The City of London’s planning committee has green lit architect Eric Parry’s design for the district’s tallest tower. With a gross estimated area of 30,000sq m (323,000sq ft) and a height of 309.94m (1,016ft) above ordnance datum, the tower, called 1 Undershaft, will overtake Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners’ Leadenhall Building as the tallest building in the City. A new public square and 2,000sq m (21,500sq ft) retail court will

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

Ennead Architects have broken ground on the Shanghai Planetarium for the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum (SSTM) in the city’s Lingang district. The international competition-winning design draws inspiration from astronomical principles, invoking the experience of orbital motion. Visitors will be guided through each of the building’s three principal forms – the Oculus, the Inverted Dome and the Sphere – that act as astronomical instruments, tracking the sun, moon and stars

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

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

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

Global architecture firm Foster + Partners have been appointed to redevelop London Zoo’s famous Snowdon Aviary. The Grade II* listed structure, designed by Cedric Price with Frank Newby and Lord Snowdon in 1962, was recently added to Historic England’s Risk Register for structures in danger of falling into disrepair due to the high expense of necessary repairs compared with the likely end value. The aviary was the first in Britain

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

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

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

Five years on from its inception, Southend Council is searching for an architect to develop a £49m (US$59.6m, €54m) museum to house the Saxon King’s relics, launching a £1.3m (US$1.6m, €1.44m) bid to find a suitable candidate for the UK project. First touted in 2011, the council is searching for an architect-led design team to create a museum to display the golden relics discovered in the unknown Saxon King’s burial

The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force (RAF) will celebrate its centenary in 2018 by renovating the RAF Museum in London into “a world-class visitor facility.” Nex–Architecture and Agence Ter Landscape Architects have been commissioned to revamp the historic site, which sits on the edge of the former Hendon Aerodrome in the city’s Colindale area. The airfield was one of the first in the country and was instrumental during the Battle

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

Architecture studio WilkinsonEyre have been selected to develop a brand new railway museum in Leicester, UK, after a period of public consultation. The new museum is a partnership between Great Central Railway, Leicester City Council and the York’s National Railway Museum. Located next to the historic railway terminus at Leicester North station, it will house significant locomotives and carriages from the UK’s national collection. Six candidates were in the running

Swiss studios Herzog & de Meuron and Vogt Landscape Architects have won the keenly-contested design competition for the Museum of the 20th Century in Berlin. Over 40 firms – including Sou Fujimoto, Zaha Hadid Architects, David Chipperfield, OMA, Snøhetta and SANAA – were invited to submit their proposals for the site, which will be located within the city’s cultural forum complex. The €200m (US$218.8m, £179.4m) museum will house a number

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

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.

Architecture practice Perkins + Will is leading development for Detroit’s recently announced US$50m (€45.6m, £40.6m) Motown Museum – a 50,000sq ft (4,650sq m) tourist destination dedicated to the music genre. The museum announced on Monday (17 October) a capital campaign to add 40,000sq ft (3,700sq m) to the existing 10,000sq ft (929sq m) space. Planned improvements include new interactive exhibits, a theatre, recording studios and an enlarged museum store. When

Olympic stadiums and facilities should be protected with their own cultural heritage listing, a leading member of the International Association for Sport and Leisure Facilities (IAKS) has argued. Speaking at the Olympic Museum’s new stadium design exhibition in Lausanne, Dr Miranda Kiuri, who is also an architect and researcher at the University of Liege, called on UNESCO to introduce a new listing category for stadiums that have a strong cultural,

The chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, India, has inaugurated a new museum dedicated to socialist political leader Jayaprakash Narayan. Shri Akhilesh Yadav declared the JN Interpretation Centre, also known as the Museum of Socialism, open on 11 October – 114 years on from the birth of Narayan, who fought for independence and social reform in India. Designed by architecture studios Archohm and Design Factory India, and constructed by the Lucknow

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