Here are some of the stories that appeared on CLAD this week, from Foster + Partners’ Mecca hotel to Paulo Mendes da Rocha’s RIBA Gold Medal.

Monday

• Construction has begun on a large-scale public space in central Hong Kong, designed by landscape architects Gustafson Porter + Bowman, bringing dense tropical vegetation to the heart of the concrete jungle. Read here.

• Luxury hotel operator Aman will open a location outside of Shanghai described by the company as its “most ambitious project to date.” Read here.

• Architecture studio Foster + Partners have been announced as the winner of a design competition for a new luxury hotel and serviced apartments in the heart of Mecca, Saudi Arabia – Islam’s most sacred city. Read here.

Tuesday

• Adjaye Associates, David Chipperfield, Richard Murphy, Allies & Morrison, Barozzi Veiga and KPMB have been announced as the architects who will compete to design a multi-purpose concert hall and arts centre for Edinburgh. Read here.

• An expansive new complex for for the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, designed by David Chipperfield Architects, has topped out in China. Read here.

• Architecture practice Michaelis Boyd have designed an eight-storey boutique hotel in the heart of Brooklyn, described as “a sincere love song” to the industrial heritage of the New York neighbourhood. Read here.

Wednesday

• The Municipality of Rotterdam has announced that engineering firm BAM Bouw en Techniek (BAM) has been awarded the contract for the construction of the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen. Read here.

• The football association of Turkey has lifted the lid the country’s huge stadium-building drive, and how it can help the nation win the right to host the world’s biggest tournaments. Read here.

• St Louis could become home to a purpose-built 20,000-capacity soccer stadium after a Missouri-based consortium official submitted a bid for the city to host a Major League Soccer expansion franchise. Read here.

• The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation (MOXI) has launched after receiving US$25m (€23.2m, £19.8m) in capital funding. Read here.

Thursday

• Spanish architect and engineer Santiago Calatrava has unveiled his £1bn landmark for London’s Greenwich Peninsula – which will have a huge winter garden at its heart. Read here.

• The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has presented Brazilian architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha with the 2017 Royal Gold Medal for architecture. Read here.

• Dutch design agency NorthernLight is working on the redevelopment of Sochi’s Olympic Vilage, which is turning its former media centre from the 2014 Winter Olympics into a science and art park. Read here.

Friday

• Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta has been announced as the winner of a competition to design a new hotel on Helsinki’s Hakaniemi waterfront. Read here.

• German studio GMP Arkitekten have won an international competition to add a retractable roof to Verona’s first century Roman amphitheatre. Read here.

• Italian architect and ‘vertical forest’ pioneer Stefano Boeri has unveiled his design for a pair of towers in Nanjing, east China, covered by 1,100 trees and 2,500 cascading plants and shrubs. Read here.

For a quick and comprehensive overview of all our recent stories, take a look at CLAD's Grid View mode.

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