Meliá Hotels has opened Meliá Koh Samui, a beachfront resort and spa in Thailand designed by PIA Interior that pays homage to Samui's island heritage with suites constructed from old merchant vessels. Meliá opened the resort in partnership with Thai holding company Asset World Corporation as part of a plan to build three properties in the country. Located on Choeng Mon Beach, it accommodates 159 rooms and 41 suites, with

The world's largest cricket stadium, designed by Populous, has been inaugurated in India. The Motera Stadium, officially the Sardar Patel Stadium, located in the western state of Gujarat in the city of Ahmedabad, was constructed over the course of three years at a cost of $100m (€89m, £77m). Andrew James, lead architect and senior principal at Populous, said: “Cricket is the biggest sport in India and this stadium has been

Spa management group Groupe SKYSPA has opened an expansive thermal spa in Quebec, Canada, that will be designed by Blouin Tardiff and will offer bathing experiences from around the world. Surrounded by forest, the 60,000sq m (646,000sq ft), CA$12m (US$9m, €8.3m, £7m) Förena Cité Thermale includes three thermotherapy circuits individually themed on Russian, Icelandic and German bathing traditions, along with three pavilions, outdoor bathing facilities and a restaurant. "The idea

Residences at the Waldorf Astoria New York have been made available to buy for the first time as part of renovation work on the famous Art Deco building that is being led by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). The Waldorf Astoria was originally designed by Schultze and Weaver and was the largest and tallest hotel in the world when it opened on Park Avenue in 1931. Described as "a beacon

The historic Terminal Warehouse, in the West Chelsea area of New York, is being transformed by COOKFOX Architects into a mixed-use destination with retail units, hospitality outlets, open spaces and offices. Originally designed by architect George Mallory and built in 1891, the 1.2 million sq ft (111,000sq m) warehouse occupies an entire city block in Manhattan. With good access to the water, rail and road transportation networks, it became a

Perkins and Will have broken ground on Destination Crenshaw, a 1.3mi (2.1km)-long outdoor art, culture and museum area celebrating Black Los Angeles (LA). Running along Crenshaw Boulevard, Destination Crenshaw was conceived to celebrate the energy and accomplishments of Black LA, to document and preserve its 200 years plus of history, to seed a "community-driven, counterbalancing force against gentrification" and to drive economic security and opportunities for local residents. The project,

Wellbeing developer Therme Group has been given to the go-ahead to build a £250m ($325m, €287m) wellbeing resort in Manchester, UK, aimed at addressing the need for physical and mental wellbeing for all. Expected to open in 2023, Therme Manchester will cover an area of 28ac (11ha), with a 65,000sq m (700,000sq ft) main building that will house wellbeing facilities, a waterpark and botanical gardens. It will be designed by

Residents have started moving into C.F. Møller Architects ' recently completed Tall Timber Building, which at 8.5 storeys high is said to be the tallest timber building in Sweden. C.F. Møller Architects have been focusing on timber construction in recent years due to the CO2 savings that they can deliver. Not only does the production of timber produce a limited amount of emissions, but carbon is also retained within the

Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara have been named the 47th and 48th laureates of the Pritzker Prize – the first female pair to be so and the first two recipients from Ireland. Farrell and McNamara set up their Dublin-based practice Grafton Architects in 1978 and are described as creating "modern and impactful works that never repeat or imitate, but are decidedly of their own architectural voice." "What we try to

Pendulum have won an award for their conceptual design of a modular stadium complex that is intended to provide a platform for economic development in growing communities. The Future Stadia design won the 'Sports and Recreation Project (Concept)' category of the annual Rethinking the Future awards, which are aimed at identifying and promoting "outstanding work in the field of architecture and design across the world." Pendulum's design proposes an initial

Fox Browne Creative have created a treehouse-like overnight retreat for the &Beyond Ngala Private Game Reserve in South Africa that will give guests the chance to sleep under the stars in the Kruger National Park. The Ngala Tree House is to be offered in addition to two existing lodges that &Beyond has at the reserve and can accommodate up to two adults and two children aged between 10 and 16.

Six Senses has confirmed its desert resort and spa in the Arava Valley, Israel, designed by Plesner Architects, will open in June after ten years of design and planning. Located in the Negev Desert, Six Senses Shaharut will be a modern reinterpretation of nomadic structures, reminiscent of the Nabataean community which occupied the area over 2,000 years ago. The resort’s design preserves the unique characteristics of the site, integrating with

Digital art group Vertigo have created a new audio-visual installation that reacts to the movement of viewers and passersby, animating a public square with flashing LEDs. The artwork. called Echelon, is located at the foot of London’s Centre Point building and was curated by cultural placemaking agency Futurecity for Almacantar, a development company that is rejuvenating the brutalist building. It takes the form of a 12m (39ft) equilateral triangle of

Wutopia Lab have transformed a former church in China into a 388sq m (4,176sq ft) poetry bookstore by installing a large freestanding steel frame that provides shelving and creates a space within a space. The St. Nicholas Church in Shanghai was built in 1932 and has variously been used as an office, a factory, a warehouse, a canteen, a residential space, a club and a restaurant. Its historic status meant

As part of the renovation of the Seattle Center Arena, Rockwell Group have unveiled new renderings showing a number of the interior spaces it is creating with a distinctly premium look. Designed in 1962 by architect Paul Thiry as the Washington State Pavilion for the World’s Fair, the 750,000sq ft (70,000sq m) venue ultimately became used for ice hockey and events. It is currently undergoing redevelopment by Populous "to re-position

Margot Krasojević has created a conceptual design for a hydroelectric power plant that uses the electricity it generates to power nearby homes as well as an art gallery housed within. Much of Krasojević's work focuses on combining architectural typologies as potential solutions for new challenges in our "perpetually changing environment", like her Harmonic Turbine Tidal Hotel. The Hydroelectric Sculpture Gallery concept redefines what a power plant and a gallery can

Herzog & de Meuron are creating a roadside chapel in Andeer, Switzerland, that will provide a quiet and peaceful place for people to stop, rest and marvel among the surrounding mountains, rivers, meadows and forests. In designing 515 Autobahnkirche, the studio was conscious that are a number of others chapels in the area, many of which are centuries old and are, as they describe, "architectural and art historical gems", whether

Arii Irie Architects have created a 69sq m (743sq ft) gym in Tokyo, Japan, with a transparent PVC partition that creates two distinct areas, without giving the sense of having reduced the already limited space. Cell Tokyo is so-called for its focus on conditioning from the cellular level, with the gym offering nutritional counselling, hydrogen gas inhalation and blood sampling equipment in addition to conventional physical training. Like a cell

FUGU Hospitality has installed a nine-bubble village of accommodation at the Alpin D’Hôme hotel in the Alps resort of Les Orres, France, providing a cosy, low-impact and close-to-nature place for guests to stay. FUGU was established in 2011 to provide bubble structures for events and launched its FUGU Hospitality subsidiary last year to rollout bubbles designed for habitation. Among the potential uses it suggests are home or hotel living spaces,

A new mixed-use development designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) will feature two metallic towers linked by a nine-storey habitable bridge. Located in the Acton area of London, 4 Portal Way is being developed by Aldau Development, which is replacing an existing hotel that it owns on the site. It will rise to 123m (404ft) at its highest level, with its two towers rising to 45 and 55 storeys and

Hotel group General Hotel Management (GHM) has revealed details of The Chedi Kudavillingili, its first resort in the Maldives, which will open later this year. The mixed-use resort development, which is part of a global expansion plan by GHM, will be located on a coral island and will have a Maldivian aesthetic to its architecture by Group X and interiors by URBNarc. It will feature 63 island-based villas and 36

Tilke Engineers and Formula 1 ’s Motorsports Division have completed the construction of the Hanoi Circuit track, which will host the first ever F1 race in Vietnam and the third round of the 2020 championship on the weekend of 3-5 April. Formula 1’s newest circuit is 5.6km (3.5mi)-long and will see drivers negotiate 23 turns on their way around it, reaching a top speed of 335km/h (208mph). It is said

The recently opened, Klai Juba Wald -designed Guitar Hotel at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino has a new string to itself following the launch of a new J-Lo-themed music and light show on its LED façade. The Hollywood hotel opened in October 2019 as part of a $1.5b (€1.4b, £1.2b) expansion of the Seminole resort and is claimed – probably not unreasonable – to be the world’s first

The historic Bradbury Building in Downtown Los Angeles has launched as a NeueHouse co-working destination with a focus on hospitality, socialising and wellness following a DesignAgency transformation. The 25,000sq ft (2,300sq m) building was originally designed by architect Sumner Hunt and was constructed in 1893. In adapting the space, DesignAgency retained many of its original features, like the wrought iron latticework staircases, birdcage elevators, oak-framed windows, wooden panelling, exposed ceiling

New photos have been released of Zaha Hadid Architects ' recently completed One Thousand Museum residential tower in Miami, which boasts 30,000sq ft (2,800sq m) of amenities and a helipad. The faintly curved tower rises 709ft (216m) and 62 storeys, with an exoskeleton that holds a glazed façade and expansive terraces in place. “The design expresses a fluidity that is both structural and architectural,” said Chris Lepine, project director at

Two winners have been chosen in this year's City of Dreams Pavilion Competition, with one constructed from air-filled materials and the other with an inverted pyramid that is a comment on environmental instability. The City of Dreams Pavilion Competition is run by FIGMENT, the Emerging New York Architects Committee of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter and the Structural Engineers Association of New York. It is based on

Henning Larsen have revealed plans to transform a city block in Brussels, Belgium, into a mixed-use destination that will integrate living, working and green spaces. The Brouck’R project is being delivered with local architects a2rc, developers Immobel Group and BPI Real Estate. The Brouck’R project, due to break ground in 2021 and be completed in 2024, is being delivered with local architects a2rc, developers Immobel Group and BPI Real Estate.