A stylish new science museum and business centre has opened in Japan’s industrial Komatsu city as part of a regional regeneration programme which will boost tourism and trade. Science Hills Komatsu is built on a 14,428sq m (155,300sq ft) site of a disused mining equipment factory once operated by the multinational manufacturing corporation Komatsu Limited and now owned by the city’s government. The design of the museum, by Mari Ito

The new wing of the Contemporary Art Museum Gösta Serlachius in Finland, designed by Spanish architectural firm MX_SI, has been opened after three years of planning and development. MX_SI won a competition back in 2011 to design and build the extension for the visitor attraction in Mänttä, which is now a fully functioning part of the museum, playing host to the new entrance, foyer, restaurant, conservation facilities and a shop.

The ‘Rom’ in Hornchurch, East London, has been given Grade II listed status by English Heritage and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Opened in 1978, the Rom, named after a nearby river, is one of the finest surviving examples of early skatepark designs in the UK. The decision to protect the park follows the publication of a new book by sports historian Simon Inglis called Played in London

The AU$450m (US$394.4m, £246m, €312.2m) revamp of the Sydney Modern art gallery in New South Wales, Australia has taken a step forward after its director announced 12 highly acclaimed architecture firms as potential designers for the project. In January the former Art Gallery of New South Wales will know which high-profile architect has been entrusted with its future when an expert panel will select five of the visions to take

Multiple images for each of the 1,715 entries for the Guggenheim coming to Helsinki, Finland, have been released by the upcoming museum, with a huge number of anonymous stage-one entries showcased. The €126m (£100m, US$160.5m) waterfront project is officially the most popular architectural contest in history, attracting more entries than the contest for the Grand Egyptian Museum in Giza, which was won by Heneghan Peng from 1,557 submissions. Competition organiser

New plans have been released for the London-based Geffrye Museum’s £15m (US$24m, €18.9m) transformation, which will create new spaces for the museum’s collections and library. The plans by architecture firm Wright & Wright include a gallery, café and conference facilities, as well as a rejuvenation of the current public spaces. The plans will create around 40 per cent additional space within the 18th century Grade I listed museum’s walls, by

St Fagans National History Museum – Wales’ most popular heritage attraction – has named Kier Group as lead-developer for a £25m (US$40m, €31.5m) renovation of the site. With funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and the Welsh government, the Cardiff museum has started on the makeover, which will include both new build and refurbishment work. A new £16m (US$25.8m, €20.2m) sustainable building, designed by lead architecture practice Purcell, will

From 2016, London’s Design Museum will be offering free entry to permanent exhibitions following its move to a new site in Kensington. Chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, visited the Museum’s new site on 17 October and announced plans to support opening the doors for free under the VAT refund scheme for museums and galleries. The Design Museum will join more than 50 other museums across the UK capital opening

The first major museum to be built in Morocco since it gained independence from France in 1956 has opened in Rabat. Showcasing modern and contemporary works by Moroccan artists, the Musée Mohammed VI d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) – now partnered with the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC and the Louvre in Paris – had been under construction for a decade following a

Haworth Tompkins’ Everyman Theatre has beaten the likes of the London Aquatic Centre and the Shard to be crowned this year's RIBA Stirling Prize winner. The London-based practice had to fight off stiff competition from other illustrious firms and their projects including Zaha Hadid’s aforementioned Aquatic Centre and Renzo Piano’s Shard, as well as Mecanoo’s Library of Birmingham, O’Donnell + Tuomey's Saw Swee Hock and Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios' Manchester

Zaha Hadid Architects has revealed plans for a new museum, school, library and centre for the research of genocide in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. The project is the architecture firm's first project in Cambodia and its first ever wooden construction. The centre will be a place for the Sleuk Rith Institute to compile, analyse and preserve information related to the Khmer Rouge era of genocide – which saw an estimated death

After 11 years of campaigning, Margate's community can finally believe the fight to save Dreamland is won. The historic seaside attraction has been closed for 10 years and fallen into a derelict state. But Dreamland, in Kent, UK, has announced today it expects to reopen its doors by summer 2015. Thanks to the relentless Save Dreamland campaign, the site has survived everything from arson attacks to the threat of being

In the pipeline since 1999, Panama’s Biomuseo has finally opened to the public. Designed by famous architect Frank Gehry, the museum aims to celebrate the history of Central America's isthmus as one of the world's most diverse ecosystems. Situated near the mouth of the Panama Canal, the impressive structure houses eight galleries with 4,000sq m (43,055 sq ft) of exhibition space. These eight galleries are fully interactive, immersing visitors in

America’s Alcatraz - one of the world’s most notorious prisons and now a top tourist attraction - is to play host to an art and sculpture exhibition by dissident artist Ai Weiwei. Opening to the public on the 27 September, seven new installations by Ai Weiwei, a Chinese activist and artist, will be on display throughout Alcatraz prison. The multimedia exhibition, named @Large, aims to explore human rights and freedom

Since opening in May 2014, the emotive 9/11 Memorial Museum, NYC, has seen more than one million visitors walk through its doors. Designed by David Brody Bond Architects in conjunction with Snøhetta, the 9/11 Memorial Museum provides a space for telling the story of the 9/11 attacks and their repercussions. And the tasteful approach to the difficult subject matter has seen the attraction more than fulfill visitor number expectations. With

Hadrian’s Wall’s 1960s-era visitor centre will bow out to make way for a brand new facility after plans got the go-ahead from authorities. The English border village of Once Brewed, which serves the stream of hardy walkers who tackle the 117.5km (73 mile) trek across the historic wall, will be home to an £11.2m ($17.9m, €14.3m) development. The Sill National Landscape Discovery Centre, imagined by Newcastle-based architects Jane Darbyshire and

South Korean capital Seoul has become home to a new progressive art museum following the opening of the Arario Museum in Space attraction, located inside the city’s famed Space building overlooking Changgyeong Palace. The Space site was originally designed by pioneering South Korean architect Kim Swoo-geun and was previously home to the architect’s Space Group firm. The launch of the new museum comes as art collector and founder of Arario

Up to 34 Transport for London (TfL)-owned “ghost” train tunnels running beneath the UK capital could soon be transformed into an array of attractions and leisure sites, according to reports. It is understood that TfL is preparing to invite companies to bid to take part in the transformation of several disused Underground and Overground Stations, as well as old horse tunnels that run below the city. Ajit Chambers, a former

Following a lengthy competition process ending in 2013, French architect Jean Nouvel and the Beijing Institute of Architectural Design (BIAD) have begun work on the greatly-anticipated National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) in Beijing. Located in Beijing's Olympic Park – a legacy from the 2008 Games – the NAMOC will occupy 130,000sq m (1,399,308sq ft) of space as part of a new cultural district in the park itself, near to

The Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science (formerly known as the Miami Science Museum), which is nearing the halfway stage of moving to a new US$275m (€212m, £168.5m) facility in downtown Miami, has received a donation of US$5m (€3.9m, £3.1m) to fund health and wellness programmes when the new facility launches in 2016. To be located inside the new science museum, the Baptist Health People & Science Gallery will

The Japanese architect, Shigeru Ban has won an international competition to design and build the new Tainan Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan. Pritzker Prize-winner Ban has designed several well known museums, the most recent being the Aspen Art Museum, USA. The Tainan Museum of Fine Arts project aims to promote the development of Taiwan’s emerging cultural significance by recognising its arts and heritage. The new museum will have a particular

The evolution of London’s Science Museum is now well underway, with several ‘starchitects’ being named to design its new galleries, while a new exhibition space is now set to open on 25 October. Universal Design Studio’s Communication Gallery The impending gallery, designed by Universal Design Studio, is the first in the UK to be entirely dedicated to the history of information and communication technologies. Boasting 2,000sq m (21,528sq ft) of

Following a six month nationwide competition, four multidisciplinary architecture and design teams have been chosen to reveal their design concepts for Washington D.C's first elevated park. The four finalists are as follows: Balmori Associates / Cooper, Robertson & Partners, OLIN / OMA, Stoss Landscape Urbanism / Höweler + Yoon Architecture and Wallace Roberts & Todd (WRT) / NEXT Architects / Magnusson Klemencic Associates. The 11th Street Bridge Park Competition, has

A development group led by tennis coach Judy Murray, mother of star Andy Murray, has been dealt a blow after a prominent member of Stirling Council’s planning office said that it could not support plans for the creation of the Park of Keir sporting hub in Scotland. Led by Murray and the King Group, the project is also backed by her son Andy and former Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie,

Muf Architecture/art has won a competition to design a new interactive gallery for the Science Museum, London. From a shortlist of several renowned architectural firms, including David Kohn and Grimshaw, Muf has been chosen by the museum to design the £4m ($6.4m, €5m) new space. Due to open in 2016, the new gallery aims to build on the success of the current ‘Launchpad’ children’s gallery and create a larger, more

A US$300m (£183.3m, €231.7m) museum for the Oscars has come up against problems, with Los Angeles City Planning department expressing concern over potentially explosive gas pockets under the proposed site. The department has released a draft environmental impact report on the project, which highlights deposits of methane and hydrogen sulphide gas that could potentially harm construction workers and ultimately visitors. The planned Academy Museum of Motion Pictures – which will

As part of the London Design Festival 2014 (LDF), Zaha Hadid Architects will unveil a temporary installation in the John Madejski Garden at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A). The structure, named Crest, will be stretched across the pool in the V&A gardens from the 13 to 21 September, the duration of the LDF. Made of thin aluminium, the form will explore the relationship between different elements, such as the