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

New York studio Selldorf Architects will lead a major upgrade and expansion of art museum and research institution The Frick Collection. Originally housed primarily in the New York residence of industrialist and art patron Henry Clay Frick – who left his vast collection of old master paintings to the institution – the Frick Collection now encompasses several buildings, wings and gardens that have not undergone a significant upgrade in almost

Nicholas Garrison – lead architect for the Statue of Liberty’s new museum on its home of Liberty Island – has said he wants his vision to “inspire people” just as the famous monument has for more than 130 years. The US$70m (€63.7m, £57m) museum, designed to celebrate the Statue of Liberty, will transform Liberty Island into a full-fledged visitor attraction, according to Garrison, who is principal for architecture practice FXFOWLE.

Italian architecture practice Studio Fuksas have completed the largest new building in Rome in over 50 years: a convention hall and hotel nicknamed The Cloud. Opening this month after nearly two decades in development, the New Rome/EUR Convention Hall will host exhibitions and conferences expected to bring in as much as €400m (US$437m, £358m) annually to the city of Rome. Located south of the city’s core, the complex is open

Ma Yansong and MAD Architects have unveiled their design for a brand new China Philharmonic Hall in Beijing. Located in the bustling business district of Sanlitun next to the multipurpose Beijing Workers Stadium, the building will take the form of a curving 11,600sq m (125,000sq ft) structure covered by a translucent curtain facade. Lush trees and lotus ponds will be installed around the south side of the site in order

Following an extensive renovation, the acclaimed Freemark Abbey winery in California’s Napa Valley has reopened to reveal a total transformation of its century-old stone building, which now houses a high-end restaurant and visitor centre. San Francisco firms SB Architects and BraytonHughes Design Studio led the design of the project, which pays homage to Freemark Abbey’s past while introducing several complementary contemporary features. The original stonework dating from 1886 is highlighted

Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor has told CLAD that his proposed redevelopment of the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA) will create a “sacred, sublime kind of experience.” In an exclusive interview during a recent trip to London, Zumthor explained his vision for the project. “The museum is not organised in timelines, periods or geographical regions,” he said. “It's organised like a forest with clearings inside, where we have free

Lebanese French Architect Hala Wardé will design a modern, contemporary art museum in the heart of Beirut, Lebanon. An international jury featuring Richard Rogers, Rem Koolhaas, Julia Peyton-Jones and chaired by Pritzker Prize chair Lord Peter Palumbo selected Wardé’s firm HW architecture from a shortlist of 13 design teams to create a home for BeMA: Beirut Museum of Art. The new museum will be centrally located in the heart of

Lesna in Poland, is set to welcome a “first-of-its-kind” immersive learning experience and conference next month, dubbed by its creators “The College of Extraordinary Experiences”. Taking place between 10 and 13 November, the event brings together some of the most high-profile experience designers in the world to share with delegates how to stage engaging, memorable and extraordinary experiences, using the grand setting of Lesna’s Czocha Castle as the backdrop. “The

Design firm Snøhetta will create a strategy to redevelop the 16-acre riverfront campus of The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in Portland, it has been announced today (14 October). Multiple firms, including local studios, will join Snøhetta’s design team to create a long-term masterplan for the site. OMSI is seeking how to best develop its property to enhance its economic and environmental benefit, while highlighting the museum’s role

The flagship Scottish Design Galleries within the Kengo Kuma’s new Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum of Design in Dundee will be designed by ZMMA, an international studio specialising in museums and arts projects. The galleries will exhibit V&A collections and loans from other collections in Scotland and abroad that tell the story of the country's design achievements over the last 300 years – from intricate 18th century metalwork to catwalk

A cavernous, curving new opera house inspired by the human body has been officially opened in Taiwan. Taichung Metropolitan Opera House, designed by Pritzker Prize winner Toyo Ito, took a decade to complete. The main structure is formed of several curved walls connected with inlaid floors. This tubular configuration, which does not require support beams, creates a fluid journey through the building. Located on the second floor of the complex

Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas has revealed dramatic new images of his forthcoming theatre and exhibition hall in Tbilisi, Georgia. The project, located in the capital’s Rhike Park, is in the advanced stages of construction. Two abstract soft-shaped elements connect together as a singular funnel-shaped silver structure. The north of the building will contain the 566-capacity Musical Theatre Hall, while the south will house the Exhibition Hall. The former will evoke

Dutch architects MVRDV have won an international competition to design a sports and cultural complex in Shenzhen, China, which will be navigated via a weaving elevated walkway. The Nanshan district government has tasked the studio, and local firm Zhubo Architecture Design, with creating “a social and well­being focal point” for the community in the country’s fastest-growing urban region. Located in a residential area which stretches between two mountain parks, the

The University of Iowa will today (7 October) unveil its flagship new arts centre, designed by Steven Holl Architects. The 126,000sq ft (11,700sq m) Visual Arts Building contains galleries, workshops, teaching spaces for Art History and an outdoor rooftop studio. Carvings into the zinc-clad concrete volume form seven terraced ‘cutout’ light courts and multiple balconies, infusing the interior with light. A campus route threads through the largest of these courts,

Newport Street Gallery – Caruso St John Architects’ conversion of almost an entire street of listed industrial buildings in south London into a free public gallery for artist Damien Hirst’s private art collection – has won the 2016 RIBA Stirling Prize for the UK’s best new building. The presentation of the prestigious trophy took place at a special ceremony on Thursday evening (6 October) at the headquarters of the Royal

The first phase of a contemporary art museum designed by architecture studio AL_A on Lisbon waterfront opens today (5 October). A curving, low-rise new structure and the recently renovated Central Tejo power station together form the new home for the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT), which explores contemporary culture through visual arts, new media, architecture, technology and science. Four distinct gallery spaces sit beneath the undulating roof of

Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art has reopened its East Building following a three-year, US$69m (€61.5m, £54.2m) renovation process. The I.M. Pei-designed building gains an additional 12,250 sq ft (1,140sq m) of floor space, split between two new galleries to house the works of Alexander Calder and Mark Rothko, and a new rooftop terrace. Katharina Frithsch’s Hahn/Cock – a giant blue sculpture of a cockrel – sits on the new

A collection of some of Thailand’s finest contemporary art has found a new home at a new museum in the city of Chang Mai, which boasts an eye-catching mirrored façade. The exterior of the newly-opened MAIIAM Museum of Contemporary Art is clad with thousands of small mirrored tiles that reflect light; creating an atmosphere of lightness and occasionally giving the building the illusion of invisibility. Architects (all)zone were inspired by

Three architecture studios have been shortlisted in the design competition to create a Science Island for the Lithuanian city Kaunas. SMAR Architecture Studio, SimpsonHaugh and Partners, and Donghua Chen Studio will now negotiate with Kaunas City Municipality, which will decide the design concept it wants to proceed with. Each of the winners will receive an honorarium of €15,000 (US$16,800, £13,000.) The centrepiece of the 44 acre Science Island – the

The new leadership of London's Serpentine Galleries have announced they are expanding the art museums’ famous pavilion programme and launching a Zaha Hadid exhibition focusing on the late architect’s design notebooks. In their first joint press conference, newly-appointed CEO Yana Peel and artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist announced “an exciting new chapter” in the development of the Serpentine, with a new emphasis on technology, partnerships, innovation and accessibility. A new

London's Design Museum has announced a host of star names from the worlds of architecture and design will help open its new home in Kensington with a special exhibition called Fear and Love - Reactions to a Complex World. Fashion designer Hussein Chalayan and architect Neri Oxman are among the contributors providing eleven newly commissioned installations that will explore a spectrum of issues that define our time, “including networked sexuality,

Acclaimed artist Marina Abramovic has presented Lord Norman Foster with a golden replica of his brain. The British architect received the unusual sculpture – derived from a 3D scan of his brain – as part of an awards ceremony at Campus Biotech in Geneva. Foster is one of the 2016 recipients of the Scopus Award – the highest honour conferred by the Friends of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem –

King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands has officially opened the Voorlinden Museum – a modern, minimalist new home for the art collection of industrialist Joop van Caldenborgh. Situated in the southern town Wassenaar and designed by Dutch practice Kraaijvanger Architects with Arup, the museum has parallel symmetrical walls that allow the interior to open to the environment. The simple exterior includes a white colonnade to support the roof and a façade

Wang Jianlin’s public feud with Disney continues to heat up with the Wanda chair’s latest multi-billion Wanda City to open its doors tomorrow (23 September). Located 500km (311m) west of the recently opened Shanghai Disney Resort, the US$5.2bn (€4.64bn, £4bn) Hefei Wanda City has been described as the “first Huizhou culture theme park in the world.” A tribute to the culture of the Anhui province, which dates back more than