It has an impeccable inner-city skyline. Croydon has the facade of being a bigger city. It's got all these huge offices that looks like residences. And filmmakers get this authentic scenery without the restrictions of space and traffic management found in central London.
The recent announcement of a 0% tax rate for bingo in the UK marks a significant shift in the entertainment sector's fiscal landscape. This change could potentially reverse the decline of bingo halls, especially in urban areas like London. By eliminating the tax, policymakers aim to rejuvenate a traditional pastime that has been struggling against modern entertainment trends. The UK's entertainment sector is a vibrant tapestry of cultural and social activities, contributing significantly to the economy.
A combination of a world record-breaking trawler, a floating lighthouse and a dizzying array of maritime objects that include a stuffed polar bear called Erik are all helping to make Hull one of the top 25 places in the world to visit in 2026. The East Yorkshire city is on the verge of completing an ambitious 70m transformation, which, supporters believe, will propel it into becoming an international tourist destination.
More than 15 years in the works, Seattle's new park is a true reconnection of the city with its water. Once separated from downtown Seattle by the double-decker Alaskan Way Viaduct highway, the waterfront has been painfully and expensively restitched into the city after traffic was rerouted into a $3.35 billion tunnel and the surface level reconfigured as a boulevard.
At the scale of the built environment, these themes are echoed in three projects shaping future urban conditions: Powerhouse Company's transformation of a former limestone quarry into a mixed-use neighbourhood in Bærum, near Oslo; the groundbreaking of Riverside Wharf, a hospitality-led development contributing to the regeneration of Miami's River District; and Foster + Partners' approved retrofit of 1 St James's Square in London, focused on structural retention and long-term urban resilience.
It is designed to celebrate and promote cultural diversity on the continent, strengthen European citizens' sense of belonging to a shared cultural space, and foster culture's contribution to urban development. In practice, the designation has proven to be a catalyst for urban regeneration, tourism growth, the strengthening of cities' international profiles, and the improvement of how they are perceived by their own residents.
It was not much to look at: acres of industrial wasteland, disused docks and a sorry-looking gothic clock tower, said to be one of only two in the world with six faces. The hands of the Grade II-listed dockers' clock have not moved for years, an all too fitting symbol of time standing still on this part of the Mersey dockland against the rampant regeneration nearby.
When I began work as Dublin city's night-time adviser 18 months ago, the city was weighed down by a negative narrative. It wasn't long after the November riots, a low point that left many wondering what had happened to our capital after dark.
The scheme features a retractable roof and a movable pitch, allowing it to accommodate both sporting and non-sporting events. The bowl is configured to bring seating as close to the field as regulations allow, with a steep profile intended to enhance spatial intensity. Acoustic performance was a central consideration, with the design aiming to concentrate sound within the stadium while minimizing noise impacts on the surrounding neighborhood.
Site Context: Lush Mountains and Clear Waters - Anji is a city embraced by verdant hills and meandering clear streams, renowned as China's "Bamboo Hometown" and the birthplace of the "Two Mountains" philosophy. The site is located in the core area of Anji's Liangshan Future Sci-Tech City, built on a former industrial zone at the edge of the existing urban area. This former factory district is being progressively regenerated into the heart of the Liangshan Future Sci-Tech City.
With Palazzo, Benthem Crouwel Architects completes the Paleiskwartier in Hertogenbosch - a robust, warm, and open residential building that literally embraces the city. Commissioned by BV Ontwikkelingsmaatschappij Paleiskwartier, Palazzo marks the culmination of more than thirty years of urban development around the Central Station - an area where living, working, and meeting converge. Palazzo brings the whole together and gives new life to the district. The building deliberately faces the city, creates space for the square, and invites people to connect.
Together with the Bamboo Village Trust, a philanthropic financial vehicle, and Kota Kita, a participatory urban design organization, Bauhaus Earth has developed BaleBio, a bamboo pavilion designed by Cave Urban and rising above Mertasari Beach in Denpasar, Bali. The pavilion transforms a disused car park into an open community meeting space, offering a counterpoint to the city's tourism-driven coastal development.
In Zurich, Santiago Calatrava marks the completion of Haus zum Falken, a mixed-use building that breathes new life into the Stadelhofen Station area. Located at the eastern edge of Stadelhofer Platz, the project closes an architectural gap beside the historic main building that accommodates the station while introducing a public square, a large underground bicycle station, and light-filled interior spaces.
The Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction has announced the 20 winning projects of the 2025 Holcim Foundation Awards, recognizing contributions to sustainable design and construction across five regions: Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, and North America. This year's selection spans a broad range of scales, from a 200-square-meter semi-permanent school in a Kenyan forest to major urban regeneration initiatives in Madrid, Dhaka, and Shenzhen, reflecting the diversity and reach of sustainable architecture today.
Jinwan Aviation New City, one of Zhuhai's fastest-growing areas, urgently needed a new community center to meet the demands of its expanding population. The site, located in the heart of this new district, consisted of four standalone ancillary buildings surrounded by dense housing developments. However, due to rushed planning, these buildings suffered from design flaws: closed facades, disconnected circulation, and a lack of functional synergy.
ACPV ARCHITECTS Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel presents Casa Moncler, the new headquarters of the brand, located within the Symbiosis District in Milan, a strategic area of urban regeneration in the southern quadrant of the city. The project takes the form of a complex spanning 77,000 square meters, distributed across six above-ground floors and two basement levels, reaching a total height of approximately 32 meters.
The redevelopment of Euston station and the surrounding area could restart in a few years' time, with a tender contract having just gone out for a design and engineering partner to develop the plans for the site. First signalled in June's UK-wide infrastructure strategy, a new Euston Delivery Company (EDC) was being set up to deliver the Euston station rebuild as well as the oversite development that will help pay for it.
Once a London district made up of neon-lit sex shops and late-night clubs, King's Cross has been polished by regeneration, yet here, the curators draw on the history of the space to choreograph a dialogue between art, architecture, and the city, attempting to explore how contemporary artistic practices might inhabit, and even provoke, the residues of urban change and regeneration.
Community Park Veinte de Mayo, designed by Taller Ciudad Portátil, is located in the Veinte de Mayo neighborhood in Neiva, . The project occupies a 94 sqm triangular plot that had previously been abandoned and associated with insecurity and neglect. Through a process of participatory design and collective construction, the site was transformed into a compact public space that addresses the neighborhood's limited access to communal areas, with less than 4% coverage, while fostering social interaction and environmental resilience.
The public square outside North Acton tube station is set to undergo a makeover to address local concerns about its appearance. The square is fairly new, as it used to be a petrol station. However, between 2015 and 2019, the site was cleared and converted into a public square, featuring steps and a ramp leading down to the station. Now, Ealing Council has started work on some upgrades, including the addition of better lighting and a row of "shed" shops, which will be rented out.
AC Milan and Inter Milan passed a major hurdle in owning their own stadium after the city council approved the sale of San Siro to the clubs early Tuesday after a nearly 12-hour overnight debate. The vote to sell the existing stadium and the surrounding areas was passed 24-20 at about 3 a.m. The clubs plan to tear down the 99-year-old stadium and jointly build a new 71,500-seat arena.
Oxford Street had been wonderful in the past. But the reality is, it has been in decline for some time, he said. I'd call it managed decline. You've seen a situation where more and more people are shopping online or going to out-of-town centres, shopping centres, high-profile shops have left Oxford Street, and the pandemic was a real body blow to this street.
A north London council has approved plans for an inland surfing facility in the Lea Valley. The Surf London scheme at Pickett's Lock will see a new artificial lake built on parts of Lee Valley Golf Course and Lee Valley Camping and Caravan Park. Enfield Council's planning committee unanimously approved the plan, in which the golf course will be reduced in size and the campsite redeveloped.
The inaugural edition of the Bukhara Biennial opened on September 5, 2025, bringing over 70 site-specific commissions by more than 200 participants from 39 countries to the historic core of the Uzbek city. Commissioned by the Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation (ACDF) and Commissioner Gayane Umerova, the Biennial is described as the largest and most diverse cultural event in Central Asia to date. Curated by Diana Campbell under the theme