music-infused spa treatments,

Construction has begun on Astana Expo City in Kazakhstan; the site of the world’s next international architecture exposition. Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) have designed the city's masterplan and 28 buildings around the 2017 Expo theme ‘Future Energy’. The ambitious project seeks to showcase alternative forms of energy and transport to fly the flag for green and sustainable practices. The design team’s goal is to minimise the site’s

The Watergate Hotel – the scene of the burglary which brought down Richard Nixon’s administration – has been given an extensive refit and re-design by Ron Arad Associates. The Washington D.C. hotel – which is listed as a national monument – was originally built by the Italian architect Luigi Moretti in the early 1960s as part of a mixed-use complex featuring offices, apartments and commercial facilities. The hotel made headlines

A pair of artists have given visitors to Italy’s Lake Iseo the opportunity to walk on water. The duo, known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, have created a temporary 3km-long installation called Floating Piers, which stretches from the commune of Sulzano in the province of Brescia to the island of San Paolo. Created using 100,000sq m of shimmering yellow fabric – carried just above the water by a modular floating dock

Conrad Hotels has made its debut in the Philippines with the opening of Conrad Manila today, in the heart of the 42-acre Bay City development. Perched on top of a high-end shopping, dining and lifestyle mall, the Conrad Manila features 347 bedrooms as well as a spa with six treatment rooms with soaking tubs, a private sauna and steam facilities. It also includes a fitness centre and a third-level, coral-shaped

Work has started on the Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners-designed International Spy Museum, which is making a a US$162m (€143.2m, £102.1m) move to property developer JBG Companies’ L’Enfant Plaza. The deal was announced on 15 June after 18 months of negotiations, with the 140,000sq ft (13,000sq m) space in Washington D.C. funded through US$65m (€57.4m, £41m) coming from the museum’s owners and the remainder sourced through public fundraising and corporate

Western and Japanese concepts of spatial definition and materiality merge in a newly opened spa and health club in Tokyo, designed by COE Architecture International. Aqua Sports & Spa, which was completed this month for fitness operator Seta Sports Connection, is a six-storey, 6,000sq m (65,000sq ft) building in Setagaya-Ku ward. It replaces a 1980s facility, and has been designed to promote personal sports training, Japanese bathing and social activities

Sustainability was a recurring topic in the news this week. Former US presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter met in Atlanta to discuss sustainable cities and green energy policies, the American Society of Interior Designers sealed a new agreement to integrate health and wellness into the projects of its members and the UN unveiled a new tool to measure the impact urbanisation has on quality of life. It was also

Today (17 June), the British public can finally see for themselves the long-gestating expansion to London’s Tate Modern art museum, masterminded by Herzog & de Meuron. The architects transformed the derelict Bankside Power Station on the River Thames into the museum in 2000 to house the UK’s collection of international modern and contemporary art. The Tate was expected to receive two million visitors each year, but was soon welcoming closer

A passion project of the late Zaha Hadid has been unveiled to the world, with her exhibition design for a major retrospective of artist Kurt Schwitters opening in Zurich this week. Schwitters was well known for his poetry, music and Dadaist-flavoured art. His most famous work is an installation called Merzbau – described by critics as “a living, inhabited, ever-expanding collage” – which spread over eight rooms in his Hanover

Architecture studio Gensler have won the contract to design the interior of San Francisco’s Chase Center, which will be the new home of basketball franchise the Golden State Warriors. Gensler will work with MANICA Architecture – who are designing the exterior of the building – to work on all the public interior space, including concourses, clubs, suites, offices, locker rooms the team store and retail space. The architects have pedigree

Luxury resort and casino Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas has unveiled a newly renovated spa and wellness facility. Managed by Trilogy Spa Holdings, a boutique spa operator, The Spa at Red Rock by Well & Being features customised wellness experiences, including an updated menu of cutting-edge fitness classes, nutrition, integrative medicine, mind-body therapies and advanced skincare. This is the third Well & Being spa for Trilogy – with spas

Wolfgang Buttress’ multi-sensory celebration of bees will open to the public this Saturday (18 June) in London’s Kew Gardens. The Hive is a pavilion inspired by scientific research into the health of bees and their role in pollinating crops essential to human survival. The 17m (55.7ft) high, 40 tonne aluminium structure takes visitors on an experiential journey through the life of a bee colony, from an outside meadow into the

The architecture studio of David Adjaye have won the international competition to design a new contemporary art museum for the centre of Riga, Latvia. The Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation today (16 June) announced that Adjaye Associates’ vision for the museum – which imagines a highly-animated tilting roof geometry – has been selected ahead of six rival submissions, including from Caruso St John Architects and Henning Larssen Architects. Adjaye

The under-development Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi took a major step forward this week when the temporary sea wall surrounding the structure came down, flooding the area around the building. Contractor Arabtec Holdings has removed the 14m (46ft) temporary hydraulic cutoff walls used during the main construction phase, with the sea water now enveloping the museum, giving it the appearance of floating on water. "This delicate process is the result

Las Vegas’ US$375m (£264.7m, €333.1m) multi-purpose T-Mobile Arena, which opened in April, looks set to become the home of the latest National Hockey League (NHL) franchise. Reports in the US suggest the NHL has chosen the Nevada city over launching a franchise in Quebec, although the league’s board of governors will hold a formal vote on 22 June. The Populous-designed arena – described by its creators as "a diamond in

Baltimore’s National Aquarium has unveiled plans for North America’s first ever seaside dolphin sanctuary, which has been designed by architects Studio Gang. The aquarium has formed a team of experts who will be tasked to find a site which ensures the health and welfare of the dolphins, following a criteria which includes an outdoor location with natural seawater and a tropical or sub-tropical climate. The aquarium is aiming to transition

The organisers of Paris’s bid for the 2024 Olympic Games have unveiled plans to build a 15,000-capacity aquatics centre if the city’s application is successful. Located in the Saint-Denis region of Paris, the centre will house two 50m (165ft) swimming pools and two diving pools. Once the Games are over the capacity will be scaled down to 2,500. The aquatics centre will be the only facility that will need to