Architects AL_A have been named as the lead designers for the £42m (US$55.7m, €48m) redevelopment of the Paisley Museum in Scotland. The transformation of the museum is the flagship project of Renfrewshire Council’s planned £100m (US$132.6m, €114.5m) investment in cultural venues in Paisley and forms the cornerstone of plans to utilise the city's cultural assets to transform its future. The museum will close in late 2018 and re-open in 2022

A US$125m (€107m, £93.3m) proposals to create a leisure development – featuring a world class aquarium and cultural centre in Memphis – have moved a step closer, after the Tennessee city won state approval to expand its downtown tourism zone. In October last year, Jim Strickland, mayor of Memphis, revealed plans for the Mud Island area, focused around the aquarium on Mud Island itself and the cultural centre across the

Forget the London Eye, Newcastle’s ‘Whey Aye’ is set to outdo its southern sibling by becoming Europe’s tallest observation wheel. The 140-metre-tall (459-foot) attraction, which will be located at the east end of the city’s Quayside and offer 30-minute “flights”, will be five metres taller than the London Eye and takes its nickname from the oft-heard Geordie phrase, “Whey aye, man”. Around the observation wheel – which is expected to

Japanese studio Moriyuki Ochiai Architects have designed a cluster of vibrant, polygonal tea houses that double as a new “sanctuary for stargazing” for budding astronomers. Surrounded by rolling hills in the town of Bisei, Okayama Prefecture, the ‘Constellation of Stargazing Tea Rooms’ has been conceived for visitors who wish to participate in traditional tea ceremonies, watch concerts and plays, and, at night, sit back and look up at the stars.

A disused petrol station adjacent to the BBC's former headquarters will be transformed into an arts and culture space as part of a multi-million pound regeneration of London's White City. Starting in Q3, members of Elephant magazine will curate a series of shows at the redeveloped site – now called Elephant West – which will feature exhibitions and performances from emerging young artists. Architects Liddicoat and Goldhill have designed the

The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) will open its new campus, designed by David Chipperfield, to the public on Saturday (19 May). To celebrate its 250th anniversary year, the RA – one of the world’s oldest and foremost artist and architect-led institutions – commissioned the renovation of its historic central London home, adding 70 per cent more public space and revealing many of its hidden secrets for the first time.

Work has been completed on the new Glassell School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston (MFAH), designed by Steven Holl Architects. The School – the only museum-run institute in the US with programmes that serve students of all ages, from 3-year-olds to adults – is a major component of the museum’s 14-acre redevelopment, masterminded by Holl, which is currently the largest cultural project under construction in

Design initiative Young Architects Competitions (YAC) has announced the winners of an ideas contest for the transformation of a remote Italian fortress into "one of the most atmospheric centres of contemporary art in the Mediterranean". Italian studio Simposio have secured first prize for their proposal to carefully integrate new cultural and hospitality buildings into the rocky landscape of Favignana, an isle in the Southern Sicily that is home to Santa

London's Design Museum has been named the winner of the European Museum of the Year Award. Moving to its new £85m (US$115m, €96.4m) home in Kensington's former Commonwealth Institute Building in 2016, the museum was reimagined by architecture firm OMA, along with Allies and Morrison and interior designer John Pawson. Since moving, the museum has become an "inspiring, socially-aware museum", according to the awarding judges, who also acknowledged the museum’s

The shortlisted designs for a new art museum in Adelaide have been officially released, offering a first glimpse at what the likes of Adjaye Associates, BIG, Diller Scofidio + Renfro have in mind for the planned South Australian Landmark. Intended to revitalise the site of the former Royal Adelaide Hospital (oRAH), Adelaide Contemporary will be a sister museum to the Art Gallery of South Australia, combining exhibition, research and education

Spanish football giant FC Barcelona has reached a deal to open a number of Barça-themed “experience spaces” around the world. Club president Josep Maria Bartomeu has signed a five-year agreement with leisure park developer Parques Reunidos to get the ball rolling on the project, which will see indoor parks, between 3,000 and 10,000sq m in size, opened in “busy shopping malls and iconic establishments in the centres of cities with

New York's Museum of Modern Art has named Rob Giampietro as its new director of design, with the former Google man taking charge of the institution's design output. A member of MoMA's newly-formed creative team, Giampietro will help to "extend MoMA’s identity as a dynamic and progressive cultural institution physically rooted in New York City, with a global reach and impact on modern and contemporary art and design." Working closely

Kew Gardens in London has completed the largest restoration project in its entire history: a redevelopment of its iconic Temperate House, now home to 10,000 plants, including some of the world’s rarest. The long and painstaking repair of the historic glasshouse, overseen by Donald Insall Associates and costing £41m (€46m, US$54m), saw 400 staff and contractors remove 69,000 individual elements from the building to be cleaned, repaired or replaced. The

Landscape architects West 8 have revealed their first clear-cut plans for a new 120 acre Houston Botanic Garden set to open to the Texas public in 2020. The firm have released details of ‘Botanic Beginnings’, the first phase of their 120-acre masterplan for the site, which will be developed over the next three decades on a site located a short distance outside downtown Houston. The Garden, conceived as “Houston’s next

A new cultural destination in London, celebrating Japan and funded by its government, has announced its public opening date. Called Japan House London, the new attraction will offer visitors authentic Japanese encounters when it opens on 22 June, with the best in the nation's art, design, gastronomy, innovation and technology. Almost every aspect of the new space has been derived “from source” in Japan. Japanese interior designer – Wonderwall principal

Architecture firm Purcell will create an extension to the historic home of the University of Manchester - Manchester Museum, after winning planning and listed building consent last week. The design team have imagined a contemporary new entrance and two new galleries, which will double the capacity of the museum – part of a wider development plan as it seeks “to become the UK’s most imaginative, inclusive and caring museum.” Purcell

Public artist and designer Steed Taylor has completed the largest continuous street mural in the world, spanning the full length of Downtown West Palm Beach in Florida. The mile-long ‘road tattoo’ is called Genii Loci, or ‘the protective spirits of a place.’ Local people were invited to paint parts of the mural – which takes the form of interweaving three-colour Celtic knots and emphasises the power of community. The north

Saudi Arabia's government has revealed plans to invest SAR50bn (US$13.3bn, €11.2bn, £9.9bn) into entertainment, health, sports and education initiatives, as the country attempts to modernise and improve its citizens' quality of life. Announced yesterday (3 May) by the Kingdom's General Entertainment Authority (GEA), it is understood that the investment will generate upward of 300,000 jobs by 2020. “Government spending on the initiatives will total around 60 per cent of the

Four design teams have been shortlisted for a project to reimagine the Eiffel Tower's visitor experience. Groups led by AL_A, Gustafson, Porter + Bowman, Agence Ter and Koz Architectes are in the running for the large-scale project, which covers a 540,000sq m area either side of the River Seine. Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has voiced the city’s ambition to make every visit to the landmark more enjoyable and accessible by

The Qatar National Library (QNL) in Doha, designed by international architects OMA, has been officially opened by the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al Thani. Conceived as a space for reading, socialising and browsing, the building houses more than a million books and space for thousands of readers over an area of 42,000sq m (452,000sq ft). The marble bookshelves, organised around a central triangular space, segue with the

International architects Snøhetta have designed a new planetarium and a visitor centre for Norway’s largest astronomical facility by studying the night sky for design inspiration. Nestled in the dense forest of Harestua, 45km north of Oslo, Solobservatoriet is the largest solar observatory North of the Alps. Its original observatory was built by the University of Oslo for the total solar eclipse of 1954, and a satellite tracking station was established

Construction is nearing completion on “a world-class, signature lifestyle destination” at Singapore’s Changi Airport, which has been designed to boost the city-state’s appeal as a stopover point for global travellers. Conceived as the world’s most ambitious airport leisure attraction, the complex, called The Jewel, is being built inside an enormous glass dome covering a 40m-high indoor waterfall and a five-storey ‘forest valley’ with 2,500 trees and 100,000 shrubs. The building

The Prime Minister of Lebanon, Saad Hariri, has announced plans for a new museum of antiquities, which will be designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano. The Beirut Historical Museum will be constructed in the capital’s downtown area, running from Martyrs Square to the waterfront. Funded in part by the state of Kuwait, it will house archaeological artefacts from a host of civilisations, from the Bronze Age onwards. Exhibits will include

Dalian Wanda is celebrating the official opening of its Qingdao Movie Metropolis mega-development. The US$7.9bn (£5.7bn) scheme covers more than 400 acres and includes a theme park, 30,000sq m waterpark, yacht club and hotels, as well as the vast movie studio and film production facilities. Retail, restaurants and a huge cinema complex complete the mix. At the official opening, today (Saturday 28 April), Wanda CEO Wang Jianlin said: "This is

A year after the opening of the world’s longest bicycle bridge in Xiamen, China, Danish architecture firm Dissing+Weitling have won another large-scale infrastructure project in the city. A 20km (12.4mi) network of footpaths featuring seven “spectacular” pedestrian bridges, city officials want to create a large-scale network of elevated walkways, up to 4.5m (14.7ft) wide, that will lead residents and visitors through the mountainous landscape of Xiamen, “creating outstanding experiences in

The Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) has opened its doors to the public following a transformation of the historic cruise liner into a tourist destination and hotel by the government of Dubai. The world-famous vessel, which was decommissioned in 2008, is now docked permanently at Mina Rashid in Dubai. Reimagined as a floating 13-deck attraction, it is welcoming visitors on board for the soft opening of some of its dining, accommodation

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has released the first design images for a new Seoul Cinematheque – a complex celebrating the visual arts to be built in Chungmuro, the heart of South Korea’s domestic film industry. Opening in February 2021, the venue will show non-commercial, independent, artistic, and classic films across four theatres, including one on the rooftop, with capacities ranging from 150 to 300. The project will be built on