News: British firm Wilkinson Eyre Architects has won a competition to design a $1.5 billion hotel skyscraper on the harbourfront in Sydney, Australia. More about Wilkinson Eyre wins competition for Sydney harbour skyscraper
This two-storey extension by French architect Loïc Picquet converts an old farm building into a rural guesthouse in the Alsace region of France (+ slideshow). More about Création de 4 chambres d'hôtes by Loïc Picquet
Shanghai studio Neri&Hu has reinterpreted traditional Chinese architecture and courtyard typologies for the design of a 300-room hotel in one of China's oldest cities (+ slideshow). More about Xi'an Westin Hotel by Neri&Hu
A nineteenth century prison in the Netherlands has been converted into a boutique hotel where guests sleep in the former cells. More about Het Arresthuis hotel in a former prison by Van der Valk hotels
Ilse Crawford of Studioilse has converted a 100-year-old house in Stockholm into a boutique hotel filled with richly coloured wood, leather and velvet (+ slideshow). More about Ett Hem Hotel by Studioilse
This stop-frame movie by American photographer James Florio documents the day and night-time scenes at Elqui Domos, a hotel for stargazers in Chile's Elqui Valley. More about Hotel Elqui Domos filmed by James Florio
Russian studio Arch Group has filled an old building in Moscow with its portable sleeping capsules to create the first Sleepbox hotel. More about Sleepbox Hotel Tverskaya by Arch Group
Korean architects AND imagined this hotel on Geoje Island as a hand of outstretched fingers, with rooms and balconies pointing out in different directions (+ slideshow). More about Aggrenad hotel by AND
The world's largest underwater hotel is being planned for Dubai, with rooms both on the seabed and on stilts above the surface (+ slideshow). More about Water Discus underwater hotel by Deep Ocean Technology
Dutch designer Wouter Biegelaar used blocks of ice to sculpt a single piece of furniture for lounging, sleeping and dining inside a suite at the Icehotel in Lapland (+ slideshow). More about Iceberg by Wouter Biegelaar at Icehotel
These seven woodland cabins are nestled amongst the trees of a park and spa in northern Portugal (+ slideshow). More about Eco-Resort Pedras Salgadas by Luís Rebelo de Andrade and Diogo Aguiar
News: Finnish studio Rintala Eggertsson Architects is constructing a twenty-ton treehouse for Swedish hotel Treehotel. More about Twenty-ton treehouse under construction in Sweden
World Architecture Festival 2012: in this movie we filmed, architect Josefin Larsson of Wingårdhs tells Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs how the residents of Stockholm want it to be a "low city", but that her studio's controversial high-rise hotel there is a "real midget" compared to the skyscrapers of Singapore, where the World Architecture Festival took place. More about "People want Stockholm to be a low city" - Josefin Larsson on Victoria Tower
London studio Haptic has created a forest-like lounge at a hotel in Oslo, filled with trees, stacks of lumber and a plant-covered wall. More about Quality Hotel Expo in Oslo by Haptic
Dutch design brand Droog has opened a hotel in Amsterdam where guests who venture out from their rooms can attend lectures, visit exhibitions and shops or relax in a "fairy-tale garden" without leaving the building (+ slideshow). More about Hôtel Droog by Droog
In the most extreme example yet of QR codes used as decor, the new Hotel Modez in Arnhem has a room covered entirely in scannable codes that link to "pornography, pin-ups and other piquancies". More about QR-Code Hotel Room by Antoine Peters
Austrian architects WG3 have designed a mobile hotel room that could be delivered to all kinds of outdoor locations. More about Hypercubus by WG3
Guests can lounge amongst orange trees and a water basin in the secluded courtyard of this dreamy Portuguese guesthouse by Jordi Fornells and Rolf Heinemann of Vora Arquitectura (+ slideshow). More about Villa Extramuros by Vora Arquitectura
This hotel by Mexican architects Gracia Studio comprises 20 separate cabins dotted across the landscape in one of Mexico's wine-making regions (+ slideshow). More about Endémico Resguardo Silvestre by Gracia Studio
Austrian architects BWM Architekten und Partner and Michael Manzenreiter have completed a hotel in central Vienna with big oval windows all over its brown mosaic facade. More about Hotel Topazz by BWM Architekten und Partner and Michael Manzenreiter