Ecca collection

Doha Pedestrian Bridge

The ruling family of the hydrocarbon-rich state of Qatar has decided to its capital city Doha as the centre of the Gulf region.

Doha’s growing corporate and commercial activity, which will include the FIFA World Cup 2022, has initiated a number of impressive construction projects, and the Public Works Authority (PWA) has recently announced that several “state-of-the-art” pedestrian bridges will be built around the city.

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Swedish Pavilion - Shangai Expo

Designing the Swedish Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo was a slightly less daunting task than designing many of the other pavilions, because it had a clearly defined function. What makes these projects so difficult in general is the almost entirely open-ended nature of the brief – they have to convey something about the national character, and house an exhibition, but beyond that and the physical limitations of the site, it is possible to do anything. In the case of the Swedish Pavilion, however, there was at least a requirement to house meetings with potential trade partners, and this gave the design more of a functional programme than is customary.

Images courtesy of August Wiklund, Sweco, & Petter Eldin

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Centre Pompidou-Metz

As the first regional offshoot of France’s biggest modern art space and a national cultural institution, the new Centre Pompidou-Metz is already helping to boost the economy of a struggling region. It has already become, according to several reports, France’s most visited cultural venue outside Paris.

Images courtesy of Centre Pompidou Metz - Photos by Didier Boy de la Tour

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