Rem Koolhaas’ Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) has won an international competition to design a cutting-edge arts venue in the UK city of Manchester. Nine internationally acclaimed architects – including Zaha Hadid Architecture, Mecanoo, Rafael Vinoly Architects and Diller Scofidio + Renfro – were shortlisted to design the flagship cultural centre, named The Factory. The £110m (US$166m, €157m) large-scale venue – which takes its name from Factory Records, the Manchester

Liz Terry, CEO of Leisure Media and editor of CLAD, was invited to identify two architectural trends for the wellness industry in a Trends Jam brainstorming session at the Global Wellness Summit in Mexico City last week. Terry's first trend was Living Buildings. She said that in the future, buildings that are alive will be able to sense our every need: "One day, we'll live and work in structures which

A six-year, US$34m (€32m, £22.5m) renovation of the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) has been completed and the institute is once again open to the public. The development – carried out by Hunzinger Construction with HGA as architects of record – includes a revisioning of MAM’s Collection Galleries, as well as new work on its 1957 Eero Saarinen-designed War Memorial Center and 1975 David Kahler-designed extension, in addition to a new

After seventeen years, Amsterdam’s original Supperclub – a mixture of restaurant, lounge, gallery, bar and club – has moved to a new home, complete with a colourful interior design by Dutch concept creators Concrete. Located in the old Odeon brewery building in the heart of the city’s canal belt, guests to the new Supperclub arrive through the kitchen and enter an oval hall with lavish ornamental elements and a grand

Boston studio CBT Hospitality Design have drawn on an eclectic range of influences for a US$7.9m (€7.5m, $5.2m) renovation of California's Chaminade Resort & Spa. The property, located in the city of Santa Cruz, is transforming all of its 156 guestrooms to feature a more bohemian style, reflective of the local artisan community. Given Santa Cruz's close proximity to Silicon Valley – home to some of the world’s largest high-tech

A new home for Lithuania’s modern and contemporary art has been designed by Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind for the city of Vilnius. Studio Libeskind has worked with local firm Do Architects to design the 3,100sq m (33,300sq ft) white cuboid structure, which will house more than 4,000 Lithuanian art works collected by the country’s Modern Art Center (MAC). “This is about the cultural legacy of the country,” said MAC founder

National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise the Sacramento Kings has lifted the lid on plans for its US$507m (£336m, €476m) Golden 1 Center arena. Sports architect AECOM – creators of the London 2012 and Rio 2016 olympic parks – are designing the centre, while ICON Venue Group and Turner Construction are serving as project manager and lead builder respectively. Renderings of the design show the Golden 1 Center will feature outward-facing

A cyclist-friendly bridge – the first opening structure to be built over the River Thames since Tower Bridge – has moved a step closer following a successful feasibility study. The proposed development, which would become the first pedestrian and cycle bridge to be built in London, connects Canary Wharf with Rotherhithe. It was declared “deliverable” by a feasibility study conducted by reForm Architects, Elliott Wood engineers and engineering consultancy Arup.

JW Marriott has opened its latest luxury hotel as part of a US$500m (€470m, £331m) expansion of America’s largest mall. The JW Marriott Minneapolis Mall of America – which is located to the north of the mall building – has been designed in collaboration with Nebraska architects DLR Group and hospitality industry consultants Design Force Associates. The hotel’s architecture is a combination of classic lines and stylised touches intended to

Big changes are coming to London's Dalston in the next few decades. The area – an up and coming part of East London – will have the city’s new Crossrail network laid in, transforming the transport network and there are major plans for a redevelopment on the site of the local Kingsland Shopping Centre. In the face of so much uncertainty, the local council has struck a short-term lease for

A competition is being launched to find an architect and design concept for a new gallery in Riga, Latvia – an ambitious project that aims to become the top cultural attraction in the Baltic region. The Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art will be home to a collection of art from Latvia and the Baltic countries from the 1960s to the present day. It’s hoped that the €30m (US$32m, £21m) art

The Korea Racing Authority (KRA) has launched an international contest to find an architect who can develop a “one of a kind” horse theme park in the northern county of Yeongcheon. The KRA wishes to build the attraction – called LetsRun Park Yeongcheon – on an undeveloped 1,475,000 sq m site (15,800sq ft). It is investing KRW260bn (US$224m, €211m, £148m) in the venture. The authority says it wants to create

Event design company, Strong & Co, says it will bring a “warm, hyper-real tropical paradise” to Europe in the middle of winter 2016/17. The company, famous for its pop-up experiences at big cultural events, such as the UK’s Glastonbury music festival – is seeking funding for its latest venture, dubbed Summerland. It envisions a four-hour live experience that will take visitors from the cold, wintry streets of London into the

A dramatic mountain-shaped theatre in the southern Chinese city of Dali – the latest cultural creation from Beijing architects Studio Pei-Zhu – has entered the final construction phase. The Yang Liping Performing Arts Center will feature an enormous canopy roof, which falls and rises to evoke the surrounding Cangshan mountain range in China's Yunnan province. Visitors will be encouraged to walk over and under the roof in order to reflect

Two architecture studios have revealed their plans to bring hospitality, sport and culture to Helsinki’s Töölönlahti Bay; regenerating the area as a large-scale public space. Danish designers COBE and Finnish firm Lundén Architecture have worked alongside Helsinki branding company N2 to visualise a new development scheme for the 40,000sq m bay (430,500sq ft). Their proposal includes a new waterside promenade, several pedestrian and bicycle routes, and a recreational and cultural

The Lane Pettigrew-designed Zemi Beach House is set to open in the Caribbean island of Anguilla in February 2016, featuring architecture inspired by Anguilla's natural environment. A blend of modern, clean lines with classic Caribbean building details, Zemi Beach House will also include interiors by Miami-based designer Cuba Fernandez and a 15,000sq ft (1,394sq m) Thai House Spa decked out with lavish materials. "Zemi Beach House will be a touchstone

New York studio REX have been chosen as the lead designers for the forthcoming Performing Arts Center building at the World Trade Center (PACWTC). The architects have been selected over rival firms Henning Larsen and UNStudio to design the 80,000sq ft (7,400sq m) mixed-use cultural venue – which will produce works of theatre, dance, music, opera and film. Once completed, the Performing Arts Centre will form part of the wider

Basra, site of some of the most fierce fighting during the Iraq war, has revealed a redevelopment masterplan which will include the construction of a vast vertical city called The Bride. The scheme is described by its designers – AMBS Architects – as “the tallest structure and first vertical city in the world and a groundbreaking project in all disciplines of engineering.” The development will featuring entire neighbourhoods, commercial centres,

A Norwegian architecture group is transforming an earthquake-hit urban area in Valparaiso, Chile into a community venue for music, theatre and circus performances. The Scarcity and Creativity Studio – formed by Masters students from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design – has partnered with youth group Sitio Eriazo to work on the project. Valparaiso, a UNESCO World Heritage site, was badly hit by the 8.3 magnitude quake which caused

Copenhagen Gate will be an elevated bike track and pedestrian bridge running between two skyscrapers and suspended a dizzying 65m (213ft) above the city’s harbour below. The specification for the bridge was laid down by the City of Copenhagen in a tender and won by US architect Steven Holl in 2008. Copenhagen Gate was put on hold during the recession, but has now been revived, with construction scheduled to start

The Shangri-La group will launch its first hotel in Saudi Arabia in early 2018, the Shangri-La Jeddah. The 65-storey building’s dramatic design, by global architecture and design firm Perkins+Will, received the MIPIM Architectural Review ‘Future Project Award’ for ‘Best Tall Building’ in 2009. Situated perpendicular to the shoreline to maximise water views and optimise solar exposure, its exterior ‘skin’ features synthetic fabric architectural sails that shade interior spaces, protect balconies

Health and wellness will be at the core of a groundbreaking billion-dollar urban development in Tampa, Florida. Real estate company Delos – which is collaborating on high profile wellness schemes with the likes of actor Leonardo DiCaprio – has masterminded the US$2bn (€1.8bn, £1.3bn) scheme, which will stretch to 40 acres. While the district will feature familiar hallmarks of a city – including an urban waterfront and 200,000sq ft (18,500sq

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) have unveiled their masterplan for an urban neighbourhood in Pittsburgh on the site of a demolished hockey stadium. National Hockey League side the Pittsburgh Penguins left their Civic Arena home in 2012 and relocated to the Populous-designed Consol Energy Center. Their old ground was razed, but the franchise gained the rights to re-develop the site from the Sports and Exhibition Authority of Allegheny County (SEA). The

The chief executive of the Walt Disney Company has given his backing to the National Football League’s (NFL) Oakland Raiders and San Diego Chargers as they attempt to build a stadium in Los Angeles. Bob Iger has been appointed non-executive director of Carson Holdings – named after the district of LA where the mooted arena will be built – the development company set up by the two franchises. Manica Architecture

Mandarin Oriental is to manage a new luxury hotel and branded residences in Boca Raton, Florida, US, currently under development by Penn-Florida Companies and scheduled to open in late 2017. The hotel will include 158 bedrooms, a fitness centre, rooftop pool, and a spacious Spa at Mandarin Oriental, which will offer holistic rejuvenation and relaxation, though further details are still being determined. “We will of course have a magnificent spa,

The transformation of Pier 57, a derelict 1950s floating pier in New York City, into a mixed-use scheme has been declared “tantalisingly close to being realised”. Seth Pinsky, executive vice president at property firm RXR Realty, has revealed work will begin soon on the 450,000sq ft (41,000sq m) development on the Hudson River – recently rebranded the SuperPier. Speaking at a summit in NYC, Pinsky said the first two floors

A biblical theme park in the US state of Kentucky is building its very own full-size version of Noah’s Ark. Operator Crosswater Canyon, a non-profit subsidiary of Christian organisation Answers in Genesis, says that when it is finished, the ark will be the largest timber-framed structure in the US. The attraction will form the centrepiece of a new park called The Ark Encounter, telling the biblical story of the great