Ecca collection

Centre Pompidou-Metz

As the first regional offshoot of France’s biggest modern art space and a national cultural institution, the new Centre Pompidou-Metz is already helping to boost the economy of a struggling region. It has already become, according to several reports, France’s most visited cultural venue outside Paris.

Images courtesy of Centre Pompidou Metz - Photos by Didier Boy de la Tour

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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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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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