Ecca collection

Carton Levert House

A house and office in County Donegal, in the west of Ireland, make a refreshing change from much of the depressing housing that has gone up in the country in the last few decades. Responding to very specific requirements from the clients for notions of retreat and also flexibility, the buildings are uncompromisingly modern, while making deliberate references to the material palettes of local agricultural buildings.

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Arcus College

The new campus of the Arcus College in Heerlen, in the southeast Netherlands is a regional provider of vocational training for the Limburg province. It was designed, says architect IAA Architecten, “to meet the challenges of contemporary vocational education, anticipating future developments in this field and creating an optimised learning environment for a new generation of students”. 

Photography: Little Planet www.littleplanet.be

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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.

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