The government of Dubai has announced plans for the development of a vast 'space simulation development' in Dubai called Mars Science City, as part of Dubai's Mars 2117 Strategy, which seeks to build the first settlement on Mars in the next 100 years. The AED 500 million-scheme, extending over 1.9m sq ft, will simulate conditions on the surface of the red planet, with heat and radiation insulation and walls which

Lego fans from around the world will soon be descending on the small Danish town of Billund to a new museum and experience centre dubbed the ‘House of the Brick’. Bjarke Ingels Group have created the 12,000sq m (129,000sq ft) Lego House as a vibrant three-dimensional village of interlocking buildings and spaces, with the structure designed to look like a giant stack of Lego blocks topped by a giant 2x4

San Francisco’s Asian Art Museum has unveiled a US$90m (€76.6m, £67.2m) plan to transform the institution, a project supported by the largest financial gift in the museum’s history – a US$25m (€21.3m, £18.7m) donation from Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang. Los Angeles-based architecture firm wHY are behind the plans, which the museum says will create new interpretive approaches in its galleries, affirming the local relevance and global impact of Asian art.

A new museum celebrating the art of graffiti has opened its doors in Berlin, Germany. The Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art (UN Museum), which opened on Bülowstrasse, was developed to document and promote street art and graffiti for the first time. A portrait of a man sculpted out of the wall of the museum by the Portuguese artist Vhils, colourful figures by Berlin-based artist Mimi S, and paintings

Heatherwick Studio and SPPARC Architects have been announced as the lead design team who will comprehensively revamp London’s historic Olympia exhibition centre. The owners of the 130-year-old building, Yoo Capital and Deutsche Finance, want to transform the site into a “world-leading arts, entertainment, exhibition and experiential district whilst staying true to its original heritage as an exhibition business.” Olympia London, located in Kensington, was designed by architect Henry Edward Coe

Officials in the city of Chicago are exploring a proposed plan to transform a network of underground tunnels into a tourist attraction, granting a non-profit permission to create more detailed plans for the project. Running beneath the city’s central business district, the Pedway connects more than 50 buildings and offers a convenient way to navigate downtown Chicago, but has been criticised for being difficult to navigate. The non-profit Environmental Law

The government of South Australia is commissioning an international search for a design team to create a second site for the state’s acclaimed art gallery. The project, called the Adelaide Contemporary, will form a new public and cultural space in the city, with the brief calling for an “architectural landmark on the celebrated North Terrace boulevard adjacent to the historic Botanic Garden.” It will house a community meeting place "integrating

Plans to develop a second zoo in Sydney, Australia, have been given the go-ahead after local government officials granted planning permission to the AU$36m (US$28.8m, €24m, £21.3m) “cage free” project in Bungarribee. First touted in September 2015, the proposal for the Western Sydney Parklands – masterplanned by Australian design firm Misho + Associates (M+A) in conjunction with landscape architecture from Aspect Studios – will create natural-looking spaces developed to showcase

Dubai has revealed its legacy plans following the 2020 World Expo, announcing plans to turn the site into a multi-use urban leisure district following the six-month event’s conclusion. More than 80 per cent of the HOK-Arup masterplanned expo site will be reused after the international event closes, with a new community-led development called District 2020 repurposing the site under the government’s legacy scheme. Anchored by 65,000sq m (700,000sq ft) of

Real Madrid football club has announced plans to create an interactive football experience centre as part of a major development in Zhuhai, China. Business conglomerate the Lai Sun Group is behind the development – an integrated tourism and entertainment project called Novotown – which will, in its second phase, feature the world-first Real Madrid experience. Utilising advanced technologies, entertainment elements and football, visitors will be able to experience a number

Heatherwick Studio’s latest completed building, the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) has been unveiled today (15 September) ahead of its public opening next week on Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront. The museum – the largest in the world dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora – is housed in 9,500sq m (102,000sq ft) of custom-designed space, carved out of the city’s monumental historic Grain Silo Complex

Foster + Partners’ plans to reinvigorate the famous Snowdon Aviary at ZSL London Zoo have received planning approval from Westminster Council. The Grade II listed structure, designed by Cedric Price with Frank Newby and Lord Snowdon in 1962, was the first aviary in Britain that gave visitors a ‘walk-through’ experience, bringing them closer to the birds in their natural habitat. The attraction was recently added to Historic England’s Risk Register

British exhibition designers Casson Mann will team up with Parisian architects Atelier Philéas to create a new Centre of Franco British Relations in Ouistreham, France. Located on Sword Beach, facing the English channel, the attraction will explore and celebrate the shared social history and culture of the two countries, and the influence each has had and continues to have on the other. The design team were chosen ahead of 132

The future of the Expo 2020 site after the international event closes in April 2021 will be revealed next week, with a “reputational, social, physical and economic” legacy plan. The development proposals will be unveiled during the annual Middle East real estate exhibition, Cityscape Global, which takes place 11-13 September at the Dubai World Trade Centre. It will be the first time the vision for the project has been made

The long-delayed and even longer-awaited Louvre Abu Dhabi has finally been given its launch date, with the Jean Nouvel-designed cultural institution opening to the public on 11 November. A string of setbacks dating back by more than decade have delayed the AED4.3bn (US$1.2bn, €1bn, £914m) project, which anchors the under-development Saadiyat Cultural District – where one day the Zayed National Museum designed by Foster and Partners and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi

Architect Frank Gehry has been commissioned to develop the design for a model railway museum in Massachusetts, which will feature miniature work from a host of the world’s leading designers. According to The Boston Globe newspaper, Gehry visited the city of North Adams last week to visit the site earmarked for the 83,000sq ft (7,700sq m) Extreme Model Railroad and Contemporary Architecture Museum. Architecture practice Gluckman Tang had been developing

The city council of Australia’s Gold Coast has fast-tracked the building a AU$60.5m (US$48.1m, €40.3m) art gallery to add to its fast-developing cultural precinct. Designed by ARM Architecture, the colourful, twisting gallery is expected to be built to the south of the city’s Evandale Lake. The building will feature up to five floors of exhibits and halls and a rooftop bar. According to the Gold Coast Bulletin, work is likely

Luxury goods giant LVMH have announced a €60m (US$71.4m, £55m) plan to turn Paris’s 19th-century leisure park, the Jardin d‘Acclimatation into one of France’s top three theme parks. Work to restore the historic sections of the park and to build 17 new attractions - much of which will be themed around the steampunk genre - will begin on September 4 and is expected to last until May 2018. The park

Chinese architecture practice Studio Zhu-Pei have completed work on a ‘hovering’ garden installation in a Chinese sculpture park, which allows visitors to wander the grounds over, under and around huge stacks of plants and flowers. New images of the project, called Yi Garden II, reveal how an abandoned two-storey concrete frame has been used as the foundation for a seemingly gravity-defying arrangement of greenery in the grounds of Quanzhou National

A major modern art museum will open its doors in Jakarta, Indonesia, on 4 November. The opening is set to coincide with the Jakarta Biennale and Museum MACAN will stage a variety of events to engage the city and promote its burgeoning art sector. The passion project of Indonesian philanthropist and collector Haryanto Adikoesoemo, the multi-million dollar Museum MACAN – which stands for Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara –

Edmonton’s Telus World of Science in Canada is about to enter the next phase of its CA$40m (US$31.9m, €26.7m, £24.7m) Aurora Project – the year-long construction of a new planetarium theatre with higher screen resolution than any other planetarium in the world. The renamed Zeidler Dome Theatre, formerly the Margaret Zeidler Star Theatre planetarium, will include a projector and screens capable of 10K resolution, more than double that currently on

Billionaire Hui Ka Yan – majority owner of property developer China Evergrande Group – has announced plans to build 15 theme parks across China as the market continues to boom in the region. Branded Children's World, the Evergrande theme parks will be built across second-tier cities in China and focus on Chinese and Western mythology. Each park will target 15 million annual visitors and generate revenues of US$3bn (€2.5m, £2.3bn)

The Buffalo State College in New York State, US, is about to enter the third phase of a US$35.5m expansion to its Science and Mathematics Complex (SAMC), with the plans to include a new planetarium open to members of the general public. Once complete, the Whitworth Ferguson Planetarium will include a 35ft (10.6m) diameter projection dome with state-of-the-art digital and analogue projectors and seating for 48 people. The planetarium itself

Weta Workshop – the special effects and prop company behind such epics as The Lord of the Rings and Avatar – have thrown their weight behind a NZ$45m (US$32.5m, €27.5m, £25.3m) redevelopment of the Napier National Aquarium in New Zealand. Napier City Council (NCC) has announced the plans, which will see the aquarium on Marine Parade expanded from 3,400sq m (36,600sq ft) by almost three times to 11,100sq m (120,000sq

New construction images have been revealed showing a typically sculptural Frank Gehry-designed tower rising in Arles, southern France. The twisting, mountain-like building will be the new home of LUMA Arles, an experimental contemporary art centre where artists, researchers, and creators collaborate on multidisciplinary exhibitions and projects. Facilities will include studios, workshops, galleries, a café and restaurant, and a large glass atrium open to the general public. When complete, the tower

Rosewood Hotels & Resorts’ first resort in China has officially opened on Hainan Bay, set within 40 acres of landscaped gardens overlooking the South China Sea. Rosewood Sanya, which welcomed its first guests yesterday (21 August), features 246 guestrooms, 25 of which have balcony plunge pools; a Rosewood Sense spa; a health club; an indoor yoga studio and an outdoor yoga pavilion; five restaurants and lounges; and a 110m long

British conservation charity the National Trust has announced a shortlist of six architects in the running to rebuild Surrey’s Clandon Park: a historic Palladian mansion that was gutted by a fire in 2015. An international design competition, organised by Malcolm Reading Consultants, was launched in March 2017 to find a multi-discipline team to restore the 18th century Grade I listed building. Sixty groups submitted designs for the re-imagined building, which