-
AV College
Look at one side of the AV College Helsinki and you appear to be studying a pixellated image of ... well, you can’t tell what, and that is a deliberate strategy on the part of the architects. Ark-House Architects, also based in Helsinki, used six different off-the-shelf colours of prepainted metal to create an almost entirely windowless facade that makes reference to the digital techniques that are happening inside this college, dedicated to audiovisual education. The practice’s Pentti Kareoja says that they considered putting in a definite image, such as a face, but decided to leave it abstract – a wise decision. ‘Now people can find their own images,’ said Kareoja.
Architect Ark-House Architects (Pentti Kareoja) Location Helsinki - Finland Company involved Rautaruukki Website http://www.ruukki.com -
Cité du vin de Bordeaux
La Cité du Vin is a new museum and exhibition centre dedicated to the appreciation and promotion of the French wine industry. Situated at the junction of the Garonne river and Atlantic Ocean in Bordeaux, the centre aims to reinforce and celebrate France’s long heritage of wine making.
Architect X-TU Architects (Anouk Legendre & Nicolas Desmazières) Location Bordeaux - France Company involved Euramax Coated Products - Alucoil Website www.euramax.eu - www.alucoil.com/europe -
Crown Metropol Hotel
Dark aluminium fins on the facade of the Crown Metropol Hotel in Melbourne, Australia play a vital but subtle role in giving a sense of excitement to a building that has to fit in a complex environment and also help define that environment. The sinuous 28-storey hotel is one of three on the city’s relatively new Crown Entertainment Complex. Sitting to one side of the complex, and linking to the entertainment facility and also to a congress centre, on one side it overlooks a relatively rundown area of small industry, ripe for regeneration.
Architect Bates Smart Location Melbourne - Australia Company involved 3A Composites (ALUCOBOND®) Website www.alucobond.com