Mayor of London Boris Johnson, has opened a major design competition for a new £400m (US$650m, €503m) educational and cultural quarter at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, east London. Billed as the ‘Olympicopolis’, the project will be situated on the former 2012 Olympics site showcasing London’s ‘exceptional art, dance, history, craft, science, technology and cutting edge design’. Although visitors to the park are already able to enjoy its parklands, waterways,

It’s no secret that athletes are said to have a ‘home-game advantage’, but how do teams combat the sometimes negative effects of ‘playing away’? Nike and design consultancy Teague have come up with a solution. In order to minimise the effect of air travel and changing time zones on sportsmen and women, Teague and Nike have conceptualised a new form of transport for athletes, ensuring their performance is top notch,

The Urban Resort Concept-operated (URC) PuShang Hotel and Spa in Xiamen, China, is set to open in Q4 of 2016 with a Water Palace Spa, based on the importance of bathing in Chinese culture. The 175-bedroom hotel’s 3,200sq m (34,445sq ft) URSPA will include 12 treatment chambers – two of which are double treatment suites. The chambers, which occupy 2,717sq m (29,246sq ft) of the spa, are lantern-like cubes dispersed

A consortium of Chinese investors is backing plans being put forward for the creation of a new £65m leisure, residential and business district in the steel city of Sheffield. Headed by businessman Jerry Cheung, managing director of Sheffield-based developer New Era Development, the project has evolved out of original plans to create a Chinatown in the city back in 2005. However, the six Chinese backers who have put money into

A development group led by tennis coach Judy Murray, mother of star Andy Murray, has been dealt a blow after a prominent member of Stirling Council’s planning office said that it could not support plans for the creation of the Park of Keir sporting hub in Scotland. Led by Murray and the King Group, the project is also backed by her son Andy and former Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie,

Delos, the company that created the Well Building Standard™, has agreed to design, build and operate a newly-formed Well Living Lab with renowned US health provider Mayo Clinic Center. This will be a multidisciplinary lab focused on the interaction between health, wellness and the built environment. Delos’ Well Building Standard™ is a construction framework based on seven design categories including clean air, water and light. It includes elements such as

A hotel dedicated to cyclists has opened in Onomichi – a coastal city in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan – allowing guests to check in while still on their bikes. Masterminded by Suppose Design Office, this new hotel is the first of its kind in Japan. Constructed in a renovated warehouse along the Onomichi waterfront, ‘Hotel Cycle’ offers guests a five-star experience for their bikes, and a chance to relax and unwind

Nearly a year ago the UAE won the right to host the World Expo in Dubai in 2020, and now the master planners behind the original bid have been selected to design the host venue at the 438 acre (1.77sq km, 0.68sq m) Dubai Trade Centre-Jebel Ali. A consortium of HOK and Arup professionals has been merged to create the team behind the design of the 2020 host venue. The

Muf Architecture/art has won a competition to design a new interactive gallery for the Science Museum, London. From a shortlist of several renowned architectural firms, including David Kohn and Grimshaw, Muf has been chosen by the museum to design the £4m ($6.4m, €5m) new space. Due to open in 2016, the new gallery aims to build on the success of the current ‘Launchpad’ children’s gallery and create a larger, more

The Regina Hotel Baglioni in Rome, Italy, unveiled its Spa by Caschera on 1 September, designed by Milanese architects Rebosio+Spagnulo. The 118-key Regina Hotel Baglioni is one of the Baglioni Hotels Collection – owned by CEO Guido Polito – and is a member of Leading Hotels of the World consortium owned by Hotel Representative, AG. The Spa by Caschera will be managed by spa consultant and entrepreneur Paolo Caschera and

Colombia’s answer to Brazil’s Christ the Redeemer is nearing completion as Monumento Santisimo – the centrepiece of a new US$23m (€17.7m, £14.2m) eco-park in Floridablanca in the north of the country – starts to take shape. Slightly differentiating itself from the famous Brazilian statue built in the 1920s, Monumento Santisimo comprises a large statue of Jesus Christ with his left hand over his chest rather than outstretched. At around 40m

Frank Gehry’s designs dating back to 2003 for a $395m (£245m, €305m) performing arts venue at the World Trade Centre have been axed after the project's management made a u-turn on the plans. As part of Daniel Libeskind's masterplan for the World Trade Centre and Ground Zero site, Gehry’s performing arts centre has been the slowest to materialise. Now, more than a decade later, the board behind the centre have

The Opus Building, located in the Burj Khalifa district of Dubai, UAE, is to dedicate 250,000sq ft (23,225sq m) of space to a new ME Hotel, completely designed by internationally-renowned ‘starchitect’ Zaha Hadid. The entire complex is a mixed-use development and Meliá Hotels International is keen to expand its experience-based brand by placing a 100-bedroom hotel within The Opus Building itself, developed by real estate company Omniyat. Although no stranger

A US$300m (£183.3m, €231.7m) museum for the Oscars has come up against problems, with Los Angeles City Planning department expressing concern over potentially explosive gas pockets under the proposed site. The department has released a draft environmental impact report on the project, which highlights deposits of methane and hydrogen sulphide gas that could potentially harm construction workers and ultimately visitors. The planned Academy Museum of Motion Pictures – which will

As part of the London Design Festival 2014 (LDF), Zaha Hadid Architects will unveil a temporary installation in the John Madejski Garden at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). The structure, named Crest, will be stretched across the pool in the V&A gardens from the 13 to 21 September, the duration of the LDF. Made of thin aluminium, the form will explore the relationship between different elements, such as the

Plans for the new £25m (US$41.1m, €31.3m) St Michael's Spa & Wellness Resort in Falmouth, Cornwall, UK have taken a step further forward having been given unanimous approval by the Falmouth Town Council Planning Committee. Having met with the current St Michael’s owner and project developer Nigel Carpenter, the council has agreed on the plans on the basis that a layer of car parking and four eco lodges that were

Plans have been unveiled for the creation of two new cycle superhighways running from north to south and east to west London, with the £913m (US$1.5bn, €1.1bn) routes being dubbed 'Crossrail for bikes'. The plans come as London mayor Boris Johnson continues to push to make the capital into a safe and cyclist-friendly haven, much like what is offered by the European cities of Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam. Not only

Thomas Phifer and Partners (TPP) has been chosen, from a shortlist of eleven architectural practices, to design Warsaw’s new Museum of Modern Art and TR Warszawa Theatre, Poland. The New York-based practice has beaten other architectural heavy weights to the win the commission, including Foster + Partners and UNstudio. The new museum will be located in Warsaw’s Defilad Square, at the foot of the Palace of Culture and Science. TPP

A competition has been launched to find a landscape design team for the RAF Museum’s revamp. The attraction is undergoing a £23m renovation as it builds up to the centenary celebrations of the Royal Air Force in 2018. The winning team will help achieve the master plan designed by architecture firm Wilkinson Eyre in 2011. The four-phase renovation of the site in Hendon, London, is known as the Centenary Programme

Queens Park Rangers Football Club (QPR) is to launch a consultation on its plans to build a new 40,000-seat stadium on land at Old Oak in West London. As well as a new stadium, the plans include the regeneration hundreds of acres of brownfield land, opening the way for thousands of new homes and jobs to be delivered with easy access to the planned Crossrail/HS2 interchange. The English Premier League

Work has started on Copenhagen’s House of Culture and Movement (Ku.Be.) in Denmark, aimed at engaging the local population in a healthy and active lifestyle. Set to become a new major attraction in the Frederiksberg district, Ku.Be. will feature a range of facilities mixing the function of a community centre with exhibition and performance spaces, as well as a playground, park and health centre. Masterminded by ADEPT, a Danish architecture

The Welsh coastal region of Aberavon is to become home to a new multi-million pound leisure development with work well underway on the construction of Neath’s beachfront leisure centre. Led by developer Corban Investments and contractor Heron Bros, the projected is expected to cost £13.4m and will deliver a range of new leisure and community-focused facilities to the region’s Hollywood Park site. Expected to be completed in late 2015, the

Macedonia’s capital of Skopje is undergoing a major revamp, but some are calling the controversial makeover – intended to attract more tourists to the country – a “crime” against heritage and culture. Skopje, which became the capital of Macedonia in 1991 after the breakup of Yugoslavia, is trying to make a name for itself on the international stage, using eye-catching architecture to entice visitors from abroad. The €500m (US$656m, £395m)

A 60-day programme, conducted by Saudi Arabia’s National Urban Heritage Center (NUHC) and giving Saudi students comprehensive training in heritage renovation, has been completed by a class of graduates. The series of training programmes led by NUHC, an affiliate of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA), was undertaken by students of engineering and architecture from a number of Saudi universities, including King Abdul Aziz University, Al Qassim University

A prototype design for an attraction, conceived by Hong Kong’s OVA Studio, could recreate the world’s oceans, using projected imagery on LED screens to bring the Bahamas, Maldives, Great Barrier Reef and more to a uniquely designed swimming pool. The pool would be housed inside a glass dome and both pool and dome would be lined with LED screens. These would display live feeds from underwater cameras positioned in oceans

The well established British brand of London Dry Gin, Beefeater, has recently opened its new visitor centre and exhibition space in London. Following a competition held in 2008, Lee Boyd Architects and Four-by-Two design consultants made the winning bid to construct an extension that has tied two of the Beefeater sites’ original buildings together; creating a new point of entry and allowing visitors to move freely inside the distillery without

The Le Rosey school in Switzerland is set to open its new concert hall and centre for art and culture – designed by Bernard Tschumi Architects (BTA) – on the 2 October 2014. After a long construction process, the new venue, constructed by BTA and Swiss-based Fehlmann Architects, will cover 8,000sq m (26,246sq ft) and boasts a number of features. A rectangular auditorium sits under the circular steel dome, with