David Chipperfield Architects have been invited to participate in the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale with a contribution on their museum project in the ruined ancient city of Naqa in Sudan. The festival, curated by Alejandro Aravena, will be themed Reporting from the Front and will focus on the myriad of challenges facing architects around the world. Naqa contains the ruins of a former trading city that once belonged to the

The Imperial War Museum (IWM) in Duxford, UK, is about to relaunch its American Air Museum following a five-year redevelopment project, switching the focus of exhibits from the aircraft on display to a collection of extraordinary people linked with those machines. Reopening to the public on 19 March, IWM’s newly-transformed American Air Museum has undergone a £3m (US$4.2m, €3.8m) redevelopment, with financial support provided by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF)

Mexico’s University of Guadalajara has broken ground on its new MX$1bn (US$55.9m, €50.4m, £39.6m) Museo de Ciencias Ambientales (MCA), a national institution exploring the future sustainability of the region and its relationship with the metropolitan city of Guadalajara. Designed by Snøhetta, with interior design on six galleries by MET Studio, the 20,000sq m (215,000sq ft) museum will sit at the heart of a cultural district next to the main University

New York’s contemporary art museum the Albright-Knox Art Gallery has announced its intention to launch an US$80m (€72m, £55.8m) expansion of its Elmwood Avenue campus, with five high-flying studios in the running to design the project. Allied Works Architecture, Bjarke Ingels Group, OMA, Snøhetta and wHY have all been shortlisted for the tender, with the final selection due in June 2016 and the design phase set to take place in

Indonesia’s first major museum dedicated to international modern and contemporary art will open its doors in Jakarta in 2017. The brainchild of Indonesian philanthropist and collector Haryanto Adikoesoemo, the multi-million dollar Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (MACAN) is currently under construction. The private institution will house Adikoesoemo’s personal collection built over a quarter-of-a-century, which is being curated by Thomas J. Berghuis – formerly curator of Chinese art

Hauser Wirth and Schimmel – a new Los Angeles arts centre located in a converted flour mill – held its grand opening ceremony yesterday (13 March) with the launch of its inaugural exhibition. Architect Annabelle Selldorf and local studio Creative Space have retrofitted seven interconnected late 19th and early 20th century buildings in the city’s arts district. The result is a 100,000sq ft (9,300sq m) complex featuring galleries, a bar,

A new art museum, dedicated to the art of the people of British Columbia, is about to open its doors in Whistler, Canada. Opening on 12 March, the CA$30m (US$22.6m, €20.5m, £15.9m) Audain Art Museum, designed by Vancouver-based design firm Patkau Architects, sits within a grove of trees and is designed to blend in with its surroundings, with only a single tree having to be removed to build it. Nestled

Construction has begun on a museum and events centre designed by architects Coop Himmelb(l)au for Austrian bread company Backaldrin. The Haus des Brotes (The House of Bread) will be a shimmering, sculptural creation located at the company’s headquarters in Asten, northern Austria. The building – formed of a concrete rectangular base supporting a wooden and steel-clad structure – will contain a customer information centre, events rooms and a two-storey ‘cabinet

A new book devoted to the art of theme park design is to launch on 28 March 2016. Theme Park Design & The Art of Themed Entertainment, aimed at designers, students and theme park fans, brings together a wealth of tips and advice from design experts from Disney, Universal and Merlin’s creative studios, as well as many more. The book promises to be a comprehensive study of experience design in

New images have been released of the ambitious Olympicopolis cultural development planned for London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. A selection of renderings and models show the scheme’s main leisure institutions located on Stratford Waterfront, including a new V&A museum, a Smithsonian gallery and a 600-capacity theatre and hip hop academy. Olympicopolis – which is a legacy project inspired by the successful London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games – has been

The construction of the Museum of the Second World War – described by its director as “one of the biggest cultural investments being undertaken in Europe” – is on course to open in early 2017 in Gdansk, Poland. Building on the project, which has been designed by Polish practice Studio Architektoniczne Kwadrat, began in 2012 and is now entering its final stages. The museum will seek to explore the course

Jean Nouvel’s long-running bid to renovate and expand Geneva’s Museum of Art and History has received what appears to be a fatal blow after his plans were narrowly rejected in a public vote. Despite receiving planning approval and funding, the 131m CHF (US$129m, €120m, £93.4m) project to refresh Marc Camoletti’s 1910 neoclassical landmark faced a local referendum after criticism from campaigners. According to Swiss reports, 54 per cent of voters

The Chicago Shakespeare Theater is expanding its footprint on the city’s iconic Navy Pier, with US$35m (€32.2m, £24.9m) being used to develop a flexible third stage capable of being adapted based on the performance. With audience capacity ranging from 150 to 850 in an enclosed space beneath the domed Skyline Stage area, the theatre, known as The Yard at Shakespeare, will have the capability to project images onto the underside

Design Museum Dharavi - a portable museum in one of the world’s largest slums – has opened in Mumbai, India with exhibitions on terracotta pottery and cricket. Spanish artist Jorge Mañes Rubio and art critic Amanda Pinatih have launched the project for an initial two month run to host workshops, exhibitions and cultural events showcasing the skills of local artists and designers in Dharavi – home to more than 1m

The new Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT), designed by British architecture firm AL_A, is entering the final phases of construction along Lisbon’s waterfront. Designed as a new landmark for the city and Portugal, the museum will cross the disciplines of art, architecture and technology with a cultural programme masterminded by Pedro Gadanho, the former curator of architecture and design exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New

FIFA’s World Football Museum will launch this weekend in Zurich as a "playful, emotional voyage of discovery for world football,” the project's managing director has told CLAD. Speaking in an exclusive interview, Stefan Jost said that there is a "positive buzz and a lot of anticipation" around the project, which is part of a larger CHF150m (US$151.1m, €137.7m, £108.6m) development which also includes luxury apartments, a restaurant, a sports bar,

More than 8,000 artefacts of Inuit origin will soon go on display at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in Canada as part of a CA$60m (US$43.7m, €39.4m, £30.5m) project to create an Inuit Art Centre. With more than 13,000 pieces, including 7,400 sculptures, 4,000 prints, 1,800 drawings and hundreds of artefacts, The Winnipeg Art Gallery’s Inuit collection is the largest in the world and represents half of its overall collection. The

The owner of a US$40m (€36m, £28m) luxury house, famous for its role in 1998 comedy The Big Lebowski, is to donate the property to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) with the intention of turning it into a museum and example of creativity within architecture. James Goldstein, who owns the Sheats Goldstein residence in the Hollywood hills, has pledged the building to LACMA, along with its gardens,

A medical-themed restaurant designed by Damien Hirst will open at London’s Newport Street Gallery next week (23 February). Hirst has collaborated with chef and restaurateur Mark Hix to open Pharmacy 2, which will serve British and European dishes to visitors at the Vauxhall gallery – which was designed by architects Caruso St John and opened in October 2015 to house Hirst’s personal art collection. The restaurant features Hirst’s own artistic

Norway’s famous network of architecture tourist routes is set to get a new viewpoint attraction in June – a concrete triangle slab balanced on a dramatic mountainside. Designed by Norwegian architects Code, the Utsikten (the View) is being built on the Gaularfjell National Tourist Route (NTR). The NTR project began in 1994, combining the 18 most spectacular roads in Norway with modern architecture attractions designed to complement the scenery, such

Designs are being sought for a large-scale cultural landmark celebrating the Indian film industry in Mumbai. Competition organiser Archasm is embarking on a mission to “put Bollywood on the global map” by organising a design contest for a “vertical Film City tower” which will emulate Los Angeles’ film industry neighbourhood and the iconic Hollywood sign. “The film industry in Mumbai is scattered and too low profile to match the cult

Japanese digital art collective teamLab have partnered with Silicon Valley gallery Pace Art + Technology to create a large-scale interactive art exhibition described as a “digital playground for all ages”. The exhibition, called Living Digital Space and Future Parks, features 20 innovative art pieces spread across several rooms and 20,000sq ft (1,850sq m) in the Californian gallery. The show encourages participants to embrace their curiosity by interacting directly with the

After three years of work, the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar, France has re-opened to the public, with a new subterranean gallery space created by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron. The museum – which exhibits historic works of art from the likes of Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso – has almost doubled its interior space by linking the museum with an adjacent complex of historical buildings, including a 13th century

The Art Institute of Chicago is giving visitors to the US city the chance to step directly into the world of Vincent Van Gogh. To celebrate an upcoming exhibition on the Dutch post-impressionist, the institute has recreated a human-scale model of Van Gogh’s bedroom from his famous French ‘Yellow House’, and is renting it to guests via room listing website Airbnb. Van Gogh was so taken by his room –

Pingtan Art Museum, a spectacular floating cultural island designed by Beijing-based innovators MAD Architects, has entered the construction phase in China’s Fujian province. Pingtan is the largest island in the region and has been designated by the government as a primary location for cultural and tourism development. The museum has been in development since 2011 and will be the cultural centrepiece of the zone. It will float in waters just

Edmonton’s Telus World of Science in Canada has unveiled proposals for a CA$40m (US$28.6m, €25.3m, £19.8m) redevelopment to transform the ageing facility. The ice-inspired concepts by Dialog Design will turn the facility itself into a science lesson. Dialog’s design pools precipitation from the roof, using it to feed wildlife around the building, demonstrating how the freeze-thaw cycle works. In the colder months, water will come from the roof to form

A turbulent bid to build a world-class science museum in Miami is back on track after two principal donors stepped in to provide crucial funding to the cash-stricken project. The US$307m (€283.5m, £214.1m) Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science is entering the final construction phase, but a US$45m (€41.5m, £31.3m) funding shortfall emerged last month due to higher-than-expected construction costs and a failure to finance donor pledges. However, the