Ecca collection

Two Housing Blocks

The housing designed by Dubosc & Associes in Montargis, France, is certainly uncompromising. Clad entirely in metal, it eschews any of the conventional domestic touches but it does so in a manner that is refreshing and bright. The only punctuation to the neutral metallic colour comes from the front doors in a cheerful red, with large painted numbers, and sensibly generous vision panels. There is no chance here of forgetting where you live, and the sloping external staircases are both inviting and, argues Eric Dubosc, important places of social interaction. ‘People never talk on internal staircases,’ he says. ‘Here they are out of doors, so they talk and their children play together.’

Read more

Water Towers

Haninge is a municipality about 40 kilometres south of Stockholm (Sweden) which consists of over 3,600 inhabited and uninhabited islands. Previously an industrial area, the area is undergoing a rapid transformation into a residential suburb thanks to its excellent transport links to the centre of Stockholm.

Read more

Torre Agbar

The cigar-like shape of Barcelona’s 38-storey Torre Agbar was inspired, according to its principal architect Jean Nouvel, both by the image of a geyser rising into the air and the profile of the nearby mountain of Montserrat.

Images courtesy of Rafael Vargas

Read more