The spa and fitness offering at Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas in Texas, US, is set to undergo a US$3.5m (€2.8m, £2.2m) renovation, which will transform it into one of the largest luxury hotel health clubs in the country. Luxury hotel spa operator Trilogy Spa Holdings is using its 'Well & Being' spa brand to market the new 176,000sq ft (16,351sq m) space, which is scheduled

Operators of public saunas in Germany say they will struggle to make ends meet if the rate of value added tax they pay is increased from seven per cent to the full value of 19 per cent. Access to saunas is soon to be classified a luxury by the German government, and will therefore taxable at a higher rate. Key players in the pool, sauna, spa and heat experience manufacturing

Competition entries are currently being sought for ‘Hello Nature!’ – a site located at the foot of Mt Omneberget in northern Sweden – which is looking for ”structures that celebrate nature” involving elements of “both education and recreation, or business and pleasure.” Combo Competitions – founded by London-based Swedish architect Per Linde – has placed emphasis on the ideas presented in proposals, rather than aesthetics alone. Combo Competitions’ main driver

Multiple images for each of the 1,715 entries for the Guggenheim coming to Helsinki, Finland, have been released by the upcoming museum, with a huge number of anonymous stage-one entries showcased. The €126m (£100m, US$160.5m) waterfront project is officially the most popular architectural contest in history, attracting more entries than the contest for the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, which was won by Heneghan Peng from 1,557 submissions. Competition organiser

New plans have been released for the London-based Geffrye Museum’s £15m (US$24m, €18.9m) transformation, which will create new spaces for the museum’s collections and library. The plans by architecture firm Wright & Wright include a gallery, café and conference facilities, as well as a rejuvenation of the current public spaces. The plans will create around 40 per cent additional space within the 18th century Grade I listed museum’s walls, by

Boris Johnson, mayor of London, has begun a consultation process with GT Architects over the proposed plans for a sports centre at Crystal Palace, south London. Launched on 6 October, the mayor, CSM Strategic, with FMG Consulting and GT Architects have proposed several development concepts for the sports centre. These are being pitched to the public through a series of talks and exhibitions, as well as a survey, running throughout

Work on the upcoming Louvre Abu Dhabi has progressed, with construction of the mammoth US$653m (€512.9m, £404.6m) structure’s dome roof now complete. Building work on the dome started in December 2013 and the elaborate roof currently sits on 120 temporary support towers, which will be replaced with four permanent support pillars and the dome will be clad in aluminium. The construction of all the 9,200sq m (99,000sq ft) museum’s galleries

St Fagans National History Museum – Wales’ most popular heritage attraction – has named Kier Group as lead-developer for a £25m (US$40m, €31.5m) renovation of the site. With funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the Welsh government, the Cardiff museum has started on the makeover, which will include both new build and refurbishment work. A new £16m (US$25.8m, €20.2m) sustainable building, designed by lead architecture practice Purcell, will

From 2016, London’s Design Museum will be offering free entry to permanent exhibitions following its move to a new site in Kensington. Chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, visited the Museum’s new site on 17 October and announced plans to support opening the doors for free under the VAT refund scheme for museums and galleries. The Design Museum will join more than 50 other museums across the UK capital opening

The Global Spa & Wellness Summit (GSWS) has published a standards guide for spa and wellness industry projects, the Guide to Hydrothermal Spa Development Standards. The book is designed to help spa owners, operators, architects and builders when considering the building of either public or private hydrothermal areas. It contains global terminology, definitions of hydrothermal areas and provides information on project planning, right through to key building and construction considerations,

Abadía Retuerta LeDomaine, a five-star retreat in Spain’s Duero wine region is transforming the estate’s former stable into a spa, complete with a ‘spa sommelier’ who will carry out blind tasting sessions for each guest before suggesting treatments based on individual preferences. The entire estate, which used to be an abbey and winery, dates back to 1146. The hotel opened in 2012 after a complete restoration of the abbey, with

The £8bn (US$13bn, €10bn) redevelopment of London's iconic Battersea Power Station has received another boost after the Frank Gehry and Norman Foster-designed mixed-use high street won planning approval. The phase three plans – which will see a new pedestrian high street running from Battersea Park Road to the existing power station building – feature a new public park and glass cube-shaped community hub building, in addition to bars, shops and

The first major museum to be built in Morocco since it gained independence from France in 1956 has opened in Rabat. Showcasing modern and contemporary works by Moroccan artists, the Musée Mohammed VI d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) – now partnered with the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC and the Louvre in Paris – had been under construction for a decade following a

Haworth Tompkins’ Everyman Theatre has beaten the likes of the London Aquatic Centre and the Shard to be crowned this year's RIBA Stirling Prize winner. The London-based practice had to fight off stiff competition from other illustrious firms and their projects including Zaha Hadid’s aforementioned Aquatic Centre and Renzo Piano’s Shard, as well as Mecanoo’s Library of Birmingham, O’Donnell + Tuomey's Saw Swee Hock and Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios' Manchester

Consultancy and engineering firm Arup has won the contract to advise on venues and infrastructure for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The London-based firm says it has been appointed lead adviser to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, with its duties covering venue and infrastructure development. Arup will masterplan the Games, as well as advising on transport, security, sustainability

Zaha Hadid Architects has revealed plans for a new museum, school, library and centre for the research of genocide in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The project is the architecture firm's first project in Cambodia and its first ever wooden construction. The centre will be a place for the Sleuk Rith Institute to compile, analyse and preserve information related to the Khmer Rouge era of genocide – which saw an estimated death

The town of Spijkenisse in southwest Holland is now home to a new theatre designed by Ben van Berkel, UNStudio’s founding architect. The Theatre de Stoep is designed to consider the two contrasting facets of the theatre archetype, as a place of wonder and illusion at the same time as being a place of community and social interaction. The theatre boasts progressive shapes and smooth curves typical of UNStudio’s work.

Hotel des Dromonts, in the French ski resort of Avoriaz will reopen on 12 December following a €2m (US$2.6m, £1.6m) revamp after becoming part of the luxury Maisons & Hotels Sibuet brand. The 34-bedroom four-star property was originally designed by Jacques Labro in the 1960s and owned by the Olympic ski champion Jean Vuarnet and Gerard Bremont. Fifty years after first opening, the hotel has been reconfigured and decorated in

When it comes to how best to cater for cyclists in the UK’s capital, more ideas are being "floated" than ever before. The latest is the Thames Deckway, a 7-mile (11km) stretch of cycle path that would float alongside the banks of London’s famed river. Thames Deckway is a concept proposed by River Cycleway Consortium, which is led by architect David Nixon and environmental entrepreneur Anna Hill, in conjunction with

The Grade I-listed Royal Crescent Hotel & Spa in Bath, UK, has finally relaunched after a heritage-led refurbishment of the Georgian building that dates back to the mid-1700s. The privately-owned investment firm Topland Group acquired the two central buildings of the Royal Crescent – built between 1767 and 1774 – that make up the hotel and spa in 2012. Somerset-based interior design firm Jane Clayton and spa consultancy Spa Creators

Starwood Hotels & Resorts will launch its W brand in Marrakech, Morocco, in 2017 in the Hivernage district of the city. The hotel will be called W Marrakech and will be owned by Morocco-based Menatlas 14 S.A. – a company that operates within a global investment fund launched to take advantage of the many opportunities which have arisen in the Kingdom over the past few years. The fund has successfully

The globally-renowned Golden Door wellness resort in Escondido, California, has relaunched following an expansion from 377 acres to 600 acres, making way for gardens and orchards growing ingredients required for its new artisanal product line. In keeping with the resort's hyper-local food sourcing focus, Golden Door’s land expert Jeff Dawson has brought in 30 chickens to lay fresh eggs each morning and a new computer-controlled 3,000sq ft (278sq m) greenhouse

Oakland, California-based National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise Golden State Warriors has revealed the first conceptual plans of its new home in San Francisco, California. Plans to build a 18,000-capacity, multi-use arena in the Mission Bay area will see the Warriors travel across the San Francisco Bay and return to the city of San Francisco for the first time since 1971, when the team moved to its current Oracle Arena home

The shortlist for the Riba Stirling Prize – the UK’s most prestigious architectural award – has been revealed, with the winner to be announced on Thursday (16 October). The six finalists will now battle it out for the coveted prize, which was last year won by Astley Castle, near Nuneaton. The shortlist is as follows: London Aquatics Centre, Zaha Hadid Architects The London Aquatics Centre, which was home to high

Cable cars are usually thought of as a tourist activity, offering a fun and sociable experience with bird’s eye views of the city or countryside below. But one enterprising New Yorker has been asking why tourists should have all the fun. Daniel Levy, president of CityRealty in New York City, is pushing for a rethink of the way we use the skies. His proposals for an urban gondola, dubbed East

Queen’s Park Rangers Football Club’s proposed move to Old Oak Common looks increasingly uncertain after the landowner blocking the club’s move to the site, revealed a £5bn alternative plan for the west London site. PLP has been revealed as the lead architect behind the alternate proposal and has produced a masterplan featuring a cultural hub, canal-side dock and 9,500 homes and two schools. The plans – drawn up in collaboration

The World Architecture Festival, held in Singapore from 1 to 3 October, ended on a high note, with awards distributed to firms from all over the world. The awards are some of the most prestigious in the industry. Here’s our pick from leisure architecture’s big winners. Winner of World Building of the Year: The Chapel, Vietnam, by a21studio A community space on the outskirt of Ho Chi Minh City for