The ongoing saga of Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic stadium job took a new twist last night when ZHA and partner Nikken Sekkei issued a statement saying they were throwing in the towel, citing an inability to secure a construction partner. Getting the stadium built for an acceptable price has been at the heart of the difficulties. ZHA originally won the contract to design the stadium

Dusit International will open a new dusitD2 in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. It will be located within the mixed-use Palm Mall development, which will also include Oman’s first snow village and a large aquarium. The dusitD2, scheduled for completion in 2017, will include 150 guestrooms and 100 suites, some of which will offer views of the aquarium and snow village. Leisure facilities will include a spa, pool and gym. The

Battersea Power Station Development Company (BPSDC) has selected Bouygues UK as preferred contractor for Phase 3 of the largest single development project in central London since Canary Wharf. With the long-running Battersea saga apparently on the road to resolution, Bouygues UK has landed the £1bn+ (US$1.6bn, €1.4bn) design and build contract for Phase 3, which features a new pedestrianised high street for London, known as The Electric Boulevard, as well

Dalian Sunasia Tourism Holding will invest up to C¥5bn (US$785m, €693m, £506m) into a mixed-use waterfront leisure project, after signing a deal with the Chinese government for the development of the Moby Dick Coastal City in Liaoning province. According to an Investment Framework Agreement signed between Dalian Sunasia and the Wafangdian City People’s Government, the project will sit on 730,000sq m (7.85 millionsq ft) of state-owned land. Included will be

The Federated Indians of the Graton Rancheria are expanding California’s Graton Resort & Casino, adding 200 guestrooms, a luxury spa, plus a meeting and convention space in a US$175 m (€155m, £113m) project. The 342,000sq ft (31,773sq m) addition will expand the amenities at the existing US$800m (€710m, £517m) casino and entertainment facility that opened in November 2013. Located just north of San Fransico, the Graton Resort & Casino is

The Myanmar office of Singapore-based urban consultants Surbana have created the eco-friendly Yangon Aquarium in Yangon, Myanmar. It will partially open in 2016, following delays. Surbana won the job in November 2013, while SIPM Consultants were selected to handle construction management of the project. LLandscape architecture is by the Yangon City Development Committee. Surbana also masterplanned the 18,200sq m (196,000sq ft) development. The two-storey structure, which has been designed to

The new Four Seasons Casablanca is set to open in Q4 2015, including a 700sq m (7,535 sq ft) Le Spa with 10 treatment rooms and an array of luxury treatments. The hotel was designed by architects Foster + Partners. Four Seasons says "Modern Moroccan elegance characterises the design, textures and colour palette of the 157 bedrooms and 29 suites". A highlight is a 329sq m (4,220sq ft), three-bedroom Royal

The CA$370m (US$281m, £181m, €248m) Vidéotron Centre in Quebec City, Canada, has opened to the public after a three-year construction project. The 18,259-capacity indoor arena will become the primary venue for indoor events in the region and plans are also advancing for the centre to host a National Hockey League (NHL) franchise by the start of the 2017-18 hockey season. Designed by architects Populous and ABCP Architecture, the arena will

Swiss-based architecture firm Savioz Fabrizzi have repurposed a number of shipping containers, inserting them into an existing venue in the town of Sion in Switzerland to create a grunge-style music hall. The two-storey Le Port Franc, which is centred around a 300-seat concert hall, also includes a rehearsal space, dressing rooms and a breakout lounge. The containers have been converted for multifunctional use, with one being transformed into a bar.

Hamburg (Germany), Rome (Italy), Budapest (Hungary), Los Angeles (US) and Paris (France) have submitted official bids to host the 2024 summer Olympic Games. Los Angeles is a late addition to the list, following the withdrawal of Boston from the process in July. Boston’s decision left the US Olympic Committee (USOC) – which had committed to submitting a bid for the 2024 Games – with just weeks to plan and come

Dubai-based developer Meydan has launched a record-breaking project that will bring Dubai the world’s longest indoor ski slope, biggest gym and tallest residential tower among a host of leisure amenities. The 1.2km-long (0.74 miles) indoor ski slope will eclipse the current record holder, the paltry in comparison 400m (1,312ft) slope at the Mall of the Emirates, which opened in 2005. The record-smashing slope will be the centrepiece of the new

The Flight 93 National Memorial Visitor Center has opened to the public in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, remembering those who lost their lives on United flight 93 during the attacks of 9/11. The memorial opened on 10 September – the day before the 14th anniversary of 9/11. The site has a 4,000sq ft (371 sq m) permanent exhibit and Wall of Names dedicated to the passengers and crew who died as they

Jack Rouse Associates (JRA) have unveiled the masterplan and preliminary concept design for Crystal Lagoon Water Theme Park – part of the AED20bn (US$5.4bn, €4.8bn, £3.5bn) Sharjah Waterfront City development in the UAE. To include a mix of 40 water and dry rides, including a rollercoaster that combines the action of a water ride with the interactive nature of a video game – a first for the Middle East –

Jean Michel Gathy is designing the upcoming One&Only Sanya on Haitang Bay in China, set to open in 2016. The property will feature 192 guestrooms, suites and villas and 380m (1,247ft) of private coastline, set amid 11 hectares of coconut palms and ancient rosewood trees. Vast dramatic water gardens ripple throughout the resort, uniting the dining venues, spa villas, fitness centre and kids club. Operated by Kerzner International, in partnership

An open competition to design a museum near the site of the iconic German art and design school Bauhaus has been jointly won by two teams of international architects. The final proposal for the Bauhaus Museum will be developed by Spain-based architects Gonzalez Hinz Zabala with landscape firm Roser Vives de Delas, as well as Young & Ayata and Misako Murata from the US, after their designs were chosen from

New Zealand’s Hanmer Springs Thermal Pools and Spa has released a plan to build a European-style day spa in the historic Chisholm Ward of the Queen Mary Hospital, located in the Hurunui District of the country, just north of Christchurch. General manager Graeme Abbot said the NZ$15m (US$9.4, €8.4m, £6.1m) investment is required to create the spa and the pools, and he is looking for a joint venture investor to

In response to a lawsuit aiming to halt development of George Lucas’ legacy project on Chicago’s waterfront, a revised proposal for the Lucas Museum – which includes a scaled-back building design with more green space – was unveiled during a federal court hearing on 10 September. The new designs force Friends of the Parks – the nonprofit group suing in an attempt to halt development on the Chicago waterfront –

Owner and operator Minor Hotel Group, in partnership with Dubai developer Nakheel, is developing a 500-guestroom Avani hotel in Dubai, set to open in 2018. Avani Deira Dubai Hotel will be located in Deira Islands, a waterfront entertainment, tourist and residential destination being developed in alignment with Dubai Vision 2020, a strategic roadmap with the objective of attracting 20 million visitors per year to Dubai by 2020. Deira Islands comprises

Plans for the world's first revolving glass observation pod in the centre of Bath, UK, have been unveiled, with design by SRA Architects. The £5m (US$7.7m, €6.9m) plans would see the rotating 65m-tall (213ft) ‘AquEye’ built on the city’s Pulteney Weir Island next to the historic Pulteney Bridge, according AquaEye founder Nicholas Stubbs. The structure, made up of two long masts and an observation pod would swing out over the

A popular Snarkitecture-designed exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC, drew to a close this week, attracting almost 200,000 visitors in just two months. The temporary interactive exhibit, entitled BEACH, was installed in the museum’s famous Great Hall and made from a mishmash of construction materials and an ocean of 750,000 recyclable plastic balls. “We had around 182,000 visitors total,” a spokesperson for the National Building Museum told

Wellness design firm A.W. Lake has launched Uberwell – a wellness design, technology and trend blog – intended to keep hotel and commercial property owners, developers and operators at the forefront of the wellness trend. “Recently valued at US$3.4tn (€3tn, £2.2tn) dollars, wellness has gone mainstream,” said Adria Lake, owner and managing director of A.W. Lake. “Spanning across generations and market demographics, the wellness consumer is anyone and everyone who

Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) is working with Japanese architecture and engineering firm Nikken Sekkei to submit a fresh bid for the Tokyo Olympic stadium project after their first design was dropped in July. A new design-and-build competition for the stadium, which is set to host events during the 2020 Olympic games, was launched on 1 September 2015, with a much shorter design and construction schedule. Revised guidelines will cap the

PGAV Destinations have been appointed by Oklahoma’s Tulsa Zoo to develop a new US$16m (€14.3m, £10.4m) Asian animal exhibit slated for launch in 2017. Known as Lost Kingdom, the new exhibit will be realised through the renovation of existing buildings, repurposing of structures and development of brand new facilities. Covering 20,000sq m (215,000sq ft), the PGAV-designed exhibit is inspired by Asian cultures, featuring animal habitats, guest attractions and a dining

Barcelona FC officials have announced that 14 design teams are in the running to play a part in the €600m (US$670m, £436m) redevelopment of the club’s iconic Nou Camp stadium. The competition is for two separate overhauls of facilities at the Nou Camp. These would comprise alterations to the main stadium and the redevelopment of the nearby Palau Blaugrana – an arena owned by the La Liga club. For the

Architects Populous have won a major design competition to create the NC Dinos Baseball Park in Changwon City, South Korea. The collective of architects, designers and technical experts will now lead design of the 22,000-seat NC Dinos Baseball Park, near Busan in the south of the country, with a construction value of US$100m (€90m, £65m). Working with local partner Haeahn Consortium, a key feature of the Populous design is the

Antoni Gaudí's Casa Vicens in Barcelona, Spain, is to be turned into a museum celebrating his work. It will open during the second half of 2016. The house was built in 1889 and is a UNESCO-listed World Heritage site. Gaudí, who lived from 1852 until 1926 is the best known practitioner of Catalan Modernism – a style centred in Barcelona and expressed mainly through architecture. Casa Vicens is the first

Luxury Scottish resort Portavadie has opened its 1,991sq m (21,431sq ft) spa and leisure centre, part of a further £10m (€14 m, US$15.5m) development to the property. The spa and leisure centre includes four treatment rooms and six swimming pools, including a children’s splash pool, a 16m (52ft) indoor pool, outdoor spa pools, and a 9x9m (30x30ft) heated outdoor infinity pool. It also includes two Scandinavian saunas, a steamroom, Precor-equipped