Appointment of a main contractor to build a AU$50m (US$36.4m, €33.2m, £23.3m) aquarium in Cairns, Queensland, will be announced later this month, after a detailed design and engineering phase was finally completed. Designed by Peddle Thorp Architects in association with Architects Ellick and Partners, the three-storey, 10,000sq m (107,600sq ft) development will be home to more than 5,000 living creatures endemic to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and surrounding Wet Tropics

Peruvian tour operator Natura Vive is offering courageous guests the opportunity to climb 1,312ft (400m) up a cliff face or hike a trail along zip-lines to sleep in a transparent hanging bedroom. The sleeping capsules, created and designed by Ario Ferri, sit 1,312ft (400m) high on a cliff face in the Sacred Valley of Cuzco. They provide intrepid explorers with a 300 degree view of the beautiful landscape, as well

Marks Barfield Architects’ i360 in Brighton, UK, will no longer feature a wind turbine on the tower, after concerns were raised that high winds could cause the structure to move. Developers i360 have applied for planning permission to remove the wind turbine from the design, despite initial plans to use it as an energy source for the cable car which will transport passengers to top of the tower. Chief engineer

Bjarke Ingels has said that his upcoming zoo project in Givskud, Denmark, will completely reimagine the traditional format, doing away with cages and revolutionising the relationship between the zoo’s visitors and its inhabitants. Ingels, founding architect of his own practice, BIG, created designs for Denmark’s Zootopia – a hybrid of a traditional zoo and a safari based on the concept of a completely cageless experience. “Essentially the idea is to

The US$200m (€184m, £128m) Estadio BBVA Bancomer, touted as the most hospitality-driven soccer stadium in Latin America, has opened in Monterrey, Mexico. Designed by sports architects Populous, the 51,000-capacity stadium will be the new home of Club de Fútbol Monterrey (CF Monterrey). What makes the stadium unique in the region is the emphasis on creating a premium fan experience. The stadium boasts 324 luxury suites – more than any other

WTS International, the spa consultancy and management firm has won a bid to create a new spa concept for the Cachet Hotel Group in Asia. The concept will be called cSPA and will be developed at Cachet’s properties in China, Southeast Asia and the Americas. The first cSPAs will open in Bangkok, Thailand and Hangzhou, China. The WTS team which worked on the bid was led by Andrea Dubois. The

Auckland-based architects Patterson Associates have created a shimmering art museum dedicated to experimental artist Len Lye. The NZ$18m (US$11.9m, €10.8m, £7.6m) Len Lye Centre in New Plymouth, New Zealand, is the country’s first institution dedicated to a single artist. Described as 'a temple for art', the gallery creates a sensory experience of light inspired by Len Lye, who was known for his kinetic and multimedia pieces. The stainless steel shimmering

The 307-bedroom Dollywood DreamMore Resort has opened next to Dollywood theme park and Dollywood’s Splash Country in Tennessee, US, and it includes an 1,861sq ft (173sq m) family-friendly spa. Both the spa and resort were designed by Fugleberg Koch of Winter Park, Florida, with interiors by Atlanta, Georgia-based Foda Design. Set in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, the front of the resort features an impressive fountain inspired by

San Diego Zoo is about to embark on what will be the California attraction’s largest expansion to date, the US$68m (€62m, £43.5m) Africa Rocks exhibit. Designed by the San Diego-based Miller Hull Partnership, the 8-acre (32,400sq m) exhibit will transform what is currently a canyon area once home to 1930s-era grottos and enclosures, into an easily traversable path leading visitors through an African-themed environment. To be populated with a wide

China’s largest private property developer is aiming to surpass Disney as the world’s largest tourism enterprise by 2020, aiming to welcome more than 200 million people and earn annual tourism income in excess of CN¥100bn (US$16.1bn, €14.6bn, £10.3bn) with its ‘Wanda city’ plan. Speaking at the China International Tourism Investment Conference, Wanda chair Wang Jianlin outlined the ambitious goal to overtake Disney, with plans to set up culture and tourism

Studio Libeskind has revealed designs for a pyramid-shaped skyscraper in Jerusalem, after local authorities approved the development in the heart of the ancient city. Designed in collaboration with local architect Yogal Levi, the mixed-use tower will be one of the tallest towers in the Israeli city – at 105m (344.5ft) in height, just 16m (52ft) shorter than the city’s Holyland Tower 1 – with an observation deck slated for the

Beijing will become the first city to organise both Summer and Winter Olympics, after the Chinese capital was selected as host of the 2022 Winter Games. Beijing organisers have announced that they will rely heavily on existing venues, including those built for the Summer Games in 2008, such as the iconic Bird’s Nest stadium and the Water Cube aquatics centre. The city’s proposed budget for investment in Olympic villages, sports

The local council of Manchester, UK, is searching for an architect to design a new proposed £110m (US$172.2m, €156m) flexible art space within the city. Supported by £78m (US$122m, €110.6m) in funding from the UK government, the new arts space is dubbed ‘The Factory.’ It forms part of a wider initiative in the north of England to restore the “cultural and economic counterbalance” to London in the south, which in

Dusit Fudu Hotels and Resorts will open a hot springs resort in Dabieshan, Anhui Province in central China at the end of 2018. Designed by AECOM, the dusitD2 Hot Springs Resort Dabieshan, Anhui, will feature 300 rooms and villas with private hot springs pools, as well as a Deverana Spa. Dabieshan is a major mountain range in central China, and the resort will be set in an area known for

Apple’s new campus, designed by Foster + Partners in California, looks to be gaining a previously not included visitor centre for tourists. To include a rooftop observation deck and a shop, the visitor centre at Apple Campus 2 will comprise glass walls and a carbon-fibre roof. Proposed for a site along Tantau Avenue, Cupertino, the plans for the attraction are a late addition, having only being submitted in April 2015,

One of Wales’ largest visitor attractions is set to welcome its first guests as Surf Snowdonia – an artificial surf lagoon built on the site of an old aluminium works – starts to break waves on the edge of Snowdonia National Park. The £15m (US$23.3m, €21.3m) development – designed by architectural firm seven with Planit operating as consultants, NJL consulting as masterplanners and Wardell Armstrong as engineers – uses brand

Design consultancy Mather has been awarded the contract for a new project in the heart of Brussels dedicated to Belgian beers. Working alongside local architects Robbrecht en Daem and Baneton Garrino, Mather will convert the former Brussels Stock Exchange into the Belgian Beer Palace exhibition, which is hoping to rival the likes of the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin and the BRC-designed Heineken Experience in Amsterdam. Occupying two floors of the

A complex of early 20th century landmark buildings in South America are being transformed into a stylish development featuring a hotel and spa, private residences, high-end retail and entertainment venues. As part of the project, historic buildings at the centre of São Paulo, Brazil, are being converted into art galleries, theatre and cinemas by the owner of the three hectare site – Allard Group. At the heart of the development,

The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, home of the London 2012 Olympic Games, has confirmed plans to build the world’s tallest and longest slide inside the ArcelorMittal Orbit tower. Due to open to the public in Q1 2016, the 180m (590ft) helter skelter by Bblur Architects will start 76m (249 ft) above the ground, circling the tower five times before a 50m (164ft) straight run at the bottom. The slide will

Dutch design studio RAAAF, Rietveld Architecture-Art-Affordances, is creating a subterranean space in Groningen beneath a demolished sugar factory. The project, called After Image, will be used for exhibitions, installations, movie screenings and performances. Being undertaken on behalf of the municipal council, After Image will reveal an exciting underground world constructed on millions of pillars. After the demolition of the sugar factory, only a desolate concrete area seemingly remained, but RAAAF

Work is underway on a new concert hall in Boca del Rio, Mexico, designed by Rojkind Arquitectos. This landmark site is part of a masterplan to regenerate the surrounding area through culture. Once an important port, crime and pollution levels have risen over the past 20 years. The concert hall will also provide a home for the Boca del Rio Philharmonic Orchestra, which was formed last year as part of

The five-star Naman Retreat in Danang, Vietnam, has opened a 15-room Pure Spa featuring lush, open-air gardens, lotus ponds and a “wall-less” ground floor. Designed by Ho Chi Minh-based MIA Design Studio, the 2,250sq m (24,219sq ft) spa includes a deep soak tub, cushioned daybed for two, male and female whirlpools, sauna and steamrooms, a gym and yoga pavilion. The hotel claims to “blur the lines between resort and spa,”

Architects Pieterjan Gijs and Arnout Van Vaerenbergh have created an intricate maze at the heart of Genk’s c-mine arts centre in Belgium, using the ‘age-old’ form of the labyrinth to create a structure exploring space and architecture. The Belgian duo, collectively known as Gijs Van Vaerenbergh, have created ‘Labyrinth’, a sculptural-spatial intervention based on the artists' interest in fundamental architectural typologies. Using unique compositions of wall and void, the labyrinth

Architectural firm Snøhetta has been selected to design a base and summit for a cable car at the foot of the Italian Alps, offering visitors commanding views of the surrounding area. The views of the mountain range surrounding the city of Bolzano had previously been inaccessible to anyone but the most experience climber since the cable car to the peak of Virgolo mountain was closed in 1976. However, once Snøhetta’s

Bjarke Ingels has unveiled plans to turn the chimneys at Battersea Power Station into giant sparkling Tesla coils, powered by passing pedestrians. Ingels’ architectural practice, BIG, is designing the public square next to the iconic London building on behalf of Malaysian consortium, SP Setia, which is developing the power station site with Frank Gehry-designed flower shaped apartment blocks and luxury flats from Sir Norman Foster. The two level Malaysia Square

“With big projects like this one, there's always going to be controversy,” said Nicolas Moreau, co-founder of Moreau Kusunoki, the Paris-based practice that won the competition to design the Guggenheim Helsinki. Moreau Kusunoki – founded by husband and wife team Nicolas Moreau and Hiroko Kusunoki – were announced as the winners of the Guggenheim Helsinki competition in June. Their design features a series of linked pavilions and a glass-topped 'lighthouse-style'

Zaha Hadid’s latest project – the final instalment of six mountain-top museums in Italy’s Dolomites curated by explorer Reinhold Messner – has welcomed its first visitors, offering stunning views of the surrounding mountains. Built into the mountain rock at a height of 2,275m (7,463ft) above sea level, Messner Mountain Museum Corones is dedicated to the discipline of mountaineering and offers unique views of both the Dolomites and the Alps. Zaha