The 67-key Baglioni Hotel London facing Kensington Gardens has completed a full renovation of its spa, designed by Milanese architects Rebosio+Spagnulo. Open to both hotel guests and external clients, the Baglioni Spa offers female and male Turkish baths and three treatment rooms for massages, facial and body treatments, with products from Natura Bissé. Natura Bissé has developed unique signature facial and body treatments for the Baglioni spa, such as a

American football team the Atlanta Falcons has released details its new US$1.4bn (E1.2bn, £922m) 83,000-seat stadium, which will open in downtown Atlanta in 2017. The unique multi-use stadium features an eight-petal retractable roof – a first for any venue of this type – as well as the world’s largest 360 degree HD video screen, which will be viewable from every seat. Also included is an exterior 61,000sq ft (5,600sq m)

The 189-residence botanic haven in Al Barari, Dubai, has launched a destination spa within its sustainability-focused residential development. Owned and run by the Zaal family and its company, the residential estate called Al Barari encompasses a gourmet restaurant, health club and what it claims is the region's largest privately-owned plant nursery. Eighty per cent of the 14.2 million sq ft (390,192sq m) development is made up of landscaped gardens, lakes

Ole Bouman, previously the head of the Netherlands Architecture Institute, has been named as the director of the upcoming Shekou Design Museum in Shenzhen, China. The new Design Museum is a joint collaboration between the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and China Merchants Property Development Company, a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based conglomerate China Merchants Group (CMG). Bouman, who has a deep interest and involvement with all things architecture and design,

The Museum of Fine Arts, in Houston, Texas, has unveiled its US$450m (E381m, £297m) expansion plan to carry it through to 2019. The masterplan – by Steven Holl Architects – will see a redevelopment of the 14-acre (56,600sq m) campus to include new buildings, gardens and a top floor restaurant. Plans include a 164,000sq ft (15,200sq m) gallery to showcase the museum’s collection of 20th and 21st century art, as

Manchester-based architecture firm Buttress has seen off stiff competition from Heneghan Peng and Austin-Smith Lord to win the design contract for a £21m (US$32m, €27m) museum in Blackpool Winter Gardens. The Blackpool Museum will document the town’s rise as the world’s first working class Victorian seaside town and celebrate its contribution to pop culture. As part of the plans, the close to derelict Pavilion Theatre – which is part of

A new state-of-the-art planetarium dome being built in the Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram has been forced to delay its grand opening after design flaws forced the under-construction Kerala State Science and Technology Museum (KSSTM) to scrap previous plans. Originally planned to open later this month, Priyadarshini Planetarium will now debut in April. “In the original design, 48 poles had to be angled at precisely 15 degrees to hold up the

Final plans for Europe’s largest museum development have been revealed with new renderings released for the HUF75bn (US$277m, €235m, £183m) cultural quarter known as Park Budapest in Hungary. Following the judge’s selection, which was narrowed down from more than 500 anonymous applications, the Museum of Ethnography will be built in line with plans by French architecture practice Vallet de Martinis DIID Architectes, while Japanese firm Sou Fujimoto Architects has designed

Global engineering and design company HOK is returning to sports facility design for the first time since 2008, after completing a deal to acquire Kansas City, US-based sports architects 360 Architecture. The deal is part of HOK’s strategy to expand its footprint in the sports sector and forms a central part of HOK’s new Sports + Recreation + Entertainment practice. Patrick MacLeamy, HOK’s chair and CEO, said: “We acquired 360

Castleford Tigers CEO Steve Gill has said the weather damage caused to Wheldon Road stadium last weekend highlights the club’s “great need” to find a new home. The Super League club was forced to close its Princess Street stand for Sunday's match against Bradford after a retaining wall collapsed. The 4,000-capacity stand will remain closed for Tigers’ next two pre-season games against Widnes and York. Gill said the ageing Wheldon

A 17.6km (10.9mile) long cycleway will be built in Jiaozhou, China, designed by architecture and design firm Mecanoo. The Golden Ribbon cycling route will be funded by the World Bank and is the result of research on ‘innovation in mobility’ by the University of Shandong. The cycleway has been designed for “connectivity, comfort and experience”, while encouraging the use of bikes to improve public health, air quality and the environment.

The world’s first Museum of Science Fiction is coming to Washington DC, with a preview facility currently in the works before a full-scale museum opens in 2018. Set to launch by the end of 2015, the US$3m (€2.5m, £2m) Preview Museum will cover 4,000sq ft (371sq m) and will act as an area to test concept exhibitions and offer a glimpse into the process of building the final full-scale facility.

Bjarke Ingels, head of architecture practice BIG, has been explaining his masterplan for Europa City in a newly-released video. The scheme will be one of the largest leisure developments in Europe over the next five years. Developer, Alliages, will begin construction in 2017 and the city will open in 2020. The development is 16km (10m) from Paris. Ingels says the scheme will combine “authentic, lively, dense urban environments and streetscapes

A new visitor attraction will launch later this year in Iceland in the shape of IceCave – a network of man-made tunnels and spaces running inside the Langjökull Glacier. IceCave will be one of the largest man-made structures in the world, stretching 300m (984ft) back into the glacier and a further 30m (98ft) below the surface. In the works since 2010, the US$2.5m (E2.1m, £1.6m) development will allow visitors to

Scunthorpe United Football Club (SUFC) has submitted a planning application to the North Lincolnshire Council for a new £18m stadium located west of Scunthorpe. The 12,000-seater stadium is set to be developed as part of the mixed-use Lincolnshire Lakes project – which is spearheaded by Lucent Group and will include 3,500 new houses, a commercial park, a school and a transport hub. The designs and masterplan for the stadium have

A hotel that has been constructed inside an old mechanical crane has recently opened in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The crane, situated in a former harbour, was set for demolition when its 50m (164ft) high structure fell into disuse. Since then, the hunk of metal has been transformed into the luxury Hotel Faralda, offering three suites and a hot tub with impressive views of Amsterdam perched near the top of the

Spa design consultancy and equipment manufacturer Thermarium Bäder-Bau is working on a three-storey spa outside Oslo, Norway, which is set to open at the end of 2015. The Canica Spa Complex, funded by a private investor, is part of a 6,230sq m (67,059sq ft) leisure development being developed by Canica AS. The day spa will measure 3,700sq m (39,826sq ft). Thermarium is providing the concept, engineering, interior design and final

Plans to restore a Grade II-listed lido in Reading, UK, have been approved by councillors. Thames Lido Ltd is in charge of the £3m (US$4.5m, €3.8m) development of the Kings Meadow Baths lido and spa, having been granted a 250-year lease by the local council in July 2014. Mark Thwaites, general manager of Lido Bristol – which Thames Lido reopened in 2008 – spoke exclusively to Spa Opportunities to reveal

West Ham United Football Club (WHU) will begin selling season tickets for the 2016-17 season – its first at the Olympic Stadium – this April. The club announced that the seat selection process for current season ticket holders will run from April 2015 to February 2016. Those who want to guarantee their seats at the 54,000-capacity arena for WHU’s first game in August 2016 will also have to commit to

The Arizona Biltmore, A Waldorf Astoria Resort, has completed the remodeling and renovation of its 22,000sq ft (2,044sq m) spa facility – part of the multi-million dollar revamp of the property previously known as the Grand Dame of Phoenix. Originally built in 1929, Waldorf Astoria has kept the architectural features designed by Frank Lloyd Wright intact. The 740-bedroom resort’s spa has undergone floor-to-ceiling interior remodeling and is now home to

The Four Seasons Hotel Riyadh at Kingdom Centre has opened its newly renovated men’s spa, designed by GA Design International. Akram Kawasmeh, senior director of spa for Four Seasons in the Middle East and Africa, spoke exclusively to Spa Opportunities – detailing the SAR10m (US$2.7m, €2.3m, £1.8m) refurbishment that started at the end of May 2014 and ended in December 2014. The 274-bedroom hotel occupies 11 floors of the tallest

Global facility management giant SMG, in partnership with Live Nation, has been named as the preferred bidder to operate the 12,000-seat Bristol Arena when it opens in 2017. The Bristol Arena, set become the UK’s largest indoor arena, will be located at an old oil depot site near the city’s Temple Meads Station and is expected to cost around £95m to build. A multi-use venue, the arena will be capable

The greenhouse at the top of the controversial Rafael Viñoly-designed Walkie Talkie skyscraper, has opened to the public for the first time Officially known as 20 Fenchurch Street, the tower, which made headlines last year after solar glare coming off the tower melted parts of parked cars, has a public space in the shape of the Sky Garden on the 35th, 36th and 37th floors, which is open to everyone

The city of Vilnius in Lithuania is stepping up its push into the European ski market with the announcement it will build a new cultural/sports venue – the Vilnius Beacon – with design by Studio Libeskind. This is the first ski resort by the practice. The development is backed by the City of Vilnius, the State Trade Co and Start Vilnius Co, which took over responsibility for the location –

Danish architecture firm 3XN has revealed renderings of its designs for the new Olympic Headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. 3XN was chosen to design the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC’s) new base in April 2014 following an international competition. The practice fought off eleven other high-profile outfits to win the competition. These included London-based Amanda Levete Architects, New Yorkers OMA, Diller Scofidio and Renfro, to name a few. Called ‘Olympic Unity House’,

Work is underway on what is being billed as “the world’s largest eco-theme park” – a US$240m (E202.2m, £158.5m) development – called Funtasy Island – which will be located on Indonesia’s Riau Islands, near Singapore. Set to open in late 2015, eight key “eco-zones” are currently under construction in the 3sq km (1.2sq m) development, including a multi-sensory rainforest. There will also be land- and river-based safaris, snorkel and scuba

Four US universities are currently battling it out to host Barack Obama’s US$500m (€419.5m, £329m) presidential library – a repository for preserving and making available the papers, records, collections and other historical materials of every President of the United States since Herbert Hoover in 1929. The President and first lady will choose one location from either the University of Chicago, Columbia University in New York, the University of Illinois in