Stretchmarks Asia have designed a new activity park in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, that is aimed at not only providing climbing and adventure sports facilities but also at being becoming a social and community space. Beast Park is housed in a 2,000sq m (21,500sq ft), 15m (49ft)-high warehouse-like space in the Bukit Bintang shopping and entertainment area of the city. Around 978sq m (10,500sq ft) of the interior walls are fitted

Atelier Tao+C have renovated an old building in the Chinese town of Tonglu to create a capsule hotel and library with floating floors, bamboo bookshelves and a fully glazed gable end that provides views of the surrounding forest. The original floors and partition walls were removed from the 232sq m (2,500sq ft) structure and three staggered floating levels installed and linked with zigzagging metal staircases. On two of the levels

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and WXY Architects have unveiled a vision for Downtown Brooklyn aimed at reanimating the 370ac (150ha) district with public spaces, recreation amenities and pedestrian-friendly streetscapes. The two practices spent last year working on the Downtown Brooklyn Public Realm Action Plan – a study of the area's streets, sidewalks, plazas, parks, alleyways, intersections, underutilised spaces and other public spaces. Carried out on behalf of the Downtown Brooklyn

PSBA Przemysław Sokołowski Biuro Architektoniczne and INOONI Jakub Zygmunt have completed a canoeing centre in Augustow, Poland, with a wooden angular form that is reminiscent of the canoes it houses. The studios were awarded the project after winning a design competition in 2016 and were briefed to create the facility itself as well as neighbouring recreational areas including a multifunctional sports field, a bike track, a playground and public spaces.

Porto Architects have created a concept store for a vineyard in Porto, Portugal, that they describe as "blindingly white, minimal and circular." The 90sq m (970sq ft) retail space has been designed to celebrate the wine bottle, with a simple open-plan form that provides a 360-degree view for visitors and a neutral background colour to showcase products. Shelves around the walls of the store have been sculpted to reference vineyard

SAOTA have designed a mixed-use development for Hamburg, Germany, that is aimed at combining work and leisure elements within a sustainable ecosystem. Covering 45,000sq m (485,000sq ft), the Neuländer Quarree site will feature restaurants, retail spaces, a hotel, a nursery, 548 apartments and a variety of functions on the roof of the development. There will also be a multi-storey car park, office space and a technology park. The development is

Studio SKLIM have created a compact café in Singapore using the concept of negative space to carve out seating booths, countertops, display shelves and overhanging canopies. The café covers an area of just 28sq m (301sq ft) but accommodates an experience and retail corner, a take-away counter, seating booths and a counter for conducting workshops. The central counter block is cast in concrete and is designed to merge into the

Dutch designer Daan Roosegaarde has argued that finding a harmony between economic progress and humanity is crucial for society and that we must embrace creativity to do so. Speaking to CLAD for an interview, Roosegaarde said: "I want to demonstrate that creativity is our true human capital, because we need to find a new harmony between economic progress and humanity. "The way we’re doing things now is not sustainable. Instead

The new National Stadium in Tokyo, built for the 2020 Olympic Games, has been officially inaugurated. The venue, which will host the opening and closing ceremonies at Tokyo 2020, held the final of the Emperor's Cup – seen as the country's flagship football match – on 1 January 2020. Completely rebuilt for the 2020 Games, the 68,000-seat capacity stadium is a symbol of great pride in Japan, as it was

Four Seasons has announced it will open a property at the World Trade Center in New Orleans in late 2020 that will offer panoramic views of both the city and the Mississippi River. Owned by Two Canal Owner and developed by Carpenter and Company and Woodward Interests, Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences New Orleans will be situated in the downtown area of the city. The 341-room hotel will feature

The new Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture in Washington State, designed by Olson Kundig, opened towards the end of last year, providing more space and flexibility, a more transparent layout and improved climate control. The building was actually completed in October, but information from the architects has just been made fully available. The 105,000sq ft (9,800sq m) building, which is 66 per cent larger than the old building,

Kerry Hill Architects have designed a spa and wellness resort on a mountainside in Hokkaido – their fourth resort in Japan for hotel operator Aman, following the opening of Aman Kyoto. The Aman Niseko resort is to be an all-season retreat situated among the mountain, forest and river surroundings of Mount Moiwa. It is designed to take advantage of the setting by framing the forest and mountain scenery from inside

Art collective teamLab, working with Sands Resorts Macao, are set to open a museum of immersive digital artworks in Macau, China, this February. teamLab SuperNature Macao is based on the collective's SuperNature concept, through which they create a world of interactive artworks aimed at blurring the boundaries between people’s bodies and art. The new attraction will be located at the Venetian Macao hotel in an expo hall covering an area

The historic Belgian city of Bruges has been illuminated with a 2km (1.2mi) walk-through lighting and visual experience for the festive "Wintergloed" (Winter Glow) season, using atmospheric light installations from Painting with Light (PWL). The company was commissioned by Bruges Plus, the organisation responsible for the city's cultural events, and has designed a series of ephemeral lighting and projection-mapped installations in six different areas, each inspired, according to PWL, by

The highly-anticipated St. Louis Aquarium, designed by PGAV Destinations, has opened its doors at the city's Union Station, a former train station and National Historic Landmark that has been converted to become a mixed-use entertainment destination. Among Union Station's features are its Grand Hall, which features original terrazzo flooring, green-glazed terracotta bricks and stained glass windows, and the St. Louis Union Station Hotel, which still offers some of the station's

Blueroom and Urban Crossovers have created a conceptual proposal for reactivating the Rijnhaven port area in Rotterdam, Netherlands, that would use innovative approaches to tackle the environmental and climate challenges. The Rotterdam Next Level! development is designed to be attractive and accessible for all, but also to be a unique urban typology that is CO2 and energy neutral, eliminates waste, increases biodiversity and builds a strong community. Buildings would be

COMO Hotels and Resorts is gearing up to reopen their Cocoa Island private island resort in the Maldives on 9 January following a seven-month refurbishment. “The Maldives has become a highly competitive market,” said Olivier Jolivet, COMO Group’s CEO. “Luxury hotel companies keep raising the ante, from building ‘reclaimed islands’, to tunnelling out underwater wine cellars. Sometimes we forget that nature is powerful, and simplicity has a very important role

Studio Studio Studio, a new interdisciplinary collaboration lab founded by Edoardo Tresoldi, have created a 26m (85ft)-high pavilion from cork and mesh with intimate spaces and narrow paths that visitors can explore. Gharfa is part of the Diriyah Oasis temporary creative district in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh. Tresoldi aimed to create "a theatrical world where technique, reality, and illusion are all intertwined." Mesh has been used to sculpt

Morphosis have revealed eye-catching designs for a two-tower, mixed-use development on the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, with a sculptural, bridged structure and a raised, landscaped garden in its central void. 8850 Sunset is part of an ongoing transformation of the Sunset Strip, with a number of new mixed-use buildings having been added in recent years. Developed by Silver Creek Commercial Development, the project is aimed at contributing "to the

The Wuxi Taihu Show Theatre, designed by Steven Chilton Architects with a forest of bamboo-inspired columns around its perimeter, has opened in Jiangsu Province, China. Built to house a permanent water show by Franco Dragone, with its designs released last year, the 2,000-seat theatre was inspired by China's largest bamboo forest – the Sea of Bamboo Park in Yixing. The circular building is wrapped in a full-height glazed façade and

Everton Football Club has revealed the final Dan Meis designs for its planned new stadium on Liverpool's Bramley-Moore Dock, which will be submitted to Liverpool City Council in a planning application today. Initial designs for the stadium were released earlier this year, after which a public consultation process was carried out. The response from fans was overwhelmingly positive, but a number of changes have been made nonetheless. Most notably, the

PLP Architecture have won a competition to build a mixed-use tower in Rotterdam with a glazed volume intersected by timber floorplates that extend beyond the building envelope to form a series of interconnected terraces. Developed for Provast, the €160m ($177m, £136m) Tree House is modelled on the holistic ecosystem of a tree. The part-timber structure will make use of recycled materials, collect and reuse rainwater and store CO2. Planted with

Hassell and OMA have completed construction of the New Museum for Western Australia, which houses museum exhibitions, event spaces and public areas in a newly unified group of old and new buildings. Located in Perth, the facility combines four heritage-listed buildings with a newly created volume, tripling the size of the museum. Inside, there are eight new galleries, a 1000sq m (10,800sq ft) special exhibitions gallery, multipurpose spaces for programs,

Radionica Arhitekture (literally Architecture Workshop) have designed a swimming centre for the Dubrava District of Zagreb, Croatia, that is split into three large, glass, sunken volumes. The 5,570sq m (60,000sq ft) facility is located between a residential tower, a church and a meadow, which is being developed for mid-rise housing. To avoid the area becoming too built up, Radionica Arhitekture felt it was necessary to moderate the profile of the

Plans have been announced for a vast zero-carbon resort to be built by the Red Sea in northwest Saudi Arabia as part of the Vision 2030 programme, which is aimed at reducing the kingdom’s dependence on oil and developing public service sectors. Set to open in 2030, the 31.4sq km (12.1sq mi) mixed-use development project, called AMAALA, will range across three different locations – called Triple Bay, The Island and

Herzog & de Meuron have won a competition to design a new museum complex on China's Grand Canal with the aim of the reflecting the river's importance in Chinese culture and to create a new gathering place. Situated in the city of Hangzhou at the junction of the Grand Canal and the Hanggang River, the museum will be surrounded by water on three sides. it will cover an area of

Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and James Corner Field Operations (JCFO) have designed a mixed-use development in North Brooklyn that is part-residential, part-public park and part-flood defence. The aims of the River Street Waterfront Masterplan in redeveloping the former industrial site are to improve the connectivity of the waterfront for the public, reinstate natural habitats, strengthen resiliency and transform the way people interact with the East River. Anchored by BIG's two