Ecca collection

Treatment Plant

Southwest from Paris, just 1km from the Porte de Versailles and within view of the Eiffel Tower, the town of Issy-les-Moulineaux sits on the bank of the River Seine. It has undertaken a commitment that all its major buildings should be of high environmental quality, and this is evident in one new structure, with its green roof and its river frontage half hidden behind trees planted on the upper levels. It is therefore surprising at first to discover that this building in such a prime position is fulfilling the decidedly unglamorous function of a plant for sorting and treating waste.

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Copenhagen aquarium "The Blue Planet"

Inspired “by the shape of water in endless motion”, Denmark’s new national aquarium, the Blue Planet, is northern Europe’s largest and most modern.

The whirlpool concept on which this unusual edifice originates is, according to Copenhagen-based architectural practice 3XN: “in a narrative about water, and as an image, is at once both abstract and figurative”. The practice also cites shoals of fish and swirling starlings for influencing the vortex-like form of the building.

Images courtesy of Adam Mõrk

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Renoma

Complex ground conditions and the close proximity of neighbouring buildings, were among the many challenges facing architectural practice Maćków Pracownia Projecktowa in its recent restoration and enlargement of the former Warenhaus A. Wertheim department store in Wroclaw, southwestern Poland, now called the Renoma retail centre.

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