The new 39-storey, 286-bedroom Reverie Saigon in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam has soft-opened, with an official opening scheduled for September. Designed by architect Kent Lui of Kent Lui Tactics, the hotel combines couture style with bespoke, Italian design. Unique design elements abound, including a colourful ceiling installation of individual pieces of hand-blown glass in the street-level lobby, which, intertwined, echo the geographic silhouette of Vietnam. Each of the 286

Scottish destination property Portavadie is opening a 1,991sq m (21,431sq ft) spa and leisure centre in the coming months that takes full advantage of its views over Loch Fyne on Scotland’s west coast. Designed by Largs, Ayrshire-based Stewart Associates, the spa uses glass, local stone, white oak and walnut to create a natural setting that is “sympathetic to the view at all times,” and creates a feeling of “understated luxury,”

The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) will move into a new home on 31 January 2016 in downtown Berkley, bringing the two institutions under one roof for the first time since 1999. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the US$112m (£72.5m, €100m) 83,000sq ft (7, 710sq m) project integrates a pre-existing 48,000sq ft (4,459sq m) art deco building – the former 1939 printing plant

The Gibraltar Social Democrats (GSD) have unveiled an alternate proposal to the territory of Gibraltar’s Europa Stadium plan, revealing designs that would allow the team’s existing stadium to be upgraded. The alternate plan by John Linares Architects would feature Victoria Stadium at the heart of a wider sports village, with four UEFA/FIFA compliant football pitches, as well as a multi-purpose sports facility. The GSD’s plan would also create an educational

The estimated US$72m (€65m; £47m) Playa Largo resort in Key Largo, part of the Marriott Autograph collection, is set to open late this year and will be the first new-build property on the island in 21 years. The Florida Keys property, owned by Shaner Hotel Group, will include a 6,000sq ft (557sq m) OceanSpa. Prime Hospitality are the architects for the project, while The Gettys Group are responsible for the

British architects Short & Associates and MJP Architects have created a new underground events space for the wine suppliers to the British royal family. London’s MJP Architects and Lincolnshire-based Short & Associates designed and created a new cellar underneath Berry Bros. & Rudd’s historic shop, from which they have been supplying wine to the royal family since the reign of King George III in the early 19th century. The Sussex

A competition for the development of a 6,000sq m (64,583sq ft) visitor attraction based on the fairytales of Hans Christian Andersen has been launched in Odense, Denmark. Part of a downtown regeneration of Odense, the contest comes two years after an initial contest kicked off on the same site for a ‘House of Fairytales’. Transborder Studio, Rodion Kitaev and London-based Leith Kerr Architecture were named winners of the previous contest,

The Proper Hotel in Austin, Texas, is slated to open in 2017 and will include a 243-bedroom hotel, 100 residences, and a spa. The location is part of a new line of hotels unveiled this year by Proper Hotels CEO Brad Korzen, the creator and former CEO of the Viceroy Hotel Group. Proper Hotels aims to design, brand and operate “bespoke hospitality experiences that bring a modern approach to a

Chester Zoo has debuted its new £40m (US$62.2m, €56.4m) Islands development by Dan Pearlman, creating a highly-immersive, themed adventure across a series of Indonesian islands and making the visitor attraction one of the largest and most important zoos anywhere in the world. Phase one of the Islands development, which accounts for around 50 per cent of the total expansion, sets visitors off on a journey through Indonesia, putting the spotlight

City dwellers in Melbourne will get to experience the sensation of being in a forest canopy thanks to a new temporary pavilion designed by Amanda Levete’s AL_A studio. It will open in October in the Australian city’s Queen Victoria Gardens as the second edition of the annual MPavilion architecture commission and design event. Built using the latest nautical-engineering technology, a series of carbon-fibre poles that bend and sway in the

Bristol Rovers’ £40m (US$62.2m, €56.4m) plan to move into a new stadium across the city has collapsed after supermarket chain Sainsbury’s won its High Court battle over the purchase of its current home. The initial plan had been for Sainsbury’s to buy the team’s 12,000-seat Memorial Stadium in 2011 and lease it back to the club while a new 21,700-seat stadium was developed in the north of Bristol. The supermarket

Starwood Hotels is opening the Westin Hamburg next year in the highly anticipated Elbe Philharmonic complex. The 10-storey, 205-bedroom Westin Hamburg Hotel, designed by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron, is due to open in October 2016. The Elbe Philharmonic complex, built around a historical warehouse on the banks of the river Elbe and also designed by Herzog & De Meuron, will include three concert halls, 45 private apartments, and

ReardonSmith has returned the Lanesborough hotel in London to its former glory following a complete renovation. Acting as lead design consultant and architect, ReardonSmith partnered with the Alberto Pinto agency and several specialist craft companies to rejuvenate the hotel near Hyde Park Corner. The aim of the works was to re-establish the Georgian property, which was converted into a hotel over 20 years ago, as London’s finest hotel. As part

New York-based architect Rogers Partners’ designs for a new pier in St. Petersburg, Florida, have been approved by the city council. Landscape architect Ken Smith and local firm ASD are also part of the The Pier Park design team. The project combines a large transparent building located at the end of the pier with a collection of smaller experiences in “zones of activities” positioned along its entire 1,380ft (420.6m) length.

The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, has revealed finalised plans for its US$200m (€108.8m, £130m) facility expansion as part of a larger ongoing US$650m (€587.6m, £422.2m) Advancement Campaign. Based on initial work by Rick Mather Architects, with subsequent work from Richard Olcott of Ennead Architects, the museum will gain a new 40,000sq ft (3,716sq m) wing for galleries and temporary exhibition space, while a new 80,000sq ft (7,432sq

A new 160-room hotel in Melbourne will give guests the chance to stay the night with Beyoncé – or at least inside a curvy skyscraper inspired by the global superstar. Australian architect Elenberg Fraser’s 226m (741ft) high Premier Tower features a series of curves and bulges and its form pays homage to Beyoncé’s ‘Ghost’ music video – in which naked dancers gyrate while wrapped in stretchy fabric.

The Hong Kong Museum of Art is to close in August for a four-year HK$930m (US$120m, €109m, £78m) renovation, which will nearly double the amount of exhibition space available to the 53-year-old institute. Scheduled to reopen in 2019, the museum’s main exhibition area will be expanded to 10,000sq m (107,600sq ft), with an additional three galleries also being developed, increasing the total number to 10. The re-christened Hong Kong Art

Swissotel has opened a new resort on a private beach in Turgutreis, just outside Bodrum, Turkey. Designed by Gokhan Avcioglu of Turkish design studio GAD International, The Swissotel Bodrum Beach includes 66 bedrooms and suites along with 72 private serviced residences. Avcioglu has used sweeping lines in his design to fuse the Aegean coast’s rolling landscape with the local tangerine gardens, blending the structure with the natural landscape by using

Design Hotels’ latest property aims to offer an authentic and quintessential Italian experience having secured the services of designer Alessandro Agrati. Filario Hotel & Residences is located by Lake Como, in Lezzeno, Italy, and features 21 rooms and apartments, each with their own private terrace. In creating the hotel’s décor, Agrati implemented his signature style of “dressing” interiors with textiles and light and strong-tempered objects. Guestrooms have been designed to

Tottenham Hotspur FC (THFC) will install an innovative multi-use pitch at its 61,000-capacity stadium in North London – allowing it to host a minimum of two National Football League (NFL) games each season. The club will use a retractable grass field at its new £400m venue – designed by sports architects Populous – with an artificial surface underneath that will be used for NFL games. The design will allow greater flexibility

An up-and-coming designer has created the perfect canvas for drinkers seeking to paint the town red: the world’s first completely black and white bar. Everything in the new Bulmers #LiveColourful Bar in London is strictly monochrome, with the walls, all of the furniture, pictures, art, ping pong table, board games, bar food and even the staff completely stripped of all colour. The bar was created by Alexandra Toomey – who

An up-and-coming designer has created the perfect canvas for drinkers seeking to paint the town red: the world’s first completely black and white bar. Everything in the new Bulmers #LiveColourful Bar in London is strictly monochrome, with the walls, all of the furniture, pictures, art, ping pong table, board games, bar food and even the staff completely stripped of all colour. The bar was created by Alexandra Toomey – who

Six Senses will open its first resort in Europe next week, located in the Portuguese UNESCO World Heritage area of the Douro Valley. Set on 22 acres and designed by New York-based Clodagh Design, the 57-bedroom, 19th century Six Senses Douro Valley is surrounded by sloping vineyards and pays homage to its surroundings through several nods to the grape, including wine-themed spa treatments. Designed with an interior palette of light

British architects Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners have won a competition to build a research and conservation facility for the Louvre. The new facility will be built in in Liévin in northern France and will house around 250,000 works of art from more than 60 different French locations. The Musée du Louvre and the Nord-Pas de Calais region announced that RSH+P, known for the British Museum’s new World Conservation and

Construction work on Zaha Hadid Architects’ Olympic stadium in Tokyo, Japan, is to begin in October, after the Japanese government confirmed the final details of the project. It will now cost US$2bn (€1.8bn, £1.3bn) to build – almost double the original estimate. Work is scheduled to be completed a few months later than planned, in May 2019, but still in time for the Rugby World Cup due to be held

The Studio Museum in Harlem – an institute promoting the work of artists of African descent – could move from its century-old headquarters, with plans by the architectural team of Adjaye Associates to develop a new US$122m (€110m, £79.1m) home in New York City. The conceptual design for the five-storey museum building by British-Tanzanian architect David Adjaye – which will be submitted to the city’s public design commission on 14

Italian club AC Milan has been given the green light to build a new €330m (US$363m, £236m) stadium in the north of the city. The seven-time European football champions’ plans for a new 48,000-capacity stadium in the Portello region of Milan were approved by city administrators after a six-month long consultation period. Designed by sports architects Arup, the club has described the stadium as “the most innovative in the world”.