Ecca collection

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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Ice Skating Arena

Until recently the university town of Enschede in the east of the Netherlands, was perhaps best known for having once had a thriving textile industry; this and the industrial decline that ensued when this historic industry came to a fairly abrupt end in the 1970s, owing to fierce competition from producers in the Far East.

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School Het Perron

Educational theories seem to be one of the fastest changing areas of modern life, as educators struggle to help young people fit themselves to our evolving and challenging world. How then can an architect design a building that will stand for at least 30 years, and accommodate change of which we have not even dreamed?

Images courtesy of ZEEP architecten Amersfoort, Sigrid Schaap, Mark van den Boorn

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