A distinctive amber-coloured music venue, envisioned as a new landmark for Latvia, has opened in the medieval port city of Liepaja. The Great Amber Concert Hall features a glowing facade, which illuminates a distinctive reddish hue when night falls. The asymmetrical design by Austrian architect Volker Giencke was commissioned following an international competition in 2003. The concert hall is intended to provide a fresh cultural and social focal point for

A boutique hotel spread across a maze of waterside houses in Amsterdam’s famous canal district is embarking on an expansive renovation programme. Interior designer Jacu Strauss is leading the revamp of the Pulitzer Amsterdam hotel’s twenty-five 17th Century canal buildings. Rooms are being stripped back to emphasise their historical features, with vintage furniture brought in to complement newly-introduced contemporary stylings. Four themed suites – dedicated to books, music, art and

One of the creative minds behind London’s Millennium Dome and the Pompidou Centre in Paris, has declared Renzo Piano’s forthcoming national opera house and library in Athens to be “a work of pure genius.” In an upcoming interview with CLADmag, Mike Davies – a founding partner at Rogers Stirk Harbour – is quick to praise the Stavros Niarchos Cultural Centre, which is nearing completion. “It's more than a building,” said

Experience designers Bompas & Parr have partnered with composers, perfumers and academics to transform the top of The Shard in London into “the most romantic place in the world.” The studio – best-known for its contemporary food design, culinary research and creation of flavour-based experiences – will operate the ‘Height of Winter’ experience from 23 November until the end of January 2016. According to the company, “super-scaled crystals, gem-studded snow

London-based architecture studio PHASE3 have developed a digital 3D masterplan for ‘The Life Above’ – a Croatian leisure development stretching along the Adriatic coast. The company’s director, Tyen Masten, revealed to CLAD that the latest 3D technology has been used to map out a 3.59sq km (1.38sq miles) complex of high-end hotels, villas, spas, restaurants, retail and entertainment facilities in Dubrovnik. In an exclusive interview, he said: “The use of

Plans are afoot to transform a swathe of industrial West London wasteland into a huge new cultural city where “people will aspire to live, work and play.” Exciting details have emerged about the 30-year development scheme for Old Oak and Park Royal Common; conceived as the UK’s largest regeneration project with around 1.35sq km (0.52sq miles) of available space. CLAD understands that museums, theatre companies, sports and leisure firms will

A new green space in Valencia will fill the the heart of the city with more than 55 acres of plants, trees and flowers. Construction has finally begun on Valencia Parque Central – designed by international landscape architects Gustafson Porter – four years after the approved plans were originally made public. Gustafson Porter beat off competition from a host of international practices, including Zaha Hadid Architects and Rogers Stirk Harbour

Brazil’s minister for tourism has said that the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro will act as a springboard for the country’s cultural attractions, cementing the Games’ legacy through improved infrastructure and tourist links in the years to come. Following its selection as Games host in 2009, Brazil has come under scrutiny in its preparations for the games, amid slashed budgets cleanliness issues and slow development. Despite

On the back of successful events in Sydney, Berlin and Lyon, London is to welcome a new international light festival at the start of next year. From 14-17 January, Lumiere London will showcase renowned artists from across the world, with the event expected to draw thousands of visitors to the UK capital. Taking place across 20 iconic locations in London’s West End and King’s Cross areas, Lumiere London will be

Art collector and luxury retailer Tony Salamé has opened his own private museum – the Aishti Foundation – in a new mall on the Mediterranean, twenty minutes from downtown Beirut. The dramatic terracotta-red building, by British architect David Adjaye, cost an eye-watering US$100m (€90.7m, £64.8m) and contains a spa, restaurants, cafes, luxury boutiques, a curated bookshop and a rooftop bar with panoramic views of the Lebanese capital. It covers 40,000sq

One of the top architecture prizes at the 2015 Milan Expo has been awarded to the Hive; the UK pavilion created by artist Wolfgang Buttress, engineers Simmonds Studio and architects BDP. The team received the BIE Gold Award for Architecture and Landscape on the final day of the six-month international exhibition. Since opening in May, more than 3.3 million people have been to see the 14 cubic metre (459 cubic

Ground has been broken on construction of a luminous green and blue amphitheatre, called the Chrysalis, in the US state of Maryland. The New York-based art and architecture studio Marc Fornes/Theverymany created the design for the semi-transparent, Gaudi-inspired shell, which will host live cultural performances in Merriweather Park’s Symphony Woods. Explaining the dramatic colour scheme, the architects said: “Colours are taken from the environment and pushed to a level of

An Australian architectural duo have won a competition to design the Casablanca Bombing Rooms – a cultural space promoting peace on the site of a devastating terrorist attack. Rachel Hurst and William Song Yuan’s design features a large black tower, which represents a beacon of learning, acceptance, knowledge and growth towards peace. On 16 May 2003, 33 civilians were killed in a series of suicide bombings in the Moroccan city.

Despite the best effort of green space advocates in the city of Chicago, George Lucas’s legacy project will go ahead after the legendary director’s Museum of Narrative Art was approved by the city council. The project has come up against strong opposition from Friends of the Parks – the nonprofit group who tried to sue Lucas in an attempt to halt development on the Chicago waterfront – but in September,

A planned garden installation in a Chinese sculpture park will let visitors wander the grounds over, under and around huge stacks of flowers. The Chinese architects behind the design, Studio Pei-Zhu, plan to build their garden around an abandoned two-storey concrete frame in a bid to “attach new content and meaning to ordinary worthless things.” The structure – in Quanzhou National Art Park in the province of Fujian – is

A Colorado, US, hotel which inspired Stephen King's The Shining has announced plans to open a horror-themed museum at the establishment, with some of the biggest names in horror backing the ambitious US$24m (€21.7m, £15.7m) project. Led by Denver-based design firm MOA Architecture, the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park will be home to the 43,000sq ft (4,000sq m) interactive museum, which will also feature a horror film archive and a

Moscow’s radical urban regeneration programme has taken another step forward following the announcement that Sergey Skuratov Architects have been selected to design a large leisure and residential complex opposite the Kremlin. Describing the site of the project in the capital’s Sofiyskaya Embankment, Skuratov said: “It’s a wasteland overgrown with weeds, forgotten by residents, concealed from the glances of passers-by and completely separated from the city life still flowing around it.

Next Architects have opened a new bridge that doubles as a habitat for local bats in a Dutch town called Monster, part of a green regeneration to bring nature to the waterway. As well as allowing locals to cross the meandering Vlotwaterling River, the 25m (82ft) concrete and wooden structure is also fitted with grooves on its underside that act as an ideal roosting place for the bats. The company’s

The New York architects working to create the Lowline – the world's first underground park – have launched a scaled down version of the project as a test bed. The Lowline Lab, launched this week by RAAD Studio, will act as a research laboratory, enabling the team to explore which plants grow in the darkened conditions. The experiment has been funded through the Kickstarter crowd funding platform. When complete, the

SITE Santa Fe, one of the most respected contemporary arts venues in the US, will undergo a radical expansion overseen by New York firm SHoP Architects. The museum – which runs year-round exhibitions, artistic residencies and educational programmes to foster avant-garde art – has occupied a former warehouse in the Santa Fe Railyard since its opening in 1995. SHoP’s planned renovation and expansion will dramatically increase SITE’s size. The studio’s

An expert in the field of architecture and heritage has said that Microsoft’s HoloLens will play a huge part in the future of the sector. Speaking at CyArk’s annual summit, Adrian Ferrier – who heads up product development in visual intelligence solutions for California-based mapping company Trimble Navigation – envisioned an exciting future. He said when applied to the world of architecture, engineering and construction, the HoloLens device can extend

Japanese architecture practice Kengo Kuma & Associates has revealed radical designs for the new Museum of Indigenous Knowledge, to be built in Manila in the Philippines. The museum will cover 4,000 years of history, enabling visitors to experience the cultural and religious heritage of the islands’ indigenous peoples, starting from the Neolithic age. The design has turned traditional museum architecture on its head by creating a jungle-inspired building inside an

The Musée de l'Homme (Museum of Mankind) has reopened in Paris after undergoing a €90m (US$103m, £66.9m) interior redevelopment. The relaunch comes six years after the institution closed and almost ceased to be amid uncertainty about its future under former President Jacques Chirac. The new design by Bordeaux-based Brochet-Lajus-Pueyo, in conjunction with architectural studio Emmanuel Nebout, takes note of the original design, retaining certain elements while increasing entry of natural

The Foster + Partners-designed hotel at the heart of London’s £8bn (US$10bn, €8.8bn) redevelopment of Battersea Power Station will feature a dramatic rooftop swimming pool with views of the London skyline. The Battersea Power Station Development Company (BPSDC) has revealed more information about the highly-anticipated 160-room project, including the fact that the PPHE Hotel Group has agreed to operate the hotel under its art’otel brand when it opens in early

Three high-profile projects designed by architecture studio Caruso St John have opened in the space of just two weeks. Two private art galleries designed by the firm have opened their doors in London; Damien Hirst’s £25m (US$38.2m, €33m) Newport Street Gallery and Larry Gagosian’s third – the largest gallery in the capital. Work has also been completed on a large-scale refurbishment of the 1939 Grade II-listed Liverpool Philharmonic Hall. The

The Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) has been commissioned to convert a historic Moscow power station into a brand new venue exhibiting contemporary Russian arts and culture. The firm - which has recently completed work on the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York - will create the new art space for the V-A-C Foundation on a two hectare plot in the Russian capital’s Red October district. The project

The Frank Gehry-designed Fondation Louis Vuitton has been awarded the prize for ‘Best Architecture & Spatial Design’ at the 2015 Leading Culture Destinations Awards in London. The 126,000sq ft (11,705sq m) museum, which houses Vuitton’s private collection, has become a popular Paris attraction since opening in October 2014. The €100m (US$132m, £80m) building won the prize for Gehry’s famous ‘glass cloud’ design. The ceremony, which took place on 9 October