A former sand extraction station in the Bahamas is to be transformed into a luxury private island featuring bars, restaurants, sports facilities and an exclusive spa and wellness sanctuary. The Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve – located 65 miles (104.5 km) east of Miami, Florida – has been launched by MSC Cruises, who have partnered with ecologists and the government of the Bahamas to create a US$200m (€182.7m, £139m) “flourishing

The National Aquarium in Baltimore has unveiled plans to reinvent the city’s waterfront, creating an urban wetland and pier-side conservation area for the local community. The reinvention of the area around the aquarium will create a free, accessible, environmental public space, developed in partnership with Baltimore city organisations. The central tenet of the project is to encourage community engagement with the environment, build a vision of a sustainable future and

A new 60,000-capacity stadium, a velodrome and a tennis complex will be built if Budapest wins its bid to host the 2024 Olympic Games. The City Council for the Hungarian capital has approved the list of venues, which include seven cluster and five stand-alone arenas within the city. Most of the Games events have been earmarked for the new athletics stadium – which will be scaled down to 15,000 seats

Luxury restaurant brand the Ivy Collection is to open a new brasserie located next to London’s famous Tower Bridge. The new Ivy will become the first flagship restaurant of the One Tower Bridge development – a mixed-use scheme, masterplanned by architects Squire and Partners, featuring apartments and 80,000sq ft (7,400sq m) of leisure and cultural space. While architectural details have not yet been released, One Tower Bridge developer Berkeley Homes

The foundation dedicated to conserving the work of legendary French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent has revealed two new museums dedicated to his life and career will open in France and Morocco in 2017. The Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent will showcase part of its vast collection of accessories, haute couture garments, sketches, collection boards, photographs and objects collected by Saint Laurent between 1962 and 2002. “To this day, this

The Hive – Wolfgang Buttress’ award-winning multi-sensory pavilion – is to be given a new home within London’s Kew Gardens. The structure was the centrepiece of the UK’s entry at the six-month long 2015 Milan Expo, where it attracted more than 3.3m visitors and was awarded the BIE Gold Award for Architecture and Landscape. It will be displayed at Kew – a UNESCO World Heritage Site containing 132 hectares of

New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has unveiled revised US$445m (€407.3m, £310.6m) plans to redevelop and expand the facility, with plans by Diller Scofidio + Renfro streamlining the museum experience to work better for both visitors and curators. The expansion of facilities, expected to be complete by 2020, will increase gallery space by 30 per cent – an increase of 40,000sq ft (3,716sq m) to 174,000sq ft (16,165sq m).

Uber is quite literally propelling itself into new transportation markets with the advent of its new helicopter service, UberChopper. Eager to expand into forms of transport beyond its usual car service, Uber has been experimenting with helicopters, boats and even rickshaws in recent years. UberChopper has been offered at several high-profile leisure events in the last six months, including the Cannes Film Festival and the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival,

The foundation stone for David Chipperfield’s Mughal Museum building in Agra, India, has been laid near the eastern gate of the Taj Mahal. The museum – which will be dedicated to the history and culture of Northern India's Mughal dynasty – will accommodate 5,200sq m (55,972sq ft) permanent and temporary exhibition space, according to Chipperfield’s studio. The first rendering for the museum suggests it will be formed by a series

Aspiring young British costume and set designers have been encouraged by film and theatre director Sam Mendes to submit their own designs for his hit musical Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Mendes – who has won Academy and Olivier accolades for his work – has launched the The Young Theatre Designer Award, which challenges entrants aged 13-21 to bring Roald Dahl’s famous story of Charlie Bucket, Willy Wonka and the

The new home of the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) will officially launch to the public on Sunday (31 January) with an all-day open house. Designed by architects Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), the project integrates a pre-existing 48,000sq ft (4,459sq m) art deco building – the former 1939 printing plant of the neighbouring UC Berkeley – with a new 35,000sq ft (2,251sq m)

Lifestyle brand Virgin Hotels will open its first California location in Palm Springs in late 2018. The hotel will feature 150 bedrooms, multiple restaurants, a rooftop terrace and pool, and a spa – likely similar to its first spa location in Chicago, where clients can completely customise treatments. Designed by local architect Chris Pardo, the hotel will be located in the heart of downtown Palm Springs and surrounded by historic

A facility billed as “the largest bouldering gym in the world” has opened in Austin, Texas after two years of construction. The 50,000sq ft (4,650sq m) facility, called the Austin Bouldering Project, was designed by Dylan Johnson of DJA Architects, with interiors created by local studio Lilianne Steckel and realised by general contractor LaBelle Construction. The developer was Texan company 3423 Holdings. The gym features 23,000sq ft (2,100sq m) of

Tree-loving Italian architect Stefano Boeri has lined up his next forest-inspired project: a resort property in China’s Guizhou province. The Cachet Hotel Group has announced Boeri will partner with acclaimed local artist Simon Ma to build the centrepiece of Cachet Wanfeng Valley – its first resort development in Asia. The group has unveiled renderings of the pair’s design for a striking “lifestyle destination” with trees on every terrace. The building

The exhibition designers of Singapore’s recently relaunched National Gallery have laid out the idea behind the concept – a walk through time using the medium of art to tell the story of Singapore and southeast Asia. The gallery, which opened its doors to the public at the end of last year, was a collaboration between several architects and design studios. Working closely with its studio in Paris and with architect

Four of the world's best-known architects have united in calling for New York developers to create more public leisure space. Rick Cook, Bjarke Ingels, Annabelle Selldorf and Richard Meier made the case for green space in a roundtable discussion called The Future of New York's Skyline, organised by cultural collective 92nd Street Y. Pritzker Prize winning architect Richard Meier said buildings should be a “gift to the city,” but voiced

Seven international architecture studios have been shortlisted to design the landmark new home for the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art in Riga. Henning Larsen Architects, Caruso St John, Neutelings Riedijk and Adjaye Associates are among the big names in contention for the €30m (US$32.6m, £22.8m) project to create “a cultural and arts centre of interregional significance.” “Creating a museum, which can compete with others around the world is a specialised

A museum extension nearly 15 years in the making will finally be completed when the Swiss National Museum in Zurich opens its new wing to the public on 1 August 2016. The new wing is formed by a modern and minimalist geometric volume designed by Basel practice Christ & Gantenbein. It was commissioned following an international design competition in 2002, but a period of consultation and political negotiation followed and

Peter Law, creative producer at design collective Flying Object and creator of Tate Britain’s IK Prize-winning Sensorium, has outlined how multi-sensory spaces can be used to create unique personal experiences. Sensorium – which utilised experts in sound, taste, scent and touch, combined with lighting and theatre elements – ran until September 2015 at the Tate Britain in London as a multi-sensory experience centred around four famous artworks. "We had an

Renowned London nightclub Annabel’s is to be given a new lease of life with plans to incorporate a range of leisure and wellness facilities as part of relocation proposals. The basement nightclub in Mayfair, which has hosted the likes of Princess Diana, Sir Mick Jagger, Frank Sinatra, Grace Jones, Kate Moss and Madonna in its 50-year existence, could soon be providing a substantially revamped offering. Restaurateur Richard Caring, who bought

The Ritz-Carlton is opening a new hotel and spa near Scottsdale, Arizona with a focus on fitness, health and wellbeing. The Ritz-Carlton Paradise Valley, developed by Five Star Development Resort Communities, will include a 10,000sq ft (929sq m) spa with ten treatment rooms, in addition to a residential component. Designed by Peter T. Mason of California-based Mason Architects, the Ritz-Carlton Paradise Valley will be spread over 20 acres and consist

Two major exhibitions open in London this week exploring how architects can change the world in different ways. Creation from Catastrophe, which opens on 27 January at the Architecture Gallery of the Royal Institute of British Architects, will explore how destruction and devastation present unique opportunities to radically rethink environments. With a focus on architects as diverse as OMA, Toyo Ito, Sir Christopher Wren and Elemental – whose founder Alejandro

Visitors unable to travel to New York can now explore the famous interior architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum thanks to Google Street View. As part of a collaboration between the museum and the Google Cultural Institute, anyone with an internet connection can take a 360-degree look at the building’s famous circular galleries, spiralling ramps and oculus. In addition, 127 artworks from the museum’s collection are also

Populous, the architects behind London’s Olympic Stadium, have won the contract to design a 40,000-capacity stadium for the Qatar 2022 World Cup. The studio will be charged with creating a “new neighbourhood” as part of the proposed host venue development on the waterfront of Ras Abu Aboud, Doha. Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) has revealed the stadium would be built on a 450,000 sq m (4.8m sq

Multi-national conglomerate Virgin has announced its first branded hotel has achieved LEED Gold Certification, with the company outlining ambitious plans to create a zero carbon footprint hotel business. Virgin Hotels Chicago, located in the US city’s Loop district, has been awarded the accreditation by the US Green Building Council (USGBC), which analyses the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. CEO of Virgin Hotels Raul Leal pledged the

The worlds of architecture, art and fashion have collided at Sexy Fish, a lavish new Asian seafood restaurant in London opened by British restaurant magnate Richard Caring. Aquatic-themed artworks by Damien Hirst, architect Frank Gehry and Vanity Fair style editor Michael Roberts decorate the extravagant interiors, which have been designed by Martin Brudnizki Design Studio to emulate “the style and sophistication of a mid-century brasserie.” The eye-catching collection of art

The president and CEO of Miami’s Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science has insisted the high-profile relocation of the museum to its “next generation” new home on Miami’s waterfront will be completed despite a US$45m (£31.3m, €41.5m) shortfall in funding. The museum’s new three-storey facility – designed by Grimshaw Architects – is entering the final construction phase four years after work first began. However, the project has received less