News: the Guggenheim is just one of a string of art institutions expanding internationally with new architecture projects. The Helsinki competition represents part of its plans to "stop being an exporting institution, and instead be a collaborative one," according to director Richard Armstrong (+ interview). More about Guggenheim Helsinki: "We've got quite a lot to chew on"
News: after commissioning landmark museums by Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry in the 20th century, the Guggenheim has shortlisted six little-known practices for its latest outpost in Helsinki. More about Six emerging architects shortlisted for Guggenheim Helsinki design competition
Oslo studio Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter has reinterpreted the traditional Norwegian stave church to create a modern chapel featuring folded timber surfaces and a huge pyramid-shaped spire (+ slideshow). More about Reiulf Ramstad completes wooden church with a grand spire beside a Norwegian fjord
Rows of irregularly shaped bricks will create patterns around these three towers that architecture graduate Olivia Wright has designed to transform a derelict and vandalised pottery factory in the English midlands into a conservation centre. More about RCA graduate Olivia Wright to convert vandalised bottle kilns into pottery preservation centre
Comoco Architects has added a third new structure to the grounds of the medieval Pombal Castle in Portugal – a limestone-clad visitor centre that doubles as a viewing platform (+ slideshow). More about Pombal Castle visitor centre offers a peek through a historic stone wall
News: Frank Gehry has written an open letter defending the design for the George Lucas Museum by Chinese architecture firm MAD, as a legal wrangle threatens to delay the project. More about Frank Gehry defends MAD's Lucas Museum for Chicago as judge suspends work
News: a trio of international architecture firms will redevelop and add new facilities to Montreal's natural science museum, housed in a vast glass velodrome within the grounds of the city's former Olympic park. More about AZPML, Lacaton & Vassal and Kuehn Malvezzi to redesign Montreal's natural science Biodome
Multi-tonal layers of concrete resemble bands of sediment on the walls of this visitor centre designed by Swiss architect Max Dudler for a medieval fortress in Germany (+ slideshow). More about Sparrenberg Castle visitor centre by Max Dudler boasts striated concrete walls
White concrete surfaces vary from matte to polished on the walls of this library and concert hall, completed by London studio DRDH on the waterfront of Bodø, Norway (+ slideshow). More about White concrete cultural centre by DRDH nestles up against a Norwegian harbour
News: after a quarter of a century of decay, a full design team has been appointed to convert the Brutalist ruins of Gillespie, Kidd & Coia's St Peter's Seminary in Cardross, Scotland, into a major venue for art and culture. More about Brutalist seminary to be resurrected in 2015 after 25 years of neglect
News: international heritage body UNESCO has launched a competition to design a cultural centre on the boundary of the Bamiyan Valley site, which housed two giant seventh-century statues of Buddha that were destroyed by Taliban militants in 2001. More about UNESCO launches competition to design cultural centre in war-torn Afghanistan
News: these new images show the interiors and exteriors of David Chipperfield's soon-to-complete museum and gallery complex in a converted steel factory in Milan (+ slideshow). More about David Chipperfield's City of Culture nears completion in Milan
Italian architect Renzo Piano has upgraded the facilities of the Harvard Art Museums in Boston, Massachusetts, by adding a new gallery wing and transforming a former courtyard into a top-lit atrium (+ slideshow). More about Renzo Piano reconfigures Harvard Art Museums around a grand courtyard atrium
Gaps in the upside-down barrel-vaulted ceiling of this Japanese church by Takeshi Hosaka funnel slices of light into the concrete-lined hall (+ slideshow). More about Six inverted arches outline the roof of Shonan Christ Church by Takeshi Hosaka
An arched framework of curving pine ribs gives this chapel in Finland by Sanaksenaho Architects a shape more akin to a boat than a building (+ slideshow). More about Copper-clad chapel in Finland has a curving wooden frame like a ship's hull
Hundreds of tiny holes puncture the white concrete panels that clad these two extensions to the Badajoz Fine Arts Museum by Spanish firm Estudio Arquitectura Hago (+ slideshow). More about Badajoz Fine Arts Museum extensions feature speckled walls and bevelled edges
News: Bjarke Ingels' firm has unveiled its plans for a "radical reinterpretation" of the Smithsonian Institution campus in Washington DC, creating new entrances and underground extensions (+ slideshow). More about BIG presents More billion plans for Smithsonian campus overhaul
News: construction is now underway on a memorial to extinct species of the present and future, designed by David Adjaye for the Isle of Portland, England. More about Construction starts on David Adjaye's spiralling stone extinction memorial
Elliptical openings create huge lightwells through the seven storeys of the Helsinki University Library by Anttinen Oiva Architects – another runner up from the first Finlandia Prize for Architecture (+ slideshow). More about Curving voids pierce the floors of Anttinen Oiva Architects' Helsinki library
This cavernous copper-clad library was designed by JKMM Architects for Alvar Aalto's historic Seinäjoki civic centre, and was one of three runners up from the first Finlandia Prize for Architecture (+ slideshow). More about Subterranean tunnel links Seinäjoki library by JKMM Architects with Aalto's 1965 building