American light artist Leo Villareal and British architects Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands have won a hotly-contested competition to light up 17 central London bridges along the River Thames with a free, permanent installation. London mayor Sadiq Khan announced yesterday (7 December) that the team’s design concept for the Illuminated River International Design Competition had triumphed over five other shortlisted entries from Adjaye Associates, AL_A, Les Éclairagistes Associés, Sam Jacob Studio and

Danish studio 3XN Architects have triumphed in an international design competition for a sweeping cultural complex and Smart City district in Wallonia, Belgium. Located in the city of Namur at the confluence of the Meuse and Sambre rivers, and adjacent to the historic Roman citadel and the Wallonian Parliament, the scheme has been envisioned as an economic driver for the region. At the heart of the scheme is the new

Moreau Kusunoki, the architecture studio behind the failed attempt to bring the Guggenheim art museum to Helsinki, have expressed their “disappointment” at the council’s decision to block the project. However, the philosophical founders of the Paris-based practice, Nicolas Moreau and Hiroko Kusunoki, told CLAD that the process of designing the project as an “extraordinary adventure” despite the result of the council’s vote, which was recorded as 53 to 32 against.

The world’s first permanent ice hotel has opened to guests 200km (124m) north of the Arctic Circle. Icehotel 365, located in the Swedish village of Jukkasjärvi, is a year-round extension to the world-famous 26-year old temporary structure, which is sculpted every winter using ice from the Torne River before melting in spring. To ensure the new structure stands firm all year round – despite its walls, floors and ceiling being

Faena Forum, the new cultural core of the Faena District in Miami Beach, has opened to the public in time for the Design Miami global forum. A procession down the city’s Collins Avenue congregated in the Forum's new canopy plaza and witnessed the official opening of the complex’s three buildings, which have all been designed by architecture studio OMA. To celebrate, a dance performance with scenography by the building’s lead

South Korean architect Moon Hoon has designed an unusually-formed museum dedicated to the folk story of Pinocchio. The client, an avid collector of Pinocchio dolls, wanted a museum and gallery on the outskirts of Seoul where her collection could be experienced and explained. The museum complex, called Pino Familia, is formed of three buildings in close proximity, which surround a grassed inner court containing a sky-train, a pond and a

Madrid’s historic Hall of Realms will be refurbished and transformed into an important art exhibition space by architects Foster + Partners and Rubio Arquitectura, after the pair were named winners of an international competition for the project. The space will form an expansion to the city’s Museo del Prado campus; Spain’s main national art museum. The Hall of Realms building was part of the 17th century Royal Buen Retiro Palace

London's Design Museum welcomes the public to its new home on Kensington High Street today (24 November) marking the culmination of one of the most innovative and unlikely architectural collaborations on a major leisure project in recent times. The museum is located inside the city’s former Commonwealth Institute Building, a Grade II* listed structure that had lain dormant for many years before architects OMA won a competition in 2008 to

Architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro and design studio Rockwell Group have unveiled their plans for an expandable cultural venue in New York’s burgeoning Hudson Yards district. The duo, who are both based in the city, have designed The Shed; a new centre for artistic invention set to open in early 2019. Currently under construction on the far west side of Manhattan, where the High Line meets Hudson Yards, the facility

The National Museum and Dialogue Centre in Szczecin, Poland has been declared the World Building of the Year 2016. Polish architecture studio Robert Konieczny KWK Promes were awarded the prize by a jury led by British architect David Chipperfield. The result - which caps what has been a transformative year for leisure architecture - was revealed at a gala dinner in Berlin on the final day of this year’s World

Almost 100 entries from 26 countries vying for the honour of designing the new National Memorial to the Holocaust have been whittled down to a final ten. The shortlisted design teams include some of the most internationally renowned architects and artists, including Turner Prize winner Sir Anish Kapoor who is working with Zaha Hadid Architects. The teams are now invited to submit designs for the memorial, which is planned to

Danish studio Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects have revealed the first design details of their collaboration with American artist James Turrell on a major expansion of the ARos Aarhus Art Museum. The €40m expansion plan, called Next Level, will add a 1,200sq m underground gallery and a gigantic semi-subterranean Turrell art installation called The Dome. Visitors will face “an experience in colour and light” as they travel through a string of

Leisure architecture was a big winner on the opening day of the World Architecture Festival (WAF) in Berlin, with a quintet of projects triumphing in several categories of the prestigious WAF Awards. The Culture category, which consisted of 17 projects, was won by Polish architects Robert Konieczny KWK Promes for their National Museum and Dialogue Centre in Szczecin, Poland. The museum sits underground, with the roof forming part of the

The architecture studio of David Chipperfield have announced significant progress on two key museum projects in their portfolio: an extension to the Kunsthaus museum in Zurich, Switzerland and an cultural complex near the Taj Mahal in India. A foundation stone laying ceremony for former project took place on Tuesday (8 November), with guests from the world of Swiss politics, business and culture joining Chipperfield, who helped bury a time capsule

After 15 years and three phases of development, Chicago studio Ross Barney Architects have completed their dramatic transformation of the city’s central riverfront – the most visible public project in the city since Millennium Park opened in 2004. The Chicago Riverwalk – a 1.5 mile (2.41 km) promenade along the Chicago River lined with public amenities, restaurants, cultural activities and access to natural habitats for city residents and visitors –

Architecture studio Jestico + Whiles’ plans to transform a disused air base in Oxfordshire, UK, into a leisure district has been given the green light by the local council. According to the design team, the complex – located in the village of Upper Heyford – will be like no other in the country due to its typological flexibility and historic reference points. Cherwell District Council have approved the project, and

An elevated public platform within Herzog and de Meuron’s Hamburg Elbphilharmonie has been officially opened, along with building’s restaurants, cafés, bars and hotel. Following nine and a half years of construction, the City of Hamburg has taken delivery of the building from construction firm Hochtief, and a ceremony to mark the milestone was held on 5 November. Former dock workers and local students were among 200 Hamburg residents invited to

The long-awaited Louvre Abu Dhabi has been delayed yet again, with the highly-anticipated project now postponed to 2017 due to pending construction work. The news is the latest in a string of setbacks for the project dating back to 2012. According to Reuters, multiple sources have reported there is still “work to be done” on the museum. Government officials had said at the end of 2015 that the museum was

Global sports and arena architects HOK have been tasked with designing “the world’s largest next-generation music and entertainment venue” in Las Vegas. Located on Sands Avenue in the heart of Vegas, the arena will feature a scalable seating capacity, enabling it to present a wide variety of shows – “from the largest touring concerts to specially designed residencies and full-blown productions and events.” The project is being funded by the

The City of Helsinki has prepared a new funding proposal for establishing a Guggenheim museum in the city, after Finland’s co-ruling nationalist Finns party blocked state aid for the project’s development. During recent budget talks, the Finns objected to the €40m (US$45m, £33.7m) support costs offered by the government, especially during a time when Finland’s economy is struggling while the government pushes through a multi-billion Euro austerity measure to try

Design and technology consultancy Hirsch & Mann are set to transform everyday pedestrian crossings into playful multi-sensory experiences after winning the 2016 Playable City Award. Artists, designers, architects, technologists and creative practitioners from all over the world were invited to propose distinctive ideas to reuse city infrastructure and utilise smart city technologies “to put people and play at the heart of the future city.” Eight projects out of 81 applications

A major milestone in the construction of Kengo Kuma’s V&A Museum of Design Dundee in Scotland has been reached, with the completion of the upper floor revealing an extensive public area which will house galleries, learning spaces and a restaurant. At the ground floor level V&A Dundee will be formed of two separate buildings located on Dundee’s waterfront. The newly-completed second floor connects these two together, and houses many of

Dutch architects Mecanoo have taken inspiration from the UK’s Eden Project to propose an expansive experimental garden in the grounds of the Netherlands' Soestdijk Palace. The Dutch government recently launched a competition to redevelop the royal residence and estate, located in the town of Baarn. In response, Mecanoo have partnered with exhibition designers Kossmann.dejong and engineering consultancy Royal HaskoningDHV to develop their vision for an eco-attraction, called Eden Soestdijk. An

The saga of George Lucas’ long-running attempt to build a Museum of Narrative Arts in the US has taken another surprising twist, with concept designs released for locations in both San Francisco and Los Angeles. The Star Wars creator has been trying to establish the museum – which will explore how imagery tells stories from illustration to comics and films – for several years. His ambition to build it on

London’s Science Museum has kicked off the search for a lead designer to create its new London Science City Gallery. Applications are open until 21 November for firms to make their interest known. The selected practice will be responsible for the full coordination of design, engineering and services for the project. The gallery will explore London’s central role in the scientific advances in the 17th and 18th centuries. The exhibition

Kengo Kuma has urged architects and developers to locate new museums in the centre of communities to better connect them with local life. Speaking exclusively to CLAD, the Japanese architect explained that his first priority when designing a new museum is to “pick up an experience of the place.” “The role of architects in the 21st century is to create a link between people and art,” he said. “We should

Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) are to build a cultural and research complex for a Unesco World Heritage site in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. The firm have won first prize in the competition to build the Urban Heritage Administration Centre, which will incorporate a permanent exhibition gallery, library, lecture hall, educational and meeting spaces and a scientific institution for conducting field research for ongoing digs in the Wadi Hanifah valley. The 8,780sq