The official groundbreaking has taken place for the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art – Star Wars creator George Lucas’ long-awaited cultural venture in Los Angeles’ Exposition Park. The 300,000sq ft (27,800sq m) museum will celebrate the art of visual storytelling – from comic art, paintings and illustrations to photography, filmmaking and drawings – with collection galleries, exhibition spaces and two theatres displaying original works of art, digital technologies and daily

The latest design proposals for David Chipperfield’s 1,000-capacity concert hall in Edinburgh – the city’s first in 100 years – have been publicly revealed for the first time. The venue, situated behind the historic Dundas House at 36 St Andrew Square, will be the permanent home of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra (SCO) – with a “world class” auditorium and recital and recording space “to rival the best in Europe.” In

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) have revealed their competition-winning design for the National Theatre of Albania, a 3-in-1 cultural venue shaped like a bow tie. Designed in collaboration with British consultancy Theatre Projects, the 9,300sq m (100,000sq ft) venue has been commissioned to host local and touring theatre companies in the Albanian capital, Tirana. Situated adjacent to the historic Skanderbeg Square, the National Opera and the National Art Gallery, the project

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has issued a license for the establishment of the country’s first ever Museum of History of Science and Technology in Islam. Issued by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH), the license will see the museum established at the Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh. The project, said a release, will be developed in collaboration with the Institute of Arab and

The owners of Minnesota’s Mall of America are considering a US$200m (€162.5m, £144.7m) waterpark addition to the property, releasing a new rendering of the proposed project in the city of Bloomington. The plan has been submitted by Triple 5 – the company that owns the property – detailing a 225,000sq ft (21,000sq m) waterpark to the east of the existing mall. According to the submission, the city would finance and

With the imminent arrival of spring across Europe and temperatures tentatively rising, the ephemeral Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden will soon return from whence it came, melting back into the Torne River. However, its creators are already preparing for the hotel’s return towards the end of the year, harvesting huge blocks of ice and snow and seeking design ideas for the future guestrooms – each of which is conceived as an

Following an international competition, Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) have been appointed to design the Central Hub of the Aljada leisure masterplan in Sharjah, UAE. Development company ARADA is overseeing the enormous mixed-use project – one of the largest of its kind in the region – and organised the competition to find an architect for the 1.9 million sq ft (176,500sq m) Hub, billed as “a major destination for tourists and

The architecture studio of Kengo Kuma have won another major cultural project, this time for an art museum in Busan, South Korea’s second-largest city. Planned for one of the small villages in Gijang county, the 3,500sq m (37,600sq ft) complex will, according to the practice, provide “a contrast between the extra-contemporary aspects of such a museum and the bucolic character of this site.” This approach – which will see the

The Istanbul Modern, Turkey’s leading contemporary art gallery, has closed its doors on the banks of the Bosphorus, where a new home will be built on the same site. The museum – in the trendy harbourside area of Karaköy with its Ottoman architecture, modern shops and ancient mosque and baths – is to be demolished and a new building by Pritzker prize-winner Renzo Piano will take its place. Although Renzo

The first rendering of Lionsgate's upcoming theme park at the recently-opened Jeju Shinhwa World has been released. Called Lionsgate Movie World, the development at Jeju Shinhwa – one of South Korea’s largest integrated resorts – will span 122,000sq m (1.3 million sq ft) and will be the largest Lionsgate attraction to date, with the venture being master planned, designed, and project managed by JRA. Expected to open in 2020, Lionsgate

A museum designed as a ”timeless treasure chest” showcasing Israel’s natural history is ready to open on the Tel Aviv University Campus. Architecture firm Kimmel Eshkolot have designed the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History, whose collections include five and a half million animals and plants telling the story of biodiversity in Israel and the Middle East during the past century. The building’s block-like form, attached to a large wooden-panelled shell

The Museum of Modern Electronic Music (MOMEM) is nearing completion in Frankfurt, Germany, and is turning up the volume on the plans with the launch of a pop-up museum this April ahead of a full launch at a later date. The museum was conceived to tell the story of the electronic music movement and its impact on youth culture – as art, design, fashion and technology – throughout Europe from

The executive director of the Arkansas Arts Center (AAC), situated in Little Rock’s historic MacArthur Park, has announced details of a striking expansion for the attraction, designed by architects Studio Gang. Todd Herman revealed that 127,000sq ft (11,800sq m) of renovated and new spaces will be created for the centre to strengthen the connections between the visual and performing arts in an inclusive space that welcomes a diverse community. “This

A planning application has been submitted for a classic car museum in Oxfordshire, UK, with American vintage car collector and philanthropist Peter Mullin behind the £35m (US$48m, €39.5m) plans. Mullin, founder of the M Financial Group and Chairman of its subsidiary, M Financial Holdings, is an avid car collector, establishing in 2010, the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California and also serving as the President of the American Bugatti Club.

Georgia Aquarium – once the largest aquarium in the world – has revealed it’s planning a major extension project, including exhibit space and a new visitor entrance. The aquarium, which is located in Atlanta, Georgia, and is home to over 100,000 animals, including whale sharks, beluga whales, sea lions and manta rays, has hired PGAV Destinations as lead architect on the project. The new entrance is proposed for the Baker Street

One of the largest ongoing leisure developments on the planet, EuropaCity in Paris, will feature a dramatic indoor/outdoor cinema embedded into the landscape, courtesy of a competition-winning design by UNStudio. The Dutch practice have been selected as the architects to realise the Centre Culturel Dédié Au 7è Art – one of eight key buildings within the wider EuropaCity masterplan created by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). Described by UNStudio as “a

In a bid to protect its World Heritage status, the City of Liverpool and Historic England have drawn up a heritage action plan, created to navigate the threat posed by a proposed development of the city’s waterfront, which could see it struck from the Unesco register. Granted outline planning permission in 2013, the £5.5bn (US$7.7bn, €6.22bn) Liverpool Waters 30-year development scheme from The Peel Group would “undoubtedly cause substantial harm

The RIBA Stirling Prize-winning Hastings Pier, designed by architecture studio dRMM, has been put up for sale. Property agent GVA has been instructed to offer the iconic structure to the market after the Hastings Pier Charity, which runs the asset, entered administration in November 2017. The 280m-long (918ft), Grade II listed Victorian pier, originally opened in 1872, was virtually destroyed by fire in 2010, but was eventually rebuilt by dRMM

Rem Koolhaas and OMA’s plans to renovate the largest museum building in Russia have been unveiled. The New Tretyakov Gallery houses an extensive and important collection of Russian art, including work from Malevich, Kandinsky, Chagall, and Soviet artists such as Aleksandr Deyneka and Vera Mukhina. The 61,000sq m (657,600sq ft) building, which includes multiple exhibition halls, was originally designed by architects N.P. Sukoyan and Y.N. Sheverdyaev in the 1960s, and

Architects Cullinan Studio and multidisciplinary firm Arup have received planning permission for the UK’s longest aerial walkway: a 400m-long (1,312ft) ribbon “floating through the treetops” of the Conkers visitor attraction in Leicestershire. The sinuous attraction – composed of a galvanised steel structure – narrows and widens at different points, creating passing places and observation points overlooking the forest below. Three timber-clad treehouses, or eyries, feature along the walkway, providing event

The French government has unveiled an ambitious plan to renovate Paris’s landmark Grand Palais and create a cultural boulevard linking the historic site with the Champs Elysees and the River Seine. First built for the Exposition Universelle world fair in 1900, the giant glass vault of the Palais had a strong impact on the country’s Art Nouveau movement and has become one of the French capital’s best-known icons, as well

An interactive museum dedicated to the art of spycraft, designed by the studio of David Adjaye, opens in New York tomorrow (16 February) – “empowering visitors to seek the truth, form their own opinions and question everything.” Guests will enter the enigmatic world of code-breakers, spycatchers, hackers and undercover agents at SPYSCAPE, which has been developed in collaboration with investigative journalists, former directors of intelligence agencies and station chiefs. Conceived

Three firms have been commissioned to develop a “world-class” Science City attraction in central Patna, India. Exhibition designer GSM Project, architect Flying Elephant Studio and project management firm Gleeds have been selected for the project by the government of Bihar following a call for tender. The 30,000sq m (323,000sq ft) Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Science City, named after India’s former president, will promote “the past, the present and

Residents of El Paso, Texas, have been invited to reimagine the future of the city’s abandoned baseball ground, the Cohen Stadium. The City’s Capital Improvement Department and local representative Sam Morgan are backing the masterplan for the 50-acre site in Northeast El Paso, which is hoped will transform the area into a catalyst for development and a destination point for the city and the wider region. The 9,000 capacity venue,

The Madison Square Garden Company (MSG) has announced ambitious plans to bring a vast, spherical music and entertainment venue to London, and claims it will “change the nature of live events.” Making the announcement at a presentation in New York, MSG’s executive chair and CEO, James L. Dolan, confirmed the company intends to make the UK capital the home of its first international property, and has completed the purchase of

Members of the public are invited to have their say on 39 design proposals for the transformation of London’s Old Street roundabout to create a new ‘iconic gateway’ and public space. Zaha Hadid Architects, Allford Hall Monaghan Morris and HawkinsBrown are among the studios in contention for the high-profile scheme, which is being developed by Islington Council in partnership with the Mayor of London, Transport for London (TfL) and Hackney

Award-winning Mexican architect Frida Escobedo has been commissioned to design the 2018 iteration of the Serpentine Pavilion. The Serpentine Pavilion programme, which began in 2000, sees an architect who has never built in the UK create a temporary summer pavilion and café space in Kensington Gardens. Zaha Hadid, Herzog & de Meuron, Jean Nouvel, Sou Fujimoto, SANAA, Bjarke Ingels Group and Diébédo Francis Kéré – whose tree-inspired 2017 structure has