A medical-themed restaurant designed by Damien Hirst will open at London’s Newport Street Gallery next week (23 February). Hirst has collaborated with chef and restaurateur Mark Hix to open Pharmacy 2, which will serve British and European dishes to visitors at the Vauxhall gallery – which was designed by architects Caruso St John and opened in October 2015 to house Hirst’s personal art collection. The restaurant features Hirst’s own artistic

A trio of high-profile architects have called on the design and construction industries to embrace advancements in glass technology which are transforming the ways in which buildings can be created. Millennium Dome architect Mike Davies, Marks Barfield managing director David Marks and OMA associate Alex de Jong told CLAD that boundaries are being pushed in the development of glass, making the material cheaper, more sustainable and much higher performing. “Glass

An ambitious AS$30m (£14.9m, US$21.5m, €19.3m) netball facility is being designed in Queensland, Australia, which is expected to benefit thousands of elite, grassroots and school players in the region. Curtis Pitt, Queensland’s minister for sport, revealed that local architects BVN will design the State Netball Centre based in Brisbane, Queensland’s capital city. The eight-court facility will also come with a training centre and administration offices for Netball Queensland, the regional

Architecture and urbanism collective Studio Gang have completed a performing arts centre in Glencoe, Chicago, which is designed as a new cultural landmark for the city. Built for the Writers Theatre group, which produces inventive interpretations of classic plays, the theatre features an elevated glass box lobby which glows in the dark at night to beckon people in. The theatre is spread across a village-like cluster of distinct volumes around

Norway’s famous network of architecture tourist routes is set to get a new viewpoint attraction in June – a concrete triangle slab balanced on a dramatic mountainside. Designed by Norwegian architects Code, the Utsikten (the View) is being built on the Gaularfjell National Tourist Route (NTR). The NTR project began in 1994, combining the 18 most spectacular roads in Norway with modern architecture attractions designed to complement the scenery, such

A simple yet radical scheme to introduce low-cost housing to dense cities could have major implications for placemaking in our urban environments. French studio Stéphane Malka Architecture have been creating prefabricated living spaces which lean on and extend from existing buildings in Paris, cantilevering over streets at unusual angles. The concept – nicknamed ‘parasitic architecture’ – is an environmentally-friendly and economical solution to creating living space in urban areas short

A masterplan drawn up by Dutch landscape architects West 8 to create a 120 acre botanic garden in Houston, Texas has received approval from the city’s mayor. Plans to create a vast public green space showcasing Houston's native plants, preserving various wildlife habitats and hosting community events have been in development since 2002, but received a major boost last year after US$5m (€4.4m, £3.5m) was successfully fundraised to move the

The University of Louisville Athletics department has launched a fundraising campaign to expand its American football stadium and training complex. The US$55m (€49.3m, £38.4m) project will add 10,000 seats to the 50,000-capacity Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium, bringing the crowd much closer to the on-field action and providing a new open-air covered concourse. The UoL Athletics department, whose teams are collectively called the Louisville Cardinals, competes in several sports ranging from

A new luxury Anantara hotel and spa complex will open later this year in Dhofar, Oman, with a design inspired by the region’s coastal fortresses. The Anantara Salalah Al Baleed Resort is a joint venture between Omran – the state-owned company currently investing huge sums of money into the country’s hospitality sector – and property developer Musstir. The resort will be located in the Salalah, the capital of Dhofar province,

Third Space has jump-started its quest to become London’s premium health club operator with the £3.5m relaunch of its Tower Bridge gym. The 28,000sq ft (2,601sq m) club – which was formerly 37 Degrees before being taken over by Third Space owner Encore Capital in 2014 – has been given a comprehensive makeover. Specialist spa, fitness and wellness designers Sparcstudio led the redesign of the Tower Bridge site and is

Work is nearing completion on the Chongwenmen M-Cube; MVRDV’s latest high-profile leisure building. Located in Beijing, the the 44,000sq m (473,600sq ft) M-Cube is due to be completed by Q3 this year. Once open, it will be a cultural hub for the Chinese capital – with leisure, retail, dining and nightclub facilities housed beneath a rooftop garden overlooking many of the city’s landmarks. The building's most striking feature will be

An international student architecture competition is exploring the relationship between architecture, movement and the senses. In an unorthodox brief, the fifth edition of the annual UIA-HYP Cup is challenging entrants to design a hotel, museum, library, clinic or cemetery which “can foster and encourage new modes of living unknown today.” The global contest is organised by Tianjin University and Chinese media company Urban Environmental Design, with support from the Union

Milanese architects Vittorio Grassi + Partners have designed a fluid multipurpose building for the Italian city of Lamezia Terme, which will host international sporting events for disabled athletes. The asymmetrical design for the Palazzo dello Sport is inspired by the pebbles found along the city’s Mediterranean shoreline. The distinctive shape allows for 8,000sq m (86,100sq ft) interior space to host a range of events – from sports events to concerts

Boutique fitness chain Heartcore has launched its eighth studio, this time in the London district St John’s Wood, as the operator continues its focus on prestigious postcodes in the city. Sited in a former church, the new location has a heavy emphasis on design – with the Heartcore team creating the entire concept in-house. The property’s soaring ceilings lend an airy, ‘Californian-feel’ to the studio, which is complemented by natural

A new study into how we will live, work and relax a century from now has predicted a future where underwater bubble cities, drone-delivered mobile holiday homes and super skyscrapers are the norm. The SmartThings Future Living Report, commissioned by Samsung SmartThings and authored by a collection of British-based architects, academics and scientists, suggests the way we lead our lives will “will change beyond all recognition” over the course of

Designs are being sought for a large-scale cultural landmark celebrating the Indian film industry in Mumbai. Competition organiser Archasm is embarking on a mission to “put Bollywood on the global map” by organising a design contest for a “vertical Film City tower” which will emulate Los Angeles’ film industry neighbourhood and the iconic Hollywood sign. “The film industry in Mumbai is scattered and too low profile to match the cult

British architects Carmody Groarke will build a luxury hotel suite suspended over the sea on an isolated tidal island. The London studio are the winners of a RIBA competition to create the building – an extension of an existing Art Deco hotel – on Burgh Island in South Devon, UK. Four practices proposed designs for the dramatic headline site, which is cut off from the mainland twice each day when

Japanese digital art collective teamLab have partnered with Silicon Valley gallery Pace Art + Technology to create a large-scale interactive art exhibition described as a “digital playground for all ages”. The exhibition, called Living Digital Space and Future Parks, features 20 innovative art pieces spread across several rooms and 20,000sq ft (1,850sq m) in the Californian gallery. The show encourages participants to embrace their curiosity by interacting directly with the

City planners in Madrid are responding to the challenge of climate change by covering the Spanish capital’s unused spaces in plants and greenery. According to reports in Spain, the local government has given the green light for 22 vacant areas to be transformed into urban gardens and for a million-dollar investment to plant trees along the banks of the Manzanares River. The projects – which follow a decision in 2014

The director of Europa City – one of the largest ongoing leisure developments on the continent – has told CLAD how the scheme can bolster the Paris bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. In an exclusive interview, Christophe Dalstein said the €3.1bn (US$3.5bn, £2.4bn) Europa City – which has been masterplanned by Bjarke Ingels Group – will be perfectly placed near the proposed Olympic venues in northern

When architect Étienne Duval decided to apply for his dream job – a position at Bjarke Ingels’ studio BIG – he chose a rather unorthodox alternative to a traditional cover letter. In a bid to stand out from the crowd, Duval posted a special rap on YouTube in which he sets out his suitability for the practice – who are perhaps in need of extra staff having announced a host

After three years of work, the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar, France has re-opened to the public, with a new subterranean gallery space created by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron. The museum – which exhibits historic works of art from the likes of Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso – has almost doubled its interior space by linking the museum with an adjacent complex of historical buildings, including a 13th century

London studio RPW Design have revealed more details about their multi-million pound renovations of two Marriott properties in London, including the transformation of a health and wellbeing space on the capital’s famous Park Lane. Refurbishment of The Club – the 342sq m (3,600sq ft) health facility at the five-star London Marriott Hotel Park Lane – will be completed in April 2016. RPW are designing a brand new treatment room, a

Kevin Spacey, the award-winning US producer and actor, is to give the keynote speech at the 2016 American Institute of Architects convention in Philadelphia. The star of hit Netflix series House of Cards will address the convention on 19 May about the importance of innovation and risk-taking. “What can architects learn from an award-winning producer and actor whose Netflix Original Series made appointment TV obsolete?” the AIA asked in a

The Art Institute of Chicago is giving visitors to the US city the chance to step directly into the world of Vincent Van Gogh. To celebrate an upcoming exhibition on the Dutch post-impressionist, the institute has recreated a human-scale model of Van Gogh’s bedroom from his famous French ‘Yellow House’, and is renting it to guests via room listing website Airbnb. Van Gogh was so taken by his room –

Pingtan Art Museum, a spectacular floating cultural island designed by Beijing-based innovators MAD Architects, has entered the construction phase in China’s Fujian province. Pingtan is the largest island in the region and has been designated by the government as a primary location for cultural and tourism development. The museum has been in development since 2011 and will be the cultural centrepiece of the zone. It will float in waters just

Edmonton’s Telus World of Science in Canada has unveiled proposals for a CA$40m (US$28.6m, €25.3m, £19.8m) redevelopment to transform the ageing facility. The ice-inspired concepts by Dialog Design will turn the facility itself into a science lesson. Dialog’s design pools precipitation from the roof, using it to feed wildlife around the building, demonstrating how the freeze-thaw cycle works. In the colder months, water will come from the roof to form