One of Europe’s largest and most dramatic skateparks has been built in Luxembourg, in the shadow of a UNESCO World Heritage site. The multi-level park has been built beneath the stony Fortifications of Vauban in the Peitruss Valley, which separates Luxembourg's Old and New Towns. French studio Constructo Skatepark Architecture, based in Marseille, worked with members of the local skateboarding community to create a facility suitable for their needs and

Spanish architecture firm Cruz y Ortiz have designed a 90,000-capacity football stadium as the centrepiece of Morocco’s bid for the 2026 World Cup. The members of football’s world governing body, FIFA, meet tomorrow (13 June) in Moscow decide who will host the tournament in eight year’s time: Morocco or the US, Mexico and Canada. If the former wins the vote, Cruz y Ortiz’s stadium will be constructed in Casablanca, and

He's created everything from hotel and restaurant interiors to Olympic torches and outdoor gym equipment. Now, multitasking French designer Philippe Starck has his most otherworldly commission yet: the interior of a luxurious space station for tourists. Space exploration company Axiom Space has announced it is launching its first space tourism programme in 2020, which will take its high-paying guests on expeditions to the International Space Station (ISS). Starck was asked

Mexican architect Frida Escobedo's Serpentine Pavilion will open in Kensington Gardens, London on Friday (15 June). Escobedo’s courtyard-based design harnesses a “subtle interplay of light, water and geometry” and is inspired in part by the domestic architecture of Mexico, the Prime Meridian line at London’s Royal Observatory in Greenwich, and British materials and history. The pavilion features a black steel frame, with stacks of cement roof tiles making up the

MKV Design, the principal designer in the reinvention of Switzerland’s Bürgenstock Resort, has been recognised by Hospitality Design as winner in the wellness category for its design of Bürgenstock’s Alpine Spa. Perched on the mountainside 450 metres above Lake Lucerne, the 10,000sq m, three-level spa was a key element in the recreation of Bürgenstock Resort. The main challenge for the designers was how to make such a large spa feel

Developer Tishman Speyer and architects DSDHA have completed the first phase renovation of famous Alison and Peter Smithson’s Economist Building and Plaza on London’s St James’s Street. The Brutalist Grade II*-listed complex, completed in 1964, was originally commissioned by the Economist magazine, which had its offices there for more than half a century. The buildings are now being upgraded, with new public amenities added. As part of the first phase,

A former tuberculosis sanatorium designed by the iconic Finnish architect Alvar Aalto has gone up for sale. The clean-lined Paimio Sanatorium, completed in 1933 in a large woodland site 30 km (18 miles) east of Turku, Finland, brought Aalto international recognition and put Finland on the international map of modern architecture. The Functionalist building has been nominated to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site and attracts thousands of Aalto enthusiasts

Kengo Kuma and Associates, in collaboration with OODA, have won a competition to redevelop an abandoned industrial slaughterhouse in Porto into a public complex featuring a museum, library and performance spaces. The Matadouro building was once an important urban landmark. However, it was closed and abandoned almost 20 years ago and has gradually become disconnected from the city as new buildings – including a speedway and a stadium for FC

London mayor Sadiq Khan has set out a £1.1bn vision for East Bank at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – a brand new masterplan for the former ‘Olympicopolis’ cultural scheme. The waterfront site has been redesigned by architects Allies and Morrison, O’Donnell + Tuomey, and Camps Felip Arquitecturia, following detailed public consultation. Envisioned as “a new powerhouse of culture, education, innovation and growth,” the project was first planned to secure the

The first CLADglobal news roundup video is now live. In this broadcast, we look at the winning design for the forthcoming Adelaide Contemporary art museum, explore Woods Bagot’s plans to transform an abandoned sugar factory in China into a cultural and leisure park and take a look at the stylish new Scottish distillery and visitor centre Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners have created for whisky-maker The Macallan. Finally, sports architect

St Louis' Gateway Arch has undergone a redevelopment, with architecture studio Cooper Robertson expanding and renovating the museum beneath the record-holding structure. Sitting in the shadow of the Eero Saarinen-designed arch – the tallest structure of its kind in the world – a total of 4,200sq m (45,000sq ft) of new museum area has been added to the west of Saarinen’s underground original, which has itself been renovated and reconfigured

Hospitality architects working in ecologically sensitive parts of the world have a responsibility to ensure their projects are sustainable, even after building work has completed, Wong Chiu Man has told CLADglobal. “Guests increasingly seek out the special and the meaningful, and they are drawn to remote places with the potential to host unique leisure spaces,” said the WOW Architects founder. “The question and responsibility facing hoteliers and designers is how

Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) will transform Novorossiysk – Russia’s largest shipping port – adding dramatic buildings, public spaces and amenities for the city’s residents and visitors to enjoy the Black Sea coastline. Inspired, in part, by a time-lapse photograph – the Admiral Serebryakov Embankment masterplan features nine principal commercial and leisure buildings, with a total floor area of approximately 300,000sq m (3.2 million sq ft). Each structure, designed using parametric

London practice Baharash Architecture have designed three self-sustaining biodome attractions for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which are being developed to promote the country’s booming ecotourism market. Located in the eastern part of the UAE, in the Al Hajar Mountains, the project will provide facilities for a wildlife conservation centre, a restaurant, educational workshops and an adventure-based wilderness retreat – all housed within the three giant domes. The structures will

A design team led by US studio Diller Scofidio + Renfro and Australian architects Woods Bagot has won the international design competition for the Adelaide Contemporary art museum. Intended to revitalise the site of the former Royal Adelaide Hospital (oRAH), the attraction will be a sister museum to the Art Gallery of South Australia, combining exhibition, research and education spaces with a public sculpture park and community meeting place. It

The city of Melbourne is aiming to secure itself as Australia's culture capital, with the development of the country's largest contemporary art gallery and its tallest building. To be built next door to the National Gallery of Victoria as part of a new arts precinct, the NGV Contemporary site would be developed at a cost of AU$151m (US$115mm, €98.5m, £86m), replacing the former Carlton & United Brewery. Victoria State will

The headquarters of Santander are to be transformed into a public space and art gallery following the move of the Spanish banking giant to new offices. Coming as part of an initiative to bring much of the bank’s vast art collection – currently held in Madrid – to Santander itself, Santander will move its operation to the nearby Banesto building, freeing up its former home for public use. British architect

Architecture firm Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners have completed a distillery and visitor experience for whisky producer The Macallan, embedded into the landscape of Scotland’s Easter Elchies Estate. The £140m (US$187m, €160m) project, which took three and a half years to build and opened on 2 June, features an undulating, meadow-covered roof described by the Macallan as “one of the most complicated timber structures in the world” Comprising 1,800 single

Architects Woods Bagot are transforming an abandoned sugar factory in Zhuhai, China, into a cultural, tourism and leisure park that celebrates the city’s industrial heritage and welcomes visitors with a sweet tooth. The Hongqi Zhen Sugar Factory was opened in the 1960s and became a key pillar of Southern China’s sugar plantation and processing industry. However, the industry eventually fell into a decline and the complex closed its doors in

Herzog and de Meuron have completed their latest cultural project: a museum and arts complex spread inside a walled compound of heritage justice buildings on Hong Kong Island. A dramatic light show marked the opening of the Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts on 25 May, with 150 guests in attendance, including the administrative region’s chief executive Carrie Lam. Over twelve years, the Swiss architects have carefully restored 16

Marriott International’s W Hotels brand has re-entered the Australian market with the opening of the W Brisbane, a new hotel that features fast-paced urban style and modern design with a “decidedly cheeky Aussie point of view”. Owned by Shayher Group, the 312-bedroom W Brisbane is located riverside in the city’s central business district. With interiors from Nic Graham & Associates, the hotel embraces Brisbane’s connection to Australian identity and uses

French architect Elizabeth de Portzamparc has revealed to CLADglobal how she wanted to “glorify 21 centuries of architectural history” with her Roman museum in the French city of Nîmes, which opens today (2 June) in the shadow of a real-life Roman amphitheatre next door. The Musée de la Romanité de Nîmes has been designed as a striking, fluid building that forms a contemporary counterpoint to the neighbouring Arena of Nîmes.

Fifa's World Football Museum is opening a temporary exhibition in Moscow, Russia, through the course of this year's World Cup. To be hosted at the Hyundai Motorstudio in the Russian capital, the major exhibition – called The History Makers – will open on 9 June, five days ahead of the football tournament's kick off. The exhibition runs until 20 July, five days after the tournament's conclusion. As part of The

The Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) is to move to a new home in Costa Mesa, California, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne and his studio Morphosis. Groundbreaking for the new building will take place in 2019 within the Segerstrom Center for the Arts complex – the county’s largest centre for arts. The projected opening has been announced for 2021. With nearly 25,000sq ft (2,300sq m) of exhibition

Wellness design firm A.W. Lake has opened its new headquarters in Northern Colorado, with the building set to become a hotbed of wellness research in the wilderness of the Rocky Mountains. The monolithic steel building, called the Center for Wellness Strategies, stands 2,000m (6,800ft) above sea level on a 40 acre (16 hectares) site bordering a vast swathe of national forest land. The building will serve as a hub for

Chelsea Football Club has today (31 May) announced that it has put its new stadium project on hold, blaming “the current unfavourable investment climate.” According to the London club, no further pre-construction design and planning work will occur on the Stamford Bridge project, designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron, and no timeframe has been set for it to reconsider its decision. The 60,000-seat stadium was granted planning permission in

Steven Holl has revealed to CLADglobal the role that watercolour painting plays in his design process; offering a rare glimpse of some of the artwork he has created over his five-decade-long career. In a lengthy interview, the architect said he always starts work on new building projects the same way: “Me, alone, my little watercolour pad in front of me, at five thirty in the morning, trying to come up