Nex Architecture has created a sculptural restaurant with curved glazed façades that open up for al fresco dining and a roof garden that adds a new element of public realm to the local area. The restaurant is located in a public square in the prestigious Chelsea area of London, with developer Cadogan Estates briefing that the building should be both distinctive and a focal point for the square. It is

C+ Architects have created art gallery in Wulong, China, that is designed to look like a glowing ring in the mountains. The LAB Art Museum is set on a 3,000sq m (32,300sq ft) hilltop site that at times is surrounded by clouds. Its white elliptical form stands out against the surrounding green hills and its main volume is raised up on four functional blocks at ground level that serve variously

Studio Sofield have designed a house and tower residential pairing in New York's prestigious Upper East Side, blending classical and contemporary architecture that is drawn through into a generous offering of luxury amenities. Beckford House & Tower comprises two adjacent and complementary buildings with a combined 104 residences that range in price from $2m (€1.8m, £1.5m) to over $25m (€23m, £19m). The buildings are designed in the grand, pre-war tradition

Studio Ramoprimo has created a gym in Beijing's Indigo East Hotel that is designed to allow users to shape their own training path during one-on-one fitness classes. MFit Space 01 covers 600sq m (6,500sq ft) and is split across two levels. It features a varied selection of spaces and equipment types, allowing different users to focus on different types of training and exercise. In addition to a conventional training area

CitizenM is due to break ground this week on its Miami Worldcenter hotel designed by Gensler and its long-term collaborator Concrete, which will mix feature-rich rooms with a varied amenities offering for guests. The 128,000sq ft (11,900sq m), 12-storey hotel will accommodate 351 guestrooms, all with rain showers, motorised blinds and adaptable lighting colours. Rooms will also feature king-size wall-to-wall beds, widescreen TVs and super-fast Wi-Fi. Guests will be able

HOK and ERRE have designed a €220m (US$243m, £188m) arena for Valencia that will be used for music, arts, culture and sporting events. Designed for the client Licampa 1617, the facility will house a 1,200sq m (12,900sq ft) multipurpose room, a 1,300-capacity underground and multistorey car park and the headquarters for the men and women’s Valencia Basket Club. The arena will seat up to 15,600 people or accommodate up to

Heatherwick Studio have released new images of its 300,000sq m (3,230,000sq ft) mixed-use development 1000 Trees as it approaches completion. Located on a 15ac (6ha) site in Shanghai, 1000 Trees takes the form of a mountain-like tree-covered topography. Unconventionally, the building's hundreds of structural support columns are left exposed, doubling as podiums with large planters built into the top, each holding a handful of trees. The undulating shape allows the

Elizabeth de Portzamparc has argued that cultural buildings like libraries and museums shouldn't just preserve knowledge and heritage, but should forge social links too by ensuring their accessibility and approachability. De Portzamparc was speaking in the most recent issue of CLADmag following the opening of the Musée de la Romanité earlier this year, which she described as "the most symbolic public facility I’ve ever worked on." Explaining why, she said:

MAD Architects have inserted a number of organically-shaped bubbles into the fabric of Beijing's Qianmen district to provide new space, new use cases and incentives for younger generations to return to the area. The Hutong Bubble 218 project sees organically-shaped interstitial interventions inserted into the restrictive context of a former hospital on a hutong – a narrow street or alley. The hospital had already been converted into accommodation for around

Rosewood Hotels and Resorts has launched its Asaya wellness destination concept in the 27-storey Rosewood Hong Kong hotel, designed by New York interior designer Tony Chi. Originally launched at Rosewood Phuket, the Asaya wellness concept is founded on five pillars – Emotional Balance, Fitness and Nutrition, Physical Therapies, Skin Health and Community. The 3,716sq m (40,000sq ft) Hong Kong space spans two floors and includes private harbour-view marble hydrotherapy pools,

Luca Curci Architects have designed a water-based vertical city concept designed to encourage healthier lifestyles and to reimagine the traditional concepts of community and society. The 750m (2,500ft)-high city-building is intended to be population-dense, accommodating 25,000 people across 180 floors, but also highly sustainable. The building has a modular structure constructed from 18 prefabricated slice-like elements that are repeatable both horizontally and vertically. Each element houses 10 floors with their

The celebrated Chiva-Som International Health Resort in Hua Hin, Thailand, has reopened after the most recent phase of a five-year renovation that has seen accommodation and facilities upgraded, with a new Qatar presence also announced. Designed by Designrealization, the renovation masterplan was aimed at bringing a "modern and fresh take" to the resort, with teak, Thai silk, and bamboo complemented by a light colour palette of natural hues. As part

Danish architects BOGL have won a design competition to redevelop central parts of Tananger, Norway, with a masterplan that will relocate its main square to reconnect the town with the ocean. Tananger's history is closely related to the sea, but the town has developed in such a way that it has been largely cut off from the water. With the town's population expected to double over the next 30 years,

Istanbul-based MAS Architecture Studio have created a barjeel – or wind tower – installation for Dubai Design Week 2019 that gives passersby a place to pause, rest and cool down. The installation, titled Barjeel, was a response to an open call via which Dubai Design Week was seeking to showcase "the design identity of the UAE through diverse representations of local and international creative efforts." Barjeel was inspired by the

MU Architecture have unveiled the design for a paleofuturist tower in the hilly forest of Quebec, Canada, that will house a luxury private retreat. The site for the so-called Pekuliari tower will cover 326,000sq ft (30,300sq m) and the tower itself, reminiscent of a totem or a stone cairn, will rise 670ft (204m). The structure is designed to appear as though it is from a forgotten age, but with materials

Reef Group are to create a £100m+ (US$128+, €117+) subterranean mixed-use destination with a focus on healthcare and wellbeing in London's historic Cavendish Square. Currently an underground car park, the site below Cavendish Square Gardens will be redeveloped to provide 280,000sq ft (26,000sq m) of space across four storeys. The existing structure will be reused and adapted, with atria, lightwells and a 200m (656ft) pavement light drawing natural light into

LBA have created a pod hostel in a listed building that was originally designed as police chambers with holding cells and courtroom facilities. Called 1a Parliament Square after its location in Edinburgh’s Old Town, the project was commissioned by Code, a hostel operator that accommodates its guests in sleep pods. LBA managing director Lynsay Bell Manson said: "It was clear from the early stages of the project that the building’s

Plenty has been written about the newly opened Diller Scofidio + Renfro expansion of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, but there's been work going on behind the scenes too. With 38,000sq ft (3,500sq m) of new gallery space and 21,000sq ft (2,000sq m) of new public space, there's much more for visitors to explore. But front-of-house spaces need new back-of-house spaces to support them and that

Snøhetta and Clark Nexsen have revealed their design for the new Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, with elements that help to achieve the mission of it being more than just a library and also serving as a public commons. Located in the US city of Charlotte, North Carolina, the building will cover an area of 115,000sq ft (11,000sq m). It is shaped with a curved prow at one of its corners, which

Seine Design have created a €5.4m (US$6m, £4.6m) floating guinguette – a small restaurant and dance hall – with glass-panelled sides and a glass roof that give visitors views of its River Seine location. Rosa 2, which is a venue for the Rosa Bonheur chain, replaced an existing floating guinguette that was moored close to the prestigious Pont Alexandre III bridge. From onboard, visitors can see the Eiffel Tower, the

Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos (SMA) have created a branched, undulating design for Chablé's planned Sea of Cortez spa resort that blends with the natural landscape and gives guests both privacy and ocean views. Located on the Baja California Peninsula just north of La Paz in northwest Mexico, the resort will cover an area of 64,900sq m (698,700sq ft). The site is set on the coast between two hills in a sparsely

The Collective has opened new co-living destinations in the Long Island City neighbourhood of New York and in London’s Canary Wharf. Its 125-room Long Island City venue is the firm's first in the US and its only one for short (one to 29 night) stays only. The Collective Paper Factory, as it is called, is housed in a 100-year-old building that previously housed a paper goods factory and a radio

Singapore's Pomeroy Studio, Arup and national sporting body Sport Singapore have created a masterplan for an 89ha (220ac) sustainable sports and recreation destination around the site of the existing Singapore Sports Hub. Planned facilities at the Kallang Alive development include a football hub and a tennis centre for both community and international tournaments. Facilities being considered for a youth hub on the site include velodrome, speed climbing and BMX venues.

Peter Pichler Architecture have designed a series of treehouses for a hotel in West Virginia, US, that are closely integrated with nature and will provide guests with an opportunity to relax. The project was conceived to offer a form of slow tourism, giving guests an opportunity to switch off from a more frantic pace of life and immerse themselves in the serenity of nature for a time. The treehouses, which

Thai architects Onion have created a community reading space in Bangkok called Samyan Co-op that offers different types of seating and atmosphere to suit different types of users. The project was commissioned by Golden Land Property Development, who were planning to build a new commercial mall and wanted to give something back to society. Their brief for Onion was to create 500-capacity reading and working space that would be free

BuckleyGrayYeoman are to convert a former ice factory, coachworks and power station to house 30,000sq ft (2,800sq m) of restaurant units, retail space and offices adjacent to another of their mixed-use developments. The firm completed its Eccleston Yards mixed-use creative hub project on a derelict and underutilised car park in London, UK, for Grosvenor last year. It comprises a public courtyard where people can sit and a pedestrian mews surrounded

Shanghai's West Bund Museum, designed by David Chipperfield Architects, has opened to the public as part of the West Bund Masterplan that will introduce a new 9sq km (3.5sq mi) cultural district on former industrial land. The 22,000sq ft (2,000sq m) facility, established as a partnership between Centre Pompidou Paris and the publicly-owned West Bund Group, sits on the north bank of the Huangpu River and is located in a