Ecca collection

High school Clouet

'Transformation' is a word that is used too commonly in schools, but in the case of the high school Francois Clouet in Tours, central France, it is appropriate. The original school, built in the 1960s, was constructed inexpensively, and it showed. Now architect Dubosc & Associés has retained and upgraded one of the buildings and built two new ones, giving the school an entirely new look and feel. 'I must say - with a little pride,' said Eric Dubosc, ‘that the teachers and the pupils, who did not like the old school at all, adore the new one.'

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Bilbao Arena

Architectural practice ACXT admits that local geology and vegetation were both influential in the design of the striking Bilbao Arena and Sports Centre, which occupies a steeply inclined site, within a park, in the city’s central Miribilla district.

Images courtesy of Jorge Allende and Aitor Ortiz

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ROC Carolus School

The first impression of the ROC Carolus building is deceptive, and deliberately so. Passers-by and visitors see a ‘crazy’ building, a fractured and playful facade, with irregularly polygonal windows breaking up the variety of shades of grey in the prepainted metal cladding that floats above a glazed ground floor. This cladding in turn has ‘fault lines’ along it, as if the whole could shatter in an instant. It takes a moment to realise that this is disguising the fact that the building in fact consists of relatively regular blocks joined by glazing. The overall assembly is largely rectilinear, but with one end curving to a point like the prow of a ship. Far from this being an example of unexplained exuberance, careful consideration has gone into making the facade, like the rest of the building, hard working and affordable.

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