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

After suffering a number of delays, work on the AU$50m (US$39.6m, €33.7m, £30.7m) Cairns Aquarium is in the final stages, with 12 September being touted as the visitor attraction's official opening date. The three-storey, 10,000sq m (107,600sq ft) development will be home to more than 5,000 animals endemic to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and Queensland's far north. This will be Australia's first new public aquarium to be built in 17

Yayoi Kusama – the Japanese artist famed for her use of repetitive patterns and bold colours – has announced the opening of her own art museum, in Tokyo, Japan. The five-storey museum building, designed by architecture firm Kume Sekkei, has already been erected in the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, but the purpose of the structure had been kept under wraps. Two of the storeys will be devoted to exhibiting Kusama’s

Swiss artist Felice Varini and the Chilean architecture practice Pezo von Ellrichshausen have been commissioned to design an ambitious temporary outdoor structure in the historic heart of Hull, UK. The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and Hull UK City of Culture 2017 have commissioned the duo as part of the Hull 2017 'Look Up' programme of public art installations intended to bring new life to public spaces across the

The performing arts centre under construction at the heart of the World Trade Center campus in New York will be one of the most innovative of its kind ever built, the project’s lead architect has told CLADglobal. Speaking in an exclusive interview, Joshua Prince-Ramus said that the Ronald O. Perelman Performing Arts Center would become "a really extraordinary tool for the creation of new art,” adding that his firm Rex

Architecture practice Atelier Global have won an international design competition to design Shenzhen Book City; a vast mixed-use leisure district in the Chinese metropolis. Anchoring the Long Hua arts district, the six-storey building will feature a library, bars and restaurants, shops and rooftop sports facilities. Cultural spaces on all four sides will integrate with the building and flow into a large area of public realm in the atrium. Landscaped terraces

Stalled plans to develop America’s largest observation wheel have been given a lifeline after New York Wheel's developer announced negotiations with a new contractor to take over the beleaguered project. Originally scheduled for early 2017, the 630ft (192m) high development was pushed back to mid- and then late 2017, with the US$580m (€503m, £442m) wheel then delayed until April 2018 thanks to a “complicated engineering process”. The project was then

The Garden Bridge Trust, the charity established to build and run the proposed Garden Bridge in central London, has today (14 August) announced that it will be finally winding up the project. The decision, which brings an end to one of the city’s most protracted development sagas, has been made with the Trust unable to find alternative funding for the scheme, following the decision by London mayor Sadiq Khan in

London mayor Sadiq Khan wants the UK capital to become the world’s first “National Park City”, laying out £9m (US$11.6m, €9.9m) plans to boost the number of trees and green infrastructure within the city. Called the Greener City Fund, the mayor has said he will use planning regulations to protect the Green Belt and incorporate into new developments more green roofs, green walls, rain gardens and wildlife habitats. The fund

Danish studio AART Architects have won an international design competition to create a new visitor centre for one of Norway's largest open-air museums. In the 1800's, Bergen was the largest wooden city in Europe, with timber houses forming the setting for vibrant streets and squares. This historic urban environment is celebrated at the Gamle Bergen Museum (the Old Bergen Museum), which organised the competition to identify a design for its

The world’s longest pedestrian suspension bridge has opened in the Swiss Alps, offering brave trekkers a shortcut across one of the region’s most dramatic valleys. The 494m long Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge, which is 86m above the ground at its highest point, stretches between the towns of Grächen and Zermatt along the Europaweg foot trail, with the peaks of the Matterhorn in the distance. Swiss engineers Lauber Seilbahnen and Swissrope

The Centre Pompidou will establish a branch within Shanghai’s forthcoming West Bund Art Museum, designed by British architect David Chipperfield. The state-owned West Bund Group, which is developing the city’s Xuhui Waterfront, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Centre Pompidou to initiate a renewable cultural cooperation project between France and China from 2019-2024. More than 20 exhibitions and events will take place at the Centre Pompidou Shanghai (West

An international design team led by US architects wHY have won the international competition to design the £25m Ross Pavilion and West Princes Street Gardens project in Edinburgh. The Ross Development Trust together with the City of Edinburgh Council are replacing a bandstand on the site, which has fallen into disrepair, with a new visitor centre, café and flexible platform for cultural programming. The surrounding landscape is also being improved.

Marty Sklar – the legendary Disney Imagineer and IAAPA Hall of Famer who played a part in the creation of almost every Disney theme park – has died aged 83. A 54-year career in which he started out in 1955 as a writer of The Disneyland News for the then newly-opened Disneyland, Sklar went on to work closely with Walt Disney and was referred to as the “keeper of the

Northumberland’s long-awaited Landscape Discovery Centre and Youth Hostel at Hadrian’s Wall – known as “The Sill” – will open to the public this weekend (29 July) after more than three years of development for the British heritage attraction. Designed by Newcastle-based architects Jane Darbyshire and David Kendall (JDDK), the £14.8m (US$19.4m, €16.6m) project was given the go-ahead in October 2014, with the public opening to take place during National Parks’