At least fifteen world class architecture projects shortlisted for the Inside Awards 2015 World Interior of the Year are for leisure venues. I n the bars and restaurants category is Mecha Uma in the Philippines, designed by Jorge Yulo Architects & Associates. The project uses concrete, steel, copper, glass and wood using a ‘raw approach’ The kitchen counter is clad in copper and an installation of squares is suspended above

Chelsea Football Club (CFC) plans to replace its current stadium in south London with a 60,000-capacity landmark venue celebrating the heritage of sport in and around Stamford Bridge. The club has launched a three-day public consultation on the stadium plans, during which local residents will be able to view and offer their views on the proposals. The conceptual designs, which have been put on display at Stamford Bridge, pay homage

The team behind an ambitious New York design project to create the ‘world's first underground park’ have turned to Kickstarter to raise US$200,000 (€179,000, £127,000) for technical development for the complex scheme. The US$60m (€53.8m, £38.2m) Lowline project, designed by James Ramsey of Raad Studio, would see the transformation of an abandoned, underground trolley terminal in Manhattan's Lower East Side. It would harness solar power to become a fully-lit public

Willmott Dixon Interiors have been named winners of a £20m (US$31.5m, €28.2m) contract to fit out London’s Design Museum, which is planning an £80m (US$126m, €113m) move to the former Commonwealth Institute building in Kensington. The Grade II-listed building will become the new home for the Design Museum, which is dedicated to contemporary design and architecture. The interior vision, imagined by British architect John Pawson, will include provision of new

US private equity firm KSL Capital Partners has sold the Malmaison and Hotel du Vin UK hospitality chains to Singaporean serviced apartments group Frasers Hospitality for US$570m (£363m, €511m). The sale marks a tidy profit for KSL, which bought the hotels in 2013 for a reported US$314m (£200m, €282m) and then spent money renovating existing properties and expanding into new locations. Malmaison and Hotel du Vin are a collection of

Seven-time Wimbledon tennis champion Roger Federer pitched up in South London, UK over the weekend to help launch sports goods giant Nike’s legacy project for this year’s Wimbledon tennis tournament. Nike has taken over four community tennis courts in Tanner Street Park, Bermondsey, investing £17,500 in resurfacing the ageing courts with a designer touch in pink and blue and setting up a branded tennis and activity hub. The NikeCourt Club

Teams from some of the world’s leading architectural practices swapped CAD for cakes on Saturday (27 June), as they locked horns in the Great Architectural Cake Bake-Off. Teams from Zaha Hadid Architects, Rogers Stirk Harbour and Partners, Squire + Partners, ARUP, HOK, BDP and Foster + Partners gathered for one of the more light-hearted events to feature during the London Festival of Architecture. The competition was conceived and hosted by

Austrian architects Elmar Ludescher and Philip Lutz have created a modern winery to embody the ‘fine art of wine production in the abstract’. The new winery at the 50-year-old Högl family vineyard in Lower Austria will house some of the winemaking processes and give visitors a space to sample the wines. The seven hectare vineyard, which produces dry and sweet white wines, sits on the border of the Wachau UNESCO

Officials at Seattle Aquarium are looking into the possibility of a grand expansion, adding at least 40 per cent more exhibit space to the visitor attraction at a cost of up to US$200m (€178.5m, £127.1m) No plans have been drawn up yet, but Marc L’Italien of San Francisco-based architecture firm EHDD has been named as masterplanner for the development. L'Italien was the architect responsible the development of a stunning new

Designed by Philippe Pastre of Atelier d’Architecture and Patrice Gardera of Gardera-D, the 250sq m (2,691sq ft) Alaena Spa in Biarritz, France, has opened its doors with a contemporary Japanese architectural influence and a focus on both relaxation and aesthetic medicine. The spa development includes four treatment rooms, one skin exfoliation room, Japanese baths by Nendo Designs, an Experience shower and a Hammam by Effegibi. “We want to offer a

Architect Shigeru Ban’s newly-opened art museum in Japan has been designed to serve as an outside space to be freely used by all – connecting the interior galleries to the surrounding city area. Oita Prefectural Art Museum (OPAM) features a collection of more than 5,000 works by Japanese painters and sculptors, and is touted as a museum of encounters and of the five senses. It is located in the city

Disney is considering a US$1bn (€892m, £635m) investment into its Disneyland Resort in California, with the investment dependent on the city of Anaheim waiving tax on park admission tickets for a further 30-year period. The ticket-tax ban could again be extended a further 15 years after that if Disney embarks on a separate US$500m (€446m, £317m) expansion. Disneyland California currently holds tax exempt status from an agreement made with the

Leisure architecture projects from the likes of Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, BIG and Populous have made the 2015 shortlist for the World Building of the Year. Organised by the World Architecture Festival, 338 projects in total have made the shortlist in a variety of categories, with both major international firms and smaller companies taking their place. There are entries included from 46 countries. Aside from the overall World

Investor, developer and operator, Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts, is on site with Shangri-la at the Fort, a mixed-use development in Manila, the Philippines which will open in Q4 this year. The building will be one of the tallest in the country at 250m (820ft) and one of the first luxury lifestyle developments in the Philippines. Shangri-la at the Fort will include a Shangri-La hotel and residences, as well as Horizon

Edutainment provider KidZania has launched what the company's founder and president, Xavier López Ancona, says is the company's global flagship inside London’s high-end Westfield Shopping Centre. Targeted at children aged 4-14, the £30m (US$47.2m, €42.1m) KidZania London is offering a one-of-a-kind experience to the UK, with the recreation of a pint-sized city for children to experience real-world jobs in the ultimate role-play activity. Designed to educate and empower children, KidZania

Snøhetta has debuted a temporary exhibition at Copenhagen's Danish Architecture Centre, examining the firm’s connection to art, culture and landscape. As part of an exhibition series, World Architecture – Snøhetta opened to the public on 18 June and will run until 27 September 2015. Visitors can look into the process behind Snøhetta’s works, as well as see the new material possibilities brought about by modern technology. The experience offers a

Robert De Niro has signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a US$250m (€223m, £158.8m) hotel and spa resort in Barbuda, the lesser known twin island to Antigua. The resort will be a refurbishment and expansion of K-Club, a resort which became famous in the 90s as a hideaway for Princess Diana and princes William and Harry, but which closed eight years ago. Islanders vote on Monday to determine the

The long-awaited Louvre Abu Dhabi will now open its doors at the end of 2016, according to the president of its sister site in Paris. Speaking at Paris’ Louvre Museum in France, Jean-Luc Martinez said that the US$653m (€512.9m, £404.6m) development on Saadiyat Island would be delayed until the end of next year. Dubai-based construction firm Arabtec Holdings has been tasked with the build, with French architect Jean Nouvel designing

A museum celebrating the Olympic legacy of Brazil will open in Rio de Janeiro in time for next year’s 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. To be built on the Barra da Tijuca, just behind the location of the Athletes' Village, the development will tell the story of the Rio 2016 Games and the wider history of Brazil at the Olympics, Paralympics and Winter Olympics as part of the country’s legacy

Taking inspiration from New York with an urban style full of raw finishes and detailed features, DesignLSM has completed the interior design of a new restaurant in Canary Wharf, London. Chai Ki is seen as a development of owner Rohit Chugh’s existing Roti Chai restaurant, in Marylebone, London, which has also inspired the design of the new space. The high ceilings of the new restaurant have allowed for the creation

Virgin Hotels has announced plans to open a new 200-bedroom hotel in the Design District of Dallas, Texas, in 2018. The development will be a new-build located within 33 acres (133,500sq m) that developer Dunhill Partners and its founder, Bill Hutchinson, acquired in 2014. Included will be multiple dining options, a rooftop terrace with a pool, gym and spa, plus numerous meeting spaces. The neighbourhood includes furniture showrooms, art galleries,

After months of secrecy, Washington D.C.’s International Spy Museum has officially revealed plans for a US$162m (€143.2m, £102.1m) move to property developers JBG Companies’ L’Enfant Plaza. Designed by London-based Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners – with design development by Gallagher and Associates’ Washington office – the spy museum is currently seeking funding for the project, with US$65m (€57.4m, £41m) coming from the museum’s owners, US$15m (€13.2m, £9.5m) tentatively coming from

As part of plans to make its new stadium among the most eco-friendly in the world, the Atlanta Falcons have unveiled plans to surround the venue with edible gardens. Apples, figs and berries are among the planned produce from the gardens, which will be irrigated by rainwater collected from a storm detention vault. Created by Atlanta-based urban designers HGOR, the gardens will feature raised beds at the southwest corner of

French architecture firm Moreau Kusunoki have been named winners of the Guggenheim Helsinki competition. The €126m (£100m, US$160.5m) museum - titled Lighthouse - would be built on the Helsinki waterfront overlooking South Harbor and formed of Japanese-style pavilions, with a striking lighthouse tower constructed from charred timber and glass. The building's angular pavilions and flared roofs would be connected by an interior street and served by a harbour promenade, while

Six Senses has opened its first Chinese resort, Qing Cheng Mountain, in the historic and cultural setting of Chengdu. The hotel is the largest Six Senses to date, with 102 suites and 11 villas, and is the seventh Six Senses Resort, with an eighth resort due to open in Douro Valley next month and several others in the pipeline. Designed by Bangkok-based Habita architects, the resort is set at the

Spanish architecture studio SelgasCano’s colourful Serpentine Pavilion in London’s Kensington Gardens is to open this week. It is the fifteenth incarnation of the pavilion commission, with different architects creating a temporary structure outside the Serpentine Gallery every year. The aim is to both celebrate innovative designs in contemporary architecture and provide a space for people to meet and experience live events. Led by husband-and-wife duo José Selgas and Lucía Cano,

Dusit International, the Bangkok-based hospitality operator, has announced it will open Guam’s first newly-built resort since 1999, the Dusit Thani Guam Resort. Situated on Tumon Bay, the 30-floor beachfront resort is the tallest building on the island and will soft-open this month with half of its 419 bedrooms and suites coming on stream. O.A. Coloma is the architect behind the building’s design. Studio Q designed the interiors for the public