Ian Simpson Architects has been selected as the winner of an international Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) design competition for a new complex for the National Wildflower Centre (NWC) in Knowsley, Liverpool. The company is working with engineers Adams Kara Taylor and Hoare Lee on the project, which will see the construction of a new building incorporating education, conference and seed production facilities. Consultant Cyrial Sweett also supported the

Plans for the construction of a new book storage facility near Swindon, Wiltshire, have been unveiled by Oxford University as part of a new modernisation scheme at the Bodleian Library. The university has already acquired a 15-acre (6.1-hectare) site at South Marston on the outskirts of the Wiltshire town for the new high-density facility, which will house eight million volumes of low-demand items. It is expected that work on the

SMG Europe is to take over the management of the Whitley Bay Playhouse theatre after North Tyneside Council (NTC) approved plans to enter into an operating agreement with the company. It is hoped that the deal will secure the future of the venue, which has been closed since August 2007, although will reopen in the autumn following an extensive £8m refurbishment programme. The revamp of the Playhouse theatre has included

Plans for the £180m transformation of a historic market in Canning Town, east London, have been given the green light by the London Thames Gateway Development Corporation (LTGDC). The 680,000sq ft (63,174sq m) regeneration of Rathbone Market will be one of the first projects as part of a wider redevelopment masterplan for the Canning Town area, incorporating a new market square and 49,000sq ft (4,552sq m) of retail space and

Blackpool Council has announced that it has signed a deal with Muse Developments for a £220m mixed-use scheme that is set to transform the famous Lancashire seaside resort. The Talbot Gateway development agreement is centred on a 10-hectare (24.7-acre) site around Blackpool North railway station and Talbot Road, and is designed to create a new business district in the town. Plans include a new pedestrianised square, a supermarket, hotels, shops,

Italy's newest art gallery, Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (MAXXI) in Rome, is set for a 2009 launch. Zaha Hadid Architects have designed the museum to be reminiscent of an ‘urban campus’, a building that goes beyond interior spaces to include the entire city. The project includes two museums – MAXXI art and MAXXI architecture – which will revolve around a full-height grand hall that connects with a

Work is set to get underway on a new £21m pavilion at Headingley Carnegie Cricket Ground in Leeds after Yorkshire County Cricket Club (YCCC) and Leeds Metropolitan University (LMU) signed-off the scheme. BAM Construction has been appointed to build the new 4,000sq m (43,056sq ft) facility, which has been designed by architect Will Alsop to comply with the England and Wales Cricket Board's (ECB) requirements for Test match venues. Plans

The historic Govanhill Baths in Glasgow may be transformed into a £12.5m Wellbeing Centre, following its closure by the council in 2001 owing to its deteriorating condition. Since its initiation in 2004, Govanhill Baths Community Trust has campaigned Glasgow City Council for permission to refurbish the B-listed Edwardian building into a cohesive leisure and community hub to help improve the lives of those living in the surrounding socially disadvantaged area.

The redevelopment of Westminster Lodge Leisure Centre and the construction of a new facility in London Colney, Hertfordshire, are now underway following the appointment of a design team. Developer Drivers Jonas has selected S&P Architects, landscape architects CBA and consultants Strategic Leisure to move the project forward. Stephen Jepson, a partner in Drivers Jonas’s specialist DJ Sport team, said: “We are delighted to have won this commission. We put a

The Peter Perkin's Swimming Pool at the Fitzalan High School has opened following a £300,000 revamp. Work on the pool facility, which is open to both pupils and the general public, included the refurbishment of the 20m pool and the transformation of a disused classroom into a fitness suite and multi-gym facility. The new fitness suite has been fitted with a selection of CV stations – including treadmills, cross trainers

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has announced that it is to open a new 192-bedroom property in Edinburgh, Scotland, after signing an agreement with developer Tiger Developments. The 17-storey hotel will form part of the developer's plans for the £250m transformation of the city's Haymarket area, which has been called in by the government despite being given the green light by the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) in June 2008. BDL,

Genr8 Developments has been selected from a shortlist of three companies to lead the regeneration of the 1.2 million sq ft (111,484sq m) Central Business District in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. International urban designers Gehl Architects and RHWL were appointed by Genr8 to draw up plans for the scheme, which includes 60,000sq ft (5,574sq m) of leisure and retail space, 250 hotel bedrooms and 230,000sq ft (21,368sq m) of public space. The

Demolition work has got underway at the Old Trafford cricket ground in Manchester in preparation for the first stage of Lancashire County Cricket Club's (LCCC) £200m redevelopment of the venue. The initial phase of the project, which has been designed by BDP Architects, includes the creation of a new £12m glass-fronted conference and events facility overlooking the cricket pitch, which will be able to cater for up to 1,000 people.

An appeal has been launched by the Nant Gwrtheyrn Trust (NGT) to raise a further £200,000 in order to complete a six-phase restoration scheme at the former quarrying village in Gwynedd, North Wales. The village, which is located on the northern coast of the Llŷn Peninsula, near Pwllheli, is home to a Welsh language and heritage centre, and includes an education centre, accommodation and conference facilities. Funding worth £3.5m has

Plans for the multi-million pound redevelopment of the Rodney Parade rugby stadium in Newport, South Wales, have been given the go-ahead by Newport City Council (NCC). A new 15,000-capacity stadium is at the heart of the three-stage scheme, which will be home to both Newport Gwent Dragons rugby team and Newport Rugby Football Club (NRFC). S & P Architects are behind the designs for the development, which also incorporates new

Designs for a new 300,000sq m (3,229 sq ft) mixed-use sports complex in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, have been unveiled as part of the country's preparations for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The state-funded development, designed by UK-based Wilkinson Eyre Architects, will be used as a training facility and reserve site for the Olympics and will include five Olympic ski jumps encased in a 125m-high structure with spectator grandstands. There will

The Dreamland Trust is to unveil its plans to establish the world's first heritage amusement park in Margate, Kent, on the site of the former Dreamland Amusement Park. Levitt Bernstein Architects, together with Paris-based theme park designer Jean-Marc Toussaint, is behind designs for the proposed £12m attraction, which will be built around the Grade II-listed scenic railway, one of the oldest rollercoasters in Britain. The trust, which administers the Save

North Somerset Council (NSC) has approved plans for two new visitor attractions to be established in Weston-super-Mare, which it said will contribute towards the transformation of the town's seafront. Plans for the redevelopment of the 104-year-old Grand Pier, which was severely damaged by fire in July last year, were given the green light by the council's West Area committee, as were proposals for a new 40m (131ft) observation wheel. A

The refurbishment of the Liverpool's Grade II-listed Royal Court Theatre has been allocated an architect following a public display of seven shortlisted designs. London-based Allford Hall Monaghan Morris' (AHMM) £10m proposal for the 71-year-old building was chosen and includes an enlarged entrance space for the 1,250-seat theatre – a 20-year-old rock music venue – with a digital screen and rooftop restaurant and bar. The middle two floors will also be organised

A historic World War II codebreaking centre at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire is set to undergo vital repair work after Milton Keynes Council (MKC) agreed to match a funding pledge by English Heritage. When English Heritage announced in November that it was investing £330,000 to fund repairs to the Grade II-listed mansion's roof, it also pledged a further £100,000 a year over a three-year period starting in April providing match-funding

The newly-renamed four-star Radisson Edwardian Bloomsbury Street Hotel has undergone a £25m transformation, with new interiors designed by in-house team Amrit Singh and Michael Attenborough. The 174-room hotel boasts a new seventh floor, and a new meeting and events suite with seven spaces, including the 300-capacity Folio room and HD technology with built-in Blu-Ray and touch screen controls. Bloomsbury’s literary past inspired the hotel’s new reception area, which features whole

The architectural firm in charge of redesigning National Wildflower Centre in Knowsley, near Liverpool, has been selected by environmental charity Landlife. Ian Simpson Architects won the international open competition along with Adams Kara Yatlor Engineers and Hoare Lea Engineers to create a new educational attraction around wildflower gardens. The competition was funded with a £100,000 grant from the Northwest Regional Development Agency. The attraction, which originally opened in 2001, is

London mayor Boris Johnson has unveiled plans for the major refurbishment of some of the capital's public spaces in a bid to make London a more attractive place to live, work and visit. The Great Spaces initiative will target spaces that currently offer poor access or that are unwelcoming and unattractive, including lesser known streets, squares, parks and riverside walks. London boroughs can submit projects at any stage of the

The Tower Theatre Company (TTC) has unveiled plans to build a new theatre on a site confirmed by Museum of London Archaeology as being the location of London's first purpose-built playhouse. An excavation of the site in Shoreditch, which is currently occupied by a disused warehouse, has uncovered what is believed to be the inner wall of The Theatre, a polygonal theatre built by James Burbage in 1576. Trustees of

Construction work on a new building to house Belfast’s ageing Lyric Theatre is now underway. The £18m new build — designed by architects O’Donnell & Tuomey — will be constructed at a new location in order to provide a theatre almost four times the size of the original 1968 site. The Lyric’s new home will comprise a 394-seat main auditorium, a 150-seat studio theatre, a rehearsal room, riverfront foyers and

The Scottish Government has been called upon to help provide funding for the creation of a new landmark building on Dundee's waterfront that could house a proposed Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum. Kevin Keenan, chair of the Dundee Waterfront Board (DWB), wants to see an iconic 'anchor' building developed as part of the wider regeneration of the city's waterfront, in order to capture the public's imagination and to act as

A new three-year strategy outlining a number of proposals for the transformation of Carlisle has been given the green light by the city council. The Carlisle Renaissance Action Plan 2009-12 was formally approved by Carlisle City Council (CCC) on 3 March, and has now received the support of all the partners involved with the scheme. Cumbria County Council, the Northwest Regional Development Agency and Cumbria Vision have already backed the