Completed buildings
Special projects: Cutty Sark - the crystal ship
The world’s last surviving tea clipper has risen again - not just restored, but dramatically suspended in a vast diagrid glass canopy. Ike Ijeh looks around - and underneath - Grimshaw Architects’ impressive renovation
The Titanic Belfast: The ship comes home
The Titanic museum in Belfast is a striking and poignant memorial to a vessel whose history is intrisically intertwined with that of the city. Ike Ijeh reports
BREEAM at the BBC
Vinci’s BBC Wales studios have become the highest BREEAM rated industrial building in the UK
Olympic Wetlands Bridge receives highest ever CEEQUAL rating
Nearly half of the content of the bridge by value is recycled
Exhibition Road: Walkin' & wheels
Dixon Jones’ £28m reworking of South Kensington’s great museum quarter, Exhibition Road, resolves the long stand-off between pedestrians and cars by allowing them to share the same space. Ike Ijeh is knocked over by the simplicity of the design. Photographs by Tim Crocker
Canada's bold new library: Can we borrow it?
A city near Vancouver has taken a bold approach with its new public library - throwing out traditional study spaces and pioneering design by social media. Could it provide a template for our own beleaguered institutions? Ike Ijeh reports
Carnival spirit: Foster Wilson Architects completes Notting Hill arts centre
Firmco was main contractor on the £3m scheme
HLM and Leadbitter complete £20m school in Wales
The school comprises a number of three-storey stone and render-clad wings
Mansell completes Hopkins' Nottingham University building
Engineering and Science Learning Centre cost £10m to build
McLaren factory: Driving force
White, pristine and streamlined – McLaren’s sports car production centre is like no factory you’ve ever seen. Ike Ijeh goes for a spin at the Foster-designed facility
X marks the spot: Bam's Molecular Biology lab nears completion
RMJM-designed building resembles an X-chromosome from the air
£300m Regent Palace hotel revamp completed
Ambitious redevelopment by Sir Robert McAlpine and Dixon Jones Architects will provide office, retail and restaurant space
St Mary's University's new wave of sports facilities
Morgan Sindall has completed a £6m sports centre for St Mary’s University College in Twickenham, south-west London.
Willmott Dixon builds first BREEAM 'outstanding' hospital
Houghton-le-Spring primary care centre designed by P+HS scores 85% on BRE rating system
Miller tops off Carlsberg brewery extension
Brewery will produce over 300 million extra pints of beer a year
First recycled plastic bridge in Europe built in Scotland
Thermoplastic material used in construction of road bridge will be sold by Vetech next year
Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama opens after £22.5m redevelopment
Cardiff scheme designed by BFLS with Willmott Dixon as main contractor
University of the Arts: The art of simplicity
The new University of the Arts campus exudes creativity. Ike Ijeh visits the recently converted King’s Cross Granary to find a building that melds old and new, industry and art and provides a home for the next generation of designers
Zero carbon housing using underfloor thermal heat stores
When you’ve got houses and flats on a tiny plot, no room to store fuel and little roof space, finding a zero-carbon heating solution is tricky. One team went underground to find the answer
Splash of colour: Park Hill flats go on sale
Urban Splash has transformed a grade-II listed estate through a £100m regeneration
Rafael Viñoly's Firstsite centre: show time
Rafael Viñoly’s latest UK building finally takes centre stage, but why was it nearly undone by delays, overspends and legal spats? Thomas Lane reports, while below Ike Ijeh asks if it was worth all the pain
Wexford's new council HQ
London-based Robin Lee Architecture, formerly one half of Nord, has completed Wexford council headquarters in Ireland.
Newbiggin Maritime Centre by Mosedale Gillatt Architects
Beach-side museum highlights the art and history of people living on the Northumberland coast
Kensington and Chelsea College opens
Dixon Jones Architects’ £14.5m Kensington and Chelsea College has opened.
Liverpool museum to open next week
Danish architect 3XN’s museum is the UK’s largest to be built in over 100 years
Bennetts completes Mint project
Architect’s Amsterdam hotel is first finished scheme outside of the UK
Sainsbury Laboratory: Nurture vs nature
Stanton Williams’ serene Sainsbury Laboratory combines classicism with modernism while remaining anchored to its natural surroundings
River trip: Zaha Hadid's Riverside Transport Museum
Far from the Olympic aquatics centre, the first of Zaha Hadid’s big UK projects is complete. Building reviews her dramatic and somewhat psychedelic transport museum in Glasgow
Sculpting the Hepworth
Art meets industry in David Chipperfield’s Hepworth Wakefield gallery, reflecting two facets of its Yorkshire location’s heritage. But is this work of art devoid of humanity?
The leaning hotel of Copenhagen opens its doors
Viewed from different angles the hotel designed by 3XN appears to lean in two different directions
Wolverton Park: urban retreat
A £35m residential development in Milton Keynes has been selected as the sole UK entry in an international shortlist of nominees for the Urban Land Institute’s Awards for Excellence
Brockholes Nature Reserve
?An Adam Khan-designed new floating visitors centre opened last weekend at the 250 acre Brockholes Nature Reserve near Preston.
It’s big, it’s bold, but is the Heron tower any good?
The City’s tallest skyscraper is the ultimate in lavish office space for ’boutique’ finance firms. But its design is a huge let down for Londoners
The Olympic Lea Valley White Water Centre opens
The Olympic venue in Hertfordshire containing a canoe and kayak slalom course opens later this month
£17m Turner Contemporary gallery due to open
David Chopperfield-designed facility comprises six interconnected boxes
Camberwell Leisure Centre refurbishment
?Watkins Grey International has completed the first phase of the south London project
Zaha Brava: The Guangzhou Opera House
Architecture and geology collide in Zaha Hadid’s glorious Guangzhou Opera House
Deals worth £900m completed on One Hyde Park
Despite rumours that apartments aren’t selling, developers are happy with number of completions
One Hyde Park: Heart's desire
Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, known for its left-leaning sympathies, is the architect behind the world’s most expensive apartments: One Hyde Park in London’s Knightsbridge
Drama in Shanghai: Shanghai campus by Morphosis Architects
?There’s more than one way to achieve contextualism, and Morphosis Architects’ Giant Campus in Shanghai goes for the provocative approach. Ike Ijeh is beguiled. Photographs by Roland Halbe
Bennetts Associates completes New City Inn hotel
Nine-storey, £65m hotel was built by Laing O’Rourke
Farrells' Kennedy Town Swimming Pool opens in Hong Kong
Phase one provides two outdoor pools with views of Victoria harbour
Medical building blocks: Stryker unveils office
Volker Fitzpatrick was contractor on the three-story, 10,000m2 facility
Bournville College opens £65m campus in Longbridge
Upto 15,000 students will study at £66m college designed by Broadway Malyan
Grass is greener: Hab Oakus' housing project complete
The Triangle, a £4.2m social housing project by Hab Oakus, the development company spearheaded by Grand Designs presenter Kevin McCloud, is complete and fully inhabited. The Swindon scheme comprises 42 eco-homes built around a “village green”. The project was designed by Glenn Howells Architects and built by Willmott Dixon.
Flood-proof house: Home and dry
Would you build a house on the Norfolk Broads, one of the most flood-prone areas of the UK? LSI Architects did and its sophisticated design meant getting the project through planning was plain sailing.
Construction begins on University of Nottingham hotel
Bam Construct has begun construction on an £18m hotel for the University of Nottingham.
Willmott Dixon completes eight-storey cross-laminated timber building
Contractors claims use of solid cross-laminated timber on East London apartment block saved 892 tonnes of carbon
Cancer charity Maggie's unveils Nottingham centre
Building was designed by CZWG with interiors by Sir Paul Smith
Broadway Malyan completes seven Abu Dhabi schools
School openings part of 26-school building programme
Free school conversions: Making the switch
The government went out of its way to make it easier for free schools to be formed in non-school buildings by easing planning laws. So now that they’ve opened their doors, do they actually work? Take a look at two very different conversions…
David Willetts tops out £100m lab by Shepherd Construction
Institue of Animal Health lab funded by government, Biological Sciences Research Council and Skills Large Facilities Capital Fund
Strong design: Loughborough University's Design School completed
£14.7m development is Shepherd Construction’s third project for the University
University of Surrey: Gold-standard education
The University of Surrey’s £10.8m integrated learning centre and languages department, designed by RMJM’s London studio, has been completed
Gartnavel Maggie's Centre: Moment of calm
Rem Koolhaas shows unusual restraint and impeccable bedside manners at Glasgow’s second Maggie’s Centre, where a subdued and informal space uses the natural world around it to promote healing
Rise and shine: Belfast's new sculpture
The biggest public art sculpture in Belfast has been completed
LDA completes Gloucester public realm scheme
Conservation area is part of urban masterplan for Gloucester Quays and Docks
John McAslan gives King's Cross its wow factor
New 150m-wide canopy framing the Western concourse will be biggest spanning station structure in Europe
Mansfield Folkhouse youth centre: Rejuvenated
The Nottinghamshire youth centre has had a £6.5m makeover
The National Maritime Museum: Time and a place
The National Maritime Museum’s £35m extension reconciles the rich architectural heritage of its Greenwich home with the need to provide thoroughly modern facilities. Building celebrates a building firmly anchored to its surroundings
Serpentine Pavilion: A natural observatory
This year’s design, by Swiss architect Peter Zumthor, seeks to inspire visitors to observe nature
Engineering Britain's biggest retained facade: Going to great lengths
?This was once a dilapidated hotel that just so happened to be on prime land overlooking Hyde Park. To convert it into luxury flats the whole thing had to be demolished and rebuilt – apart from the facade. Building talks to the team responsible for the largest ever retained Victorian elevation in the country
The Corinthia Hotel: Luxury living
The former Metropole Hotel site is nearly completed. Ardmore is nearing completion on the £100m redevelopment of the former Metropole Hotel site at Northumberland Avenue in London.
Period drama: The Holburne Museum
Bathonians were up in arms when Eric Parry Architects sought to add a modern extension to an 18th century, grade I-listed building. But the architect won out and the Holburne Museum shouldn’t have anyone reaching for the smelling salts
Culture clash - Las Arenas, Barcelona
What do you get when you turn a 19th-century bullring into a 21st-century shopping centre? A theatrical melding of Spain’s cultural past and present
Phase one of Masdar complete
The $1.4bn first phase of one of the world’s most sustainable cities, Masdar in Abu Dhabi, has been completed.
Tel Aviv Museum of Art: Five levels of light
The £33.7m Herta and Paul Amir Building will open in November
More Moorish: Tottenham Town Hall
United House and bptw have completed the refurbishment of Tottenham Town Hall
Chipperfield's Turner gallery in Margate: An artist’s impression
David Chipperfield’s Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate is a perfect melding of the romantic and the practical
The Olympic stadium: Sprint finish
Functional, lean and tightly compact, the Olympic stadium has powered through the construction phase to be delivered early and under budget.
The Dali Enigma: HOK's Florida museum
HOK’s Salvador Dalí Museum in Florida marries the classical with the fantastical, a paradox the artist himself would have cherished
This is the BBC ...
After nine years, two architects and £1bn, the controversial BBC Broadcasting House refurbishment is winding up. But is it a feat of architectural elegance and practicality, or just another prime-time flop?
Animal hospital shortlisted for Civic Trust Award
Archial in the running for award for scheme at Glasgow University
Winging it: Bombardier aircraft factory
Air traffic gridlock over the holidays might have put you off flying for life. But Bombardier is launching a new plane with high-tech carbon fibre wings - first, though, it needed a factory that could be designed in tandem with those wings
