The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland (RIAS) will today officially launch its 2016 Festival of Architecture with Hinterland, a night-time public art event held in one of Scotland's most iconic modernist buildings. Leading public arts organisation NVA has designed the arts experience, which will see visitors walk through the ruined buildings of St Peter’s Seminary in Cardross while accompanied by monochromatic light installations and specially commissioned choral music by

US arts collective Section1 are transforming a vacant 3.5 acre site in the heart of Baltimore, Maryland into "the world’s largest urban art park." The ambition is to create the highest concentration of street art in the United States, alongside space for three live performance venues, an 18,000sq ft (1,600sq m) skate park and an acre of green space beneath the city’s Jones Falls Expressway. The site – which is

Innovative design can raise awareness of important social and environmental issues in an accessible, fun and persuasive way, according to the designers of VelO2 – an installation that illustrates air pollution through cycling and light. In an exclusive interview with CLAD, Matthias Gmachl, creative director of London based ‘spatial laboratory’ Loop.Ph, said: “If you have a fun, humorous and lighthearted way to introduce ideas, people are generally more open to

International architecture studio OMA have unveiled their plans to transform four former industrial warehouses into a new and dynamic cultural hub for Alserkal Avenue – Dubai’s most important art district. Located in the Al Qouz industrial area, the avenue, founded in 2007, is home to 25 contemporary art galleries and arts spaces which promote cultural initiatives in the region. OMA will address the need for a centrally located space to

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

The organisers of the Dubai Expo 2020 have revealed the three star practices who will design the main pavilions for the event, following a highly competitive international architecture competition. Foster + Partners, Grimshaw Architects and Bjarke Ingels Group have been named winners of the contest – which was held by real estate company Emaar Properties – and will design pavilions themed around mobility, sustainability and opportunity respectively. The studios overcame

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

James Corner Field Operations have designed a vast glacial installation for the National Building Museum in Washington, which will make visitors feel as though they are walking through an underwater world of ice fields. The urban design, landscape architecture and public realm practice – best-known for their acclaimed work on New York’s High Line – have designed the immersive installation for the museum’s returning Summer Block Party series, which will

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

Danish studio Henning Larsen Architects have been commissioned to create a special cultural pavilion in Rio de Janeiro to celebrate the 2016 Olympic Games. The public pavilion will be located on the world-famous Ipanema Beach with the statue of Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado Mountain providing a dramatic backdrop. The 300sq m (3,200sq ft) installation is intended to provide a destination for cultural exchange between Denmark and Brazil for the

The Seoul Metropolitan Government has invited architects, landscape architects and urban designers to propose designs for a new music-led cultural complex on an island on the Han River. An international architecture competition will be held to select a masterplan for ‘Nodeul Dream Island,’ which will host concerts, festivals, exhibitions and other cultural events. The island, which is currently covered in trees and farm land, is linked to the city either

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

Danish practice Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects have broken ground on an art gallery and clubhouse in southern China, built in the centre of a lake. The building, located in the mountainous district of Gao Yao to the west of China’s third-largest city, Guangzhou, will be a 3,160sq m pavilion for a new development of villas at the base of the mountain. The studio collaborated with a Feng Shui master to

Norwegian architects Snøhetta have today (4 March) launched a solar-powered light installation in Singapore to promote energy efficiency and environmental sustainability. The structure – called Lampshade – is a simple bamboo volume covered with photovoltaic (solar power) cells. It is is filled with intense light during the evenings using solar energy collected during the day. The installation is being displayed at i Light Marina Bay, Asia’s leading sustainable light art

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

The James Beard Foundation – which celebrates America's culinary heritage – has launched a ‘Design Icon Restaurant Award’, with the inaugural winner announced today (2 March) as the Four Seasons Restaurant in New York. The special award has been established to recognise restaurants in the US “that serve as national standard bearers of outstanding design and design innovation.” In order to qualify, a restaurant’s design must have remained unchanged for

The Wanda Group is to announce a multi-billion dollar investment into the currently under-development Europa City on the outskirts of Paris. The €3.1bn (US$3.5bn, £2.4bn) project – one of the largest ongoing leisure developments on the planet – is reportedly gaining investment from Wanda, China’s largest private property developer, and its owner Wang Jianlin. According to Variety, sources close to Wanda have said the company would confirm its role in

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

Citizens in Toronto, Canada have taken to the city’s wind-swept beaches to enjoy the 2016 Winter Stations art festival, which features seven creative architectural installations built around existing lifeguard stations. A special competition was held last year to choose the winning designs for the festival, with the only stipulation being that the structures had to be in some way interactive and able to inspire Torontonians to brace the chilly winter

Lanzarote’s Museo Atlantico, Europe’s first underwater art museum, is preparing to open 12 metres below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. Divers, snorkelers and visitors in glass-bottomed boats will be able to view crowds of motionless human figures sculpted by British artist Jason deCaires Taylor and carefully fixed to the ocean bed. Schools of fish weave through motionless figures, fixed in time, taking selfies, using tablets and phones and striding

Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter have completed a new home for the Romsdal Folk Museum in Molde, Norway which looks like a pine-clad castle from the pages of a Scandinavian fairytale. The 3,500sq m (36,600sq ft) museum building – which exhibits an extensive collection of Norwegian cultural artefacts and hosts concerts, workshops and lectures – has been officially opened by Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg. Molde is known for its ethereal pine

The first images have been revealed of the Serpentine Gallery’s 2016 pavilion programme, featuring four summer houses by international architects and a centrepiece created by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). BIG’s hotly-anticipated pavilion – the studio’s first UK structure – has been described as an “unzipped wall”. The structure – formed by a series of box-like fibreglass frames stacked in a brick-wall pattern – will host a Harrods-run cafe and events

Warsaw architecture studio Mateusz Tanski & Associates have won a design competition in Poland to build a stadium, sports and culture complex nestled in a quarry in the city of Jaworzno. The design is inspired by the rich geological landscape of the region. The complex will be formed of a 1,000-capacity athletics stadium designed to resemble a rock and six free-standing buildings evoking scattered boulders. The shape of the structures

Renderings have been released for a private Los Angeles arts club on Sunset Boulevard reportedly being developed by Gwyneth Paltrow. According to several media outlets in Hollywood, the Oscar-winning actor and lifestyle coach is backing the project with her business partner Gary Landesberg. The facility, which is being developed on the site of erotic boutique Hustler, will be an extension of The Arts Club in London – where Paltrow is