French architecture firm Moreau Kusunoki have been named winners of the Guggenheim Helsinki competition. The €126m (£100m, US$160.5m) museum - titled Lighthouse - would be built on the Helsinki waterfront overlooking South Harbor and formed of Japanese-style pavilions, with a striking lighthouse tower constructed from charred timber and glass. The building's angular pavilions and flared roofs would be connected by an interior street and served by a harbour promenade, while

Spanish architecture studio SelgasCano’s colourful Serpentine Pavilion in London’s Kensington Gardens is to open this week. It is the fifteenth incarnation of the pavilion commission, with different architects creating a temporary structure outside the Serpentine Gallery every year. The aim is to both celebrate innovative designs in contemporary architecture and provide a space for people to meet and experience live events. Led by husband-and-wife duo José Selgas and Lucía Cano,

A Miami parking garage will feature five unique facades designed by five different architects all to be incorporated into the same plan to turn the facility into an art piece in its own right. Miami Beach real estate developer Dacra has proposed that a team made up of architects Keenan/Riley, Work Architecture Company, Clavel Arquitectos, Nicolas Buffe, and Jürgen Mayer-Hermann – all under the supervision of Terry Riley of the

German firm GMP Architekten and Spanish architecture firm Nieto Sobejano have been selected to design Guangzhou Museum and Guangzhou Science Museum respectively as part of the Chinese city’s new cultural hub. GMP’s Guangzhou Museum will be located near to the distinctive Canton Tower. The design includes references to the Chigang Pagoda – a famous structure built in 1619 – which lies to the north of the museum near the Pearl

Architects Atelier Alter and Hordor Design Group have collaborated to create the new Qujing Culture Center in Yunnan, China. The museum will house some of China’s oldest and most precious artefacts, including a collection that dates back to the start of life on earth. The building has been designed to create an 'anti-gravity' feel – its huge structural parts are stepped out to mirror the stairs below and balanced on

Architects MVRDV have been chosen to create a new Cultural Cluster in Zaanstad city in the Netherlands, following a design competition. The Zaandstad Cultural Cluster is part of Dutch architect Sjoerd Soeters' urban plan designed to add local character to the inner city with a ‘new Zaan style’, drawing inspiration from traditional Dutch architecture. The 7,500sq m (80,729sq ft) Cultural Cluster will house local cultural institutions, each represented by a

A music library and performance venue in Seoul, South Korea – designed by Moongyu Choi of Ga.a Architects – has opened its doors, with a collection of more than 10,000 vinyls and 3,000 books available. With masterplanning by Choi and interior design by Gensler, the library is made up of large glass panels over two storeys. There is also a surrounding open-air space from which visitors can enjoy the sounds

The OMA-designed Garage Museum of Contemporary Art has launched in Moscow, Russia, with stars including George Lucas, Woody Allen, Miuccia Prada, Stella McCartney, Harvey Weinstein and Karlie Kloss on hand for the opening night. The building will house the gallery founded by Dasha Zhukova – wife of Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich – and becomes the capital city’s first post-Soviet and not-for-profit contemporary art space. Architect Rem Koolhaas and

Work is underway on a £12m (US$18.6m, €16.6m) extension for Tate St Ives in Cornwall, UK. Jamie Fobert Architects has designed a major expansion for the modern art museum which will double its gallery space. As well as 500sq m (5,382 sq ft) more gallery space, the new building will house a collection care suite, where larger works can be handled and looked after. The existing gallery, which opened in

A temporary installation at Vivid Sydney – an 18-day festival of light and music held in Sydney, Australia – has treated visitors to a feast of colour in the form of a three-dimensional dome-shaped kaleidoscope. Made up of more than 320 geometric shapes, the ‘Light Origami’ installation by Japanese artists Masakazu Shirane and Saya Miyazaki, constantly shifts and alters viewers’ spectrum of light projected within the luminous space. Using a

The Long Museum in Shanghai – designed by Atelier Deshaus – has been revealed in stunning new imagery by British architectural photographers Hufton+Crow. Deshaus’ design, which was shortlisted for The Designs of the Year 2015 awards architecture category, has been brought to life in the duo’s imagery. The museum is located next to the Huangpu River, Xuhui District, on a site that was formerly used for coal transportation and its

A new public park at London’s Battersea Power Station development will include industrial furniture in a nod to the site's past, as well as event lawns, festival spaces and terraced gardens running alongside the River Thames. Details of LDA Design’s 24,281sq m (261,360sq ft) park have now been revealed, with planning consent having been granted earlier this year. The architectural practice said its designs combined “industrial references, traditional park features

A beach made from a mishmash of construction materials and an ocean comprised of 750,000 recyclable plastic balls is being created in the heart of Washington, D.C. Brooklyn-based design studio Snarkitecture has created the 10,000sq ft (929sq m) interactive architectural exhibit – the BEACH – for the National Building Museum. It follows in the footsteps of a life-sized maze designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, which was installed in the museum’s

Glenn Howells Architects (GHA) is to design a new building for the English National Ballet in London as part of the development of London City Island. The English National Ballet School will take up residence in its new home in Q3 2018. It will be be located at the heart of the new creative quarter. Spanning 12 acres, the London City Island mixed-use development will include restaurants, shops, spaces for

It can only be reached by taking a speedboat over a coral reef and descending a dramatic three-tier staircase, and was originally opened in 2012 as the world's first underwater nightclub. Now Poole Associates has redesigned Subsix, the underwater venue located at the Per Aquum Niyama resort in the Maldives, to become a multi-functional creative space which can be “transformed into whatever guests imagine it to be”. Subsix is 6m

New York has seen ten ambitious new buildings from a range of top architecture firms spring up at the same time – with the public given free reign to add to, amend or otherwise improve on them. But there is a good reason for such apparent madness, as the buildings are made with Lego and are part of an art installation at the High Line in Manhattan, a public park

Qatar Museums has started its search for an architect to design a one million square foot art gallery in Doha, Qatar. The Art Mill International Design Competition will remodel the Qatar Flour Mills, using existing grain silos within the architecture to create one of the largest art galleries in the world. The site is around 83,500sq m (898,787sq ft) with extensive outside space integrated with the design, giving opportunities for

A Snøhetta-led team has been chosen to create a walkway giving public access to the second largest waterfall in the US. Toronto-based architects Dialog and Portland-based landscape studio Mayer/Reed complete the design team for the ‘Riverwalk’ portion of a revitalisation project at Willamette Falls, in Oregon City, Oregon. Riverwalk connects the city centre to the waterfall, which will be accessible to the public for the first time in 100 years.

Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa’s vision for Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales will be realised after SANAA architects were named winners of the contest to design the AU$450m (US$344m, €315.6m, £225.2m) revamp of the facility and surrounding area. As part of the expansion, the existing building will become “a global cultural landmark” amid plans to double the size of the 23,000sq m (247,500sq ft) gallery. SANAA’s design incorporates

Zaha Hadid has designed a new Middle East Centre for Oxford University. Hadid, who was born in Iraq, expressed hope that the new building would help the Middle East Centre to continue its work in helping to foster greater understanding of the region. Hadid designed the building to connect existing protected properties and trees and has stainless steel cladding to reflect natural light and give it an ephemeral quality. The

Architectural practice BIG has completed the second phase of a project at Gammel Hellerup High School, Copenhagen, Denmark – the old high school of founding partner Bjarke Ingels. The new addition, a 1,400sq m (15,069sq ft) arts and culture building, follows the completion of a multi-purpose sports hall in 2013, which paid homage to Ingels’ old maths teacher by using the mathematical formula for a ballistic arc – the flight path

Singapore-based architects ar + d are leading the design on a landmark luxury waterfront hotel in New Zealand, the flagship for a harbour-wide regeneration scheme. Architects ar + d have previously worked on Hyatt hotels in Kilimanjaro and Koh Samui. Specialists in the hospitality sector, Conran and Partners, will be creating the interior design and visitor experience, using the hotel’s harbour settings as inspiration. The hotel will look out on

Ball-Nogues Studio has created an experimental installation for the Coachella festival using a unique production process and reclaimed paper. The Los Angeles-based design and fabrication practice said the installation, Pulp Pavilion, served as a bold and colourful canopy space and respite from the sun. Performances on two stages at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, held annually in the California desert, could also be viewed. The studio’s production process

A pair of architecture graduates have teamed up with Airbnb to create one of the more pleasant objects likely to be found floating on London’s River Thames – a buoyant guest house. Twins Nick and Steve Tidball – who graduated from London’s Bartlett School of Architecture and now work as creative directors in advertising – have paired up with the accommodation giant to create a city crash pad described as

The winner of the 2015 Mies van der Rohe Award has been announced as Barozzi / Veiga’s extraordinary, glowing concert venue, the Philharmonic Hall in Szczecin, Poland. The building scooped the €60,000 Prize for Contemporary Architecture from a shortlist of five projects, taking the award, which is given every two years in recognition of outstanding European architecture. Although Barcelona-based Fabrizio Barozzi and Alberto Veiga were inspired by the neo-Gothic spires

Three architecture students have been selected to build pavilions at this year’s Burning Man festival, having received art grants. Supported by Ramboll and Format Engineers, the trio’s installations are set to be constructed at the annual arts festival being held at the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, US, between 30 August and 7 September. The designs adhere to the event’s 2015 theme, ‘Carnival of Mirrors’. The students are part of

Foster + Partners have won a competition to mastermind a creative community and cultural epicentre aimed at attracting visitors and local artists to create a 'Middle-Eastern Shoreditch' in Dubai Design District (d3). The development plans outline a 1,000,000sq ft (92,903sq m) Creative Community to provide affordable space for emerging local designers and artists to establish themselves, and for art galleries and studios to exhibit their work to visitors. Foster +