Renderings for NFL team San Diego Chargers’ proposed new home have been made available for the first time. Designed by architects Populous, the futuristic stadium – to be located on a 166-acre plot in San Diego’s Mission Valley – is set to celebrate the city of San Diego, incorporating ocean and harbour influences with a forward-looking green design. The concept designs show that the venue would offer plenty of public

The Jadranka Group is set to open another five-star spa resort on the Croatian island of Lošinj, in Cikat Bay – following the launch of the nearby €50m (US$67m, £40m) Hotel Bellevue and its spa clinic. The new Boutique Hotel Alhambra will make its debut later this month and was designed by architect Amira Cauševic of design firm ARTA-projektiranje to look like a traditional Austro-Hungarian villa. Located in the surroundings

Qatar will decide the exact number of stadiums it will use during the FIFA World Cup 2022 by the end of the year. A spokesperson for the organizing committee said the final number hadn’t been finalised yet – and could be less than the 12 included in the original bid that controversially won Qatar the right to host the tournament. So far, Qatar has announced details for five stadiums but is

Singapore’s National Gallery will open to the public at the end of this year with a new S$532m (US$379.6m, €344m, £243.7m) development housing the world’s largest public collection of Singaporean and Southeast Asian art inside two of the country’s most historical buildings. Designed by Studio Milou Singapore, in partnership with CPG Consultants, National Gallery Singapore is housed within two heritage buildings in the city’s Civic District. Taking up the former

Los Angeles is finalising a deal with the US Olympic Committee (USOC) to become the country’s new candidate city for the 2024 Olympics. The city – which has held the Olympic Games twice, in 1932 and 1984 – has prepared a US$4bn bid, which mayor Eric Garcetti said will include a guarantee to cover any “financial overruns”. The move follows last month’s collapse of Boston’s Olympic ambitions, as the city

Adjaye Associates have submitted plans for the proposed US$122m (€110m, £79.1m) Studio Museum in Harlem – an institute promoting the work of artists of African descent. The five-storey museum by British-Tanzanian architect David Adjaye will be built on the existing site of New York’s Studio Museum, marking the 50th anniversary of the institution which also champions local artists. The plans offer 70,000sq ft (6,500sq m) of space, 10,000sq ft (929sq

The 10,000sq ft (929sq m) vinotherapy-focused spa has opened at the five-star Spanish retreat Abadía Retuerta LeDomaine – an exclusive abbey hotel and winery dating from 1146. Designed by Marco Serra, the modern spa – called El Santuario – was built underground to maintain the property’s historic ambiance. Below the abbey’s original stables and within close proximity to the Duero River, Serra had to overcome the high moisture level of

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has launched a new architectural competition centred around culture and heritage at the heart of the 600-year-old South Korean capital’s city centre. The international contest asks entrants to develop a comprehensive blueprint and masterplan for central Seoul and provide a creative design for the site of the former National Tax Service Building. The new city centre will be a space that 'integrates cultural heritage, with contemporary

Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ Westin brand is set to feature for the first time in Mississippi, US, at The Westin Jackson – a public-private development costing US$60m (€54m, £39m), that aims to boost travel and tourism in downtown Jackson. ESG architects is working on the hotel’s design, focusing on Jackson’s reputation as the birthplace of several American musical styles including rhythm and blues and jazz. The design firm said: “The

An ambitious group of architects are planning to construct a replica of the fictitious ancient walled city of Minas Tirith from JRR Tolkien's Middle Earth writings and have launched an ambitious fundraising campaign online to bring the fantasy city to life. In fiction, Minas Tirith is built into a mountainside, rising up the gradient and culminating in the Citadel at its summit. On each of the city’s seven levels, which

A £16m neighbourhood hub designed to provide leisure, health and cultural services in Great Sankey, Warrington, UK, has been given the green light by planning officials. Local government organisation, Warrington Borough unanimously agreed to approve operator LiveWire’s proposal to transform the existing Great Sankey Leisure Centre into a multi-purpose community hub. The new building will feature a wide range of leisure facilities to provide residents with a one-stop-shop for all

Shanghai’s G+PARK museum cluster has unveiled a colourful new wedding chapel, creating a kaleidoscope of colour for adventurous couples to tie the knot. Designed by Coordination Asia, the Rainbow Chapel is made up of 3,060 glass panels painted in 65 bright translucent colours, surrounded by a square white structure partially open to the surrounding museum park. Both shapes are traditionally important in Chinese symbolism, with the circle representing fullness and

A new £200m UK investment fund seeking opportunities to acquire leisure properties has completed its first three transactions and is on the hunt for further assets. Property investment company Otium Real Estate raised £200m in December 2014 for its leisure-focused fund Otium Leisure Ventures, which seeks to add value through active asset management. Exclusively targeting leisure real estate – such as leisure parks, city centre leisure blocks and stand-alone assets

Experience designers Thinkwell Group have created a new 25,000sq ft (2,300sq m) addition to the Warner Bros. Studio Tour Hollywood, a finale to the backlot attraction and the culmination of a two year project exploring how films and TV shows are made. The new aspect of the Los Angeles attraction, known as ‘Stage 48: Script to Screen’, provides cutting-edge technology to create a hands-on look at the world of filmmaking,

Singaporean design and architecture enterprise Manor Group, which owns the upcoming Chiang Mai hotel in Thailand, has selected Thai wellness hospitality operator Akaryn Hotel Group to run the property. The resort is being launched to meet growing demand for five-star service and cash in on the region’s growth in tourism. The Akaryn Group owns and operates the Aleenta resorts in Phuket, Phang-nga and Hua Hin-Pranburi, as well as the Akyra

Ground has been broken on what will be Vietnam’s tallest building – the 460m (1,509-ft) Vincom Landmark 81 – featuring 25 separate rooftop gardens and an observation deck as part of the development. A collaboration between Atkins and Arup, the 81-storey development will come up in Ho Chi Minh City’s Vinhomes Central Park. In addition to the rooftop gardens, many of which will be accessible to the public as visitor

Aman will open its second Japanese property in Q1 2016 in Ise Shima National Park of Honshu’s Mie Prefecture, central Japan. It will be the brand’s first hot spring resort. The resort, to be called Amanemu, will be perched on the shores of Ago Bay – known as the Bay of Pearls. It will feature 24 suites and four two-bedroomed villas, all with their own onsen, or mineral hot spring.

Shigeru Ban’s latest project – the Oita Prefectural Art Museum – has opened in Japan, becoming an artistic piece in its own right to inspire the local community, acting as a “cultural catalyst.” Located on the southwestern island of Kyushu, the building’s timber-lattice clad structure – in reference to the region’s history of producing fine wood crafts – covers three floors and is designed so the external walls, comprised of

The architect of a project originally conceived as a “world-class women’s history museum" in London's East End, but now being marketed as a museum dedicated to Jack the Ripper, has said his firm was completely unaware of the plans to change the museum’s purpose. Andrew Waugh, director of architecture firm Waugh Thistleton, said he had worked with former museum founder –former Google executive Mark Palmer-Edgecumbe – on the designs, which

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