A 60-day programme, conducted by Saudi Arabia’s National Urban Heritage Center (NUHC) and giving Saudi students comprehensive training in heritage renovation, has been completed by a class of graduates. The series of training programmes led by NUHC, an affiliate of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA), was undertaken by students of engineering and architecture from a number of Saudi universities, including King Abdul Aziz University, Al Qassim University

Louis Vuitton’s museum project, designed by Frank Ghery of architecture firm Ghery Partners, is nearing completion almost eight years after plans for the €100m (US$132m, £80m) Paris-based attraction were first revealed. Set to open in October, the 126,000sq ft (11,705sq m) Louis Vuitton Foundation – designed to resemble “a cloud of glass” – includes 11 exhibition galleries dedicated to Vuitton’s private collection alongside a space for temporary exhibitions in addition

Three years behind schedule, significantly over budget and with no lack of controversy, the Picasso Museum in Paris finally looks set to open. The French culture ministry announced the long-awaited unveiling would take place on 25 October, exactly 133 years since Pablo Picasso was born. Musée Picasso closed to the public in 2009 for the renovation of the 17th-century building and an ambitious expansion that would double the exhibition area.

The Palace Museum – housed in Beijing’s, Forbidden City – is to set up an architectural institute equipped for research, training and restoration on China’s ancient architecture. The new unit will operate as a scientific base and will be devoted to multiple fields, with training including the inheritance and development of traditional architectural skills, the adoption of modern technologies in relation to ancient architecture and the training of professionals for

With a budget of £215m ($361m, €270m), one might expect Tate Modern’s high-profile extension to be carried out to schedule and without incident. But a re-shuffle at the upper echelons of the project’s management, topped off with an admission that the budget will need to be revised, has raised questions from one of the UK’s Labour MPs. “There’s £50m ($84m, €63m) of taxpayers’ money in this project which is late

A new museum celebrating country music, built in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, has opened on the border between Tennessee and Virginia in the south of the US. Designed by Peyton Boyd Architects, the US$11m (€8.2m, £6.5m) Birthplace of Country Music Museum, which opens today (8 August) in Bristol, VA, has been in the pipeline for several years. The 24,000sq ft (2,229sq m) museum will feature several different

The new home for the Aspen Art Museum (AAM) is now complete, and ready to open to the public on Saturday 9 August. Designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Shigeru Ban, the 33,000sq ft (10,058sq m) museum and gallery is the new home for the Aspen Art Museum, which had outgrown its old place of residence. As Ban’s first permanent museum in America, the backdrop of the building is the

The French government has announced that it will pledge €200m ($267m, £160m) for urgent repairs and restoration to the iconic La Défense Grande Arche, located in Paris’s financial district. Inaugurated on Bastille Day in 1989, the 20th century answer to the Arc de Triomphe was mastermind by Danish architect Johann Otto von Spreckelsen and completed by French architect Paul Andreu. Standing at 110m (360.8 ft) high, 110m wide and 110m

From a shortlist of six architectural practices, Goldsmiths College, London, has announced that Assemble - a London based architecture collective - will be designing their new £1.8m ($3.1m, €2.2m) gallery in South East London. Housed in Grade II listed swimming baths, Assemble’s design for the gallery will incorporate the original black steel water tanks as part of the new exhibition space, while creating new gallery spaces tacked onto the outside

A large part of Eastbourne Pier was reduced to a burned out shell yesterday (30 July) after a blazing inferno tore through the Grade II-listed structure, destroying a significant amount of the visitor attraction. More than 60 firefighters tackled the fire, which is believed to have broken out in the 144-year old pier’s arcade building. Crews from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) from Eastbourne, Hastings and Newhaven were also

George Lucas’ legacy project – the US$300m (€220m, £179m) Lucas Museum of Narrative Art (LMNA) – has revealed that Beijing-based MAD Architects has been selected as principal designer for the project, while Chicago-based Studio Gang will work on the landscape. In addition, VOA Associates, based in Chicago, will serve as the executive architect and lead the implementation of MAD’s design. Pending approval by the Chicago Plan Commission, Lucas' 95,000sq ft

English Heritage has published new three-part draft guidance on good practice and planning in a historic environment. The guidance – to be consulted until 5 September – covers how planners should take heritage assets into account in local plan making, decision making and the setting of a heritage asset. The document has been drawn up by English Heritage working alongside the Association of Local Government Archaeological Officers, the British Property

Brighton, UK's, Hippodrome looks set to enjoy a new lease of life after Brighton & Hove City Council approved plans to transform the 117-year-old structure into a cinema and restaurant complex. Alaska Development Consultants is behind the £18m plans and – having been advised by Indigo Planning – will bring the Grade-II listed, ‘at risk’ building back into use, based on designs from Russ Drage Architects. The proposals include an

London's Imperial War Museum (IWM) has marked the centenary of World War One with the reopening of its museum following the completion of the first phase of a larger £40m (US$68.3m, €50.5m) revamp of the entire facility. Opening to the public tomorrow (19 July), the first phase of the IWM's refurbishment was made possible with £6.5m (US$11.1m, €8.2m) in funding form the Heritage Lottery Fund (HFL) and £5m (US$8.5m, €6.3m)

Roger Stirk Harbour + Partners’ have completed their £135m (US$231m, €170m) extension to the British Museum, London. As one of the most popular visitor attractions in the world, the British Museum is a defining institution and its new World Conservation and Exhibition Centre has been a long time coming. Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP) won the contract for the extension in 2009 from a shortlist of top architectural practices,

Archiview, a Dutch architectural practice, has created a planetarium-come-cinema in Groningen, the Netherlands, with plans to open a further 20 across Europe in the near future. Called “Infoversum” and now open to the public, the structure is effectively a 3D theatre aimed at promoting science and knowledge. Films are projected on to the ceiling of the planetarium showing educational footage and visitors can experience a multi-dimensional view of the universe

The Mall of the World – a giant indoor ‘city’ under construction in Dubai – will have its own version of Oxford Street and Broadway, as well as galleons, waterfalls, a theme park, wellness district and a host of other leisure activities and attractions. The ‘city’, which has a giant retractable dome, is Dubai’s vision for a climate-controlled leisure district, including luxury hotels with more than 20,000 bedrooms, shops, entertainment

Washington's National Building Museum in the US has revealed its latest exhibition – a complex wooden maze designed by Danish architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) which fills the large West Court of the museum’s Great Hall Taking inspiration from ancient labyrinths to european 17th-18th century hedge mazes, BIG has created a modern day riddle with the all important “great reveal” in the centre. At approximately 18ft (5.5m) high and

Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP), Wakefield, UK, has taken home a £100,000 prize from The Art Fund after being announced the UK Museum of the Year by Art Fund – the national fundraising charity for art. YSP beat several other top museums to the prize, with the shortlist including; Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft in East Sussex, Hayward Gallery in London, The Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth, Sainsbury Centre for

Pritzker Prize winning architect Peter Zumthor and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) have unveiled new plans for the US museum’s proposed US$650m (€477m, £380m) transformation. Following controversy over the original designs, Zumthor has altered his original plans to avoid the La Brea Tar Pits – an important site for palaeontology research and a major tourist hotspot in the LA area. Before changes to the plans, the proposed

Concept images have been released for the planned AU$428m (US$402m, €295.7m £235m) WA Museum in Perth, Australia. Planned to be built by 2019 and opened in 2020, the facility’s first conceptual image of the interior shows a blue whale skeleton hanging overhead. Backers have also produced the results of a year-long project looking at the scope, cost and delivery details before a tender phase of development. The new facility will

A planned super city in South Korea that will cost an estimated US$275bn (€202bn, £160bn) will include a host of leisure features including a theme park, casinos, luxury hotels, a 50,000 seat concert hall and a medical-themed ‘healing town’. Dubbed ‘City8’, the giant metropolis will create an estimated 930,000 new jobs and aims to attract 134 million tourists annually. Other features for the proposed city – to be built on

The new Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) in South Africa's Cape Town will be designed by Thomas Heatherwick – marking the architect's biggest museum project to date. Zeitz MOCAA is to be a new non-profit cultural space alongside the V&A Waterfront, one of the most visited attractions in South Africa. As part of a masterplan - Heatherwick will transform an historic grain silo into 9,500sq m (102,000sq

The opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics in London showcased some of Britain’s greatest creative talent, with one of its defining moments being the Olympic Cauldron by Thomas Heatherwick. The Museum of London (MOL) is set to open a new gallery to house the monumental piece of sculpture that captured the minds of millions of people all over the world when it folded into a flaming tower that burned throughout

Frank Gehry and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) have unveiled a new masterplan for the 90-year-old museum site in America. Known for his famous cultural projects such as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, Gehry’s latest designs for PMoA have been revealed in a new exhibition – Making a Classic Modern: Frank Gehry’s Master Plan for the Philadelphia Museum of Art – which is now open to the public.

The Heydar Aliyev Centre in Baku, Azerbaijan, has been crowned Design of the Year 2014 by London’s Design Museum, making architect Zaha Hadid the first woman ever to win the prestigious award. The 57,519sq m (188,710sq ft) centre is based in the heart of Baku and was designed to become Azerbaijan's primary building for cultural programmes. The centre operates its own museum and acts as a hub, hosting exhibitions, events,

New York City based architectural firm The Living has completed its winning design for the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Young Architects Program, Hi-Fi – a tubular tower made of mushroom and corn bricks. Constructed to provide shelter and seating for PS1’s Warm Up concert series at the MoMA, the structure is almost 100 per cent biodegradable and is intended to be composted down after its use. The circular tower