Architecture Update: Austrian schillings for shrines

THE Austrian government did not have to wait for the proceeds of a national lottery before spending pounds 55m on 10 new museums. Models, drawings and photographs of the projects - some completed, others still in progress - feature in an exhibition that opens at the RIBA on Thursday. 'From Shrine to Showcase - Austrian Museums for the Nineties' features work by Austrian architects, including Hans Hollien, and avant-garde architects from the United States and Switzerland.

Upstairs in the RIBA's second-floor gallery, another exhibition, 'Before and After Planning' - showing the effects of the planning process on building design - also opened this week. Using before-and-after illustration of 15 projects, the exhibition sets out to show how buildings are enhanced (or not, as the case may be) by the planning process.

'From Shrine to Showcase', 22 January-13 February; 'Before and After Planning' 19 January-6 February at the RIBA, 66 Portland Place, London W1. Admission free. For further details contact 071-580 5533.