International architects Snøhetta have designed a sanctuary for hikers seeking shelter in the remote and icy wilderness of southern Norway. Located in the the remote Tungestølen region, in the shadow of Jostedal – the largest glacier in continental Europe – the studio has created a series of angular wooden cabins after winning a design competition set by the Norwegian Trekking Association. The buildings – which have just opened – are

A mixed-use piazza designed by Heatherwick Studio for London’s King’s Cross has been given the green light. Camden Council have approved Heatherwick’s plans to transform two disused Victorian coal drop buildings at King’s Cross railway station into 100,000sq m (1m sq ft) of culture and leisure space. The historic structures, which stand apart, will be repaired and connected by a new upper level stitching their two roofs together. Inside, 65

Ten years after opening luxury boutique hotel le Sereno in St. Barths, Sereno Properties is set to open a new location, il Sereno Lago di Como, on the shores of Italy’s legendary Lake Como. Scheduled to open in Q2 2016, il Sereno will feature interiors by Milan-based designer Patricia Urquiola. Guests can arrive at il Sereno by boat, thanks to the hotel’s private docking facility. Boat maker Cantiere Riva is

A crumbling 100-year old church in Llanera, northern Spain, has been transformed by local skateboarding enthusiasts and a hotly-tipped artist into a spectacular indoor skate park. Almost every interior surface in the ‘Iglesia Skate’ church is painted with bright murals and geometric patterns, creating a kaleidoscope of colour. The collective behind the scheme – who call themselves the Church Brigade – describe it as “a temple of urban art.” “It’s

Plans to turn Edinburgh’s neoclassical Old Royal High School into a luxury hotel have been turned down at the first vote by the city council. Developers Duddingston House Properties and Urbanist Hotels had proposed a £75m (US$115m, €102m) project to restore and convert the listed 1820s property – which has stood vacant for almost 50 years on Edinburgh’s Calton Hill – into a 147-bedroom Rosewood hotel featuring two newly-constructed, landscaped

Hilton Worldwide has opened it latest addition – the Mecanoo-designed Hilton Amsterdam Airport Schiphol – which features a dramatic facade comprising a cubic, moulded structure with a distinctive pattern and a vast glass-roofed atrium. The hotel, designed by the Dutch architects, will certainly have a visual impact on passengers arriving and departing from the airport, with the 3,150sq m (33,900sq ft) complex having three main elements: a plinth, a rotated

Real Madrid’s plan to redevelop its Santiago Bernabeu stadium has encountered a new setback after the city council rejected it in the interest of the public. The €440m (US$477.9m, £320.7m) development proposal – which includes the installation of a retractable roof, increasing the capacity to 90,000 and building a hotel, shopping centre and underground car park – will only be accepted if the council believes the interest of local citizens

A community group in London has completed a design brief for an elevated linear park following one of the city’s disused railway lines. Named the Peckham Coal Line, the proposed green space would occupy a 900m (1km) stretch of a line once used to transport coal between two train stations in Peckham, south-east London. The planned park consists of pedestrian and cycle routes running through Victorian brick viaducts before dropping

Tottenham Hotspur has been granted planning permission by Haringey Council for its new stadium in north London. The council approved all three applications submitted by the Premier League club in a meeting that ran until the early hours of Thursday morning (17 December). Last month, the club announced it had appointed Mace to create the pre-construction plans for the stadium, which is expected to be completed by 2018, in time

A striking, sinuous opera house designed by Beijing studio MAD Architects has opened in the northern Chinese city of Harbin. Located within the wetlands surrounding the Songhua River, the Harbin Opera House has been designed as a response to the region’s untamed wilderness and chilly climate. The building’s smooth white aluminium walls twist and turn as if sculpted by the water and wind, blending into the surrounding environment and transfusing

The Italian design team behind the world’s deepest thermal pool have told CLAD that the concept could go global in the near future. Emanuele Boaretto made history last year when he opened a 40m pool, named Y-40, at his Hotel Millepini resort in Padova, north Italy. Equivalent in height to nine double decker buses, the pool incorporates four caves for technical underwater diving and a transparent viewing tunnel. Nicknamed The

The Hilton Bournemouth has opened in England, featuring interiors by Ted Baker fashion brand founder Ray Kelvin and one of the UK’s first eforea spas. Classic design and quirky innovation are central to the hotel’s aesthetic, with bespoke interiors and furnishings designed exclusively for Hilton Bournemouth by Kelvin throughout. The hotel was developed by privately owned property company THAT Group – whose chair is also Kelvin – and which owns

Rio de Janeiro’s hotly-anticipated Museau do Amanhã (Museum of Tomorrow) – designed by prize-winning Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava – will be officially opened tomorrow (17 December) by the city’s mayor. The contemporary science museum, which has taken five years to build, is located in the city centre’s Porto Maravilha district – the site of the largest urban development project in Brazil. The Museum of Tomorrow will allow the public to

Street artists and New York businesses have joined forces to beautify the city’s Lower East Side using one simple tool: spray paint. One hundred metal storefront security gates in the Manhattan neighbourhood have become city-sanctioned canvasses for a carefully selected group of graffiti artists, illustrators, graphic designers and abstract painters – including rising stars Shantell Martin, Faust and Mr Stash. The creators have each been partnered with a local business

Sweden’s famous Icehotel has reopened for its 26th winter and is brimming with hand-crafted, ice-sculpted art. Visitors to the hotel – located in Jukkasjärvi, Lapland – can choose to sleep in an art-themed suite, including one featuring a 3m (10ft) tall elephant carved out of snow. Nineteen of the Icehotel’s 50 rooms feature the unique pieces of ice art created by architects and designers from all over the world. You

With construction of Louvre Abu Dhabi entering its final stages, government officials have said a handover of the building will take place in the middle of 2016 – on schedule for an amended opening date at the end of that year. Work on the iconic structure’s roof was completed in October last year, along with all 9,200sq m (99,000sq ft) of the museum’s galleries, plus the concrete work for the

International design studio TEN Arquitectos have won the design competition for a multi-million dollar mixed-use luxury resort in the Cayman Islands, fronted by a 1,000ft-long (305m) secluded natural beach. Slated to open in Q3 2018, St James Point will be set on a tropical 16-acre property on Grand Cayman Island, and will be designed to both contrast and complement the exotic environment. Forest, parkland and ocean will surround the US$250m

The architects of the original Tokyo 2020 Olympic stadium have accused the Japanese government of putting the legacy of the Games in jeopardy and overlooking several designers after it unveiled two new plans for the arena. The Japan Sports Council has shortlisted two designs for the stadium - Design A and Design B. One of which will be selected as the blueprint for the 80,000-capacity structure. Although the council declined

Plans for a second zoo in Sydney, slated for 2017, will be led by best-practice sustainability objectives, according to the project’s lead architects. The proposal in the Western Sydney Parklands at Bungarribee, covers 165,000sq m (40.7 acres) and could house up to 500 animals. John Burgess, managing director of Sydney Zoo and founder of Sydney Aquarium, announced plans for the attraction in September, which is expected to draw around 745,000

New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is to celebrate Pritzker Prize-winning Toyo Ito with an exhibition exploring how the Japanese architect has inspired fellow designers following in his footsteps. The exhibition – A Japanese Constellation: Toyo Ito, SANAA, and Beyond – will run from 13 March to 4 July 2016. On display will be a retrospective of recent works by three generations of internationally acclaimed designers who have been

The abandoned east wing of London’s iconic Alexandra Palace entertainment venue is to be restored and reopened to the public for the first time in decades. Three million people visit the palace every year to explore its grounds, enjoy concerts and take part in sporting events. However, it has been many years since the public have been able to access the hidden Victorian theatre and television studio located to the

Following a two-year competition involving more than 100 leading architecture and design firms, Heatherwick Studio and Diamond Schmitt Architects have been selected to reimagine and renovate a concert hall for New York’s Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The duo have been tasked with transforming the centre’s largest hall – originally designed by Max Abramovitz and opened in 1962 – into a 21st-century symphonic concert venue “where the architecture is

Château St Pierre de Serjac – a wine estate in France’s Languedoc region – will reopen in February 2016 as an intimate hotel following a two-year, €25m (US$27.5m, £18m) renovation. The project is a collaboration between winemaker Laurent Bonfils and hoteliers Karl and Anita O’Hanlon, who also own the luxury property Chateau Les Carrasses in the area. Restored in 1886 by Baron Cyprien deCrozals and designed by pre-eminent architect Louis-Michel

The saga of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Stadium has moved to another stage, with the Japanese Sports Council revealing two potential designs. The winner is expected to be announced this month. Both designs have construction budgets of ¥153bn (US$1.26bn, €1.14bn, £832m), putting them within the council's limit of ¥155bn (US$1.28bn, €1.16bn, £848m). Design A has a flat roof and shrubbery along its outer concourse, stands 50m tall (164ft) and is

Bjarke Ingels Group's hotly-anticipated New York ‘courtscraper’ is nearing completion, with dramatic new video footage – captured by a GoPro camera attached to a crane – showing the final panels being added to the structure’s cladding. Located on West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan, the 80,000sq m (860,000sq ft) development, called W57, will have 709 apartments and 4,000sq m (45,000sq ft) of leisure, retail and commercial space. BIG’s design imagines

The latest striking creation from the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) opens to the public today (11 December) in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. Designed as a series of pixelated steel and glass cubes that appear to float skywards, the Timmerhuis is a mixed-use complex housing shops, restaurants, cafes and Rotterdam’s city museum. The building is a merge between a 1950s municipal office block – which now forms the interior

Private equity management group Z Capital Partners has acquired the historic Waldhaus Flims Mountain Resort & Spa located in Flims, Switzerland. The undisclosed deal further enhances Z Capital’s health and wellness hotel platform, following its acquisition earlier this year of the Carillon Miami Beach. The company said it plans to maintain the property’s storied heritage while upgrading the resort to a five-star luxury hotel. Its strategy includes investing in the