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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.
Architect AGS Architekten & Planners Location Nijmegen - The Netherlands Company involved Euramax Coated Products Website http://www.euramax.nl -
Corlett Drive
105 Corlett Drive is a striking commercial building in the Johannesburg suburb of Birnam housing the innovative advertising agency The Creative Counsel. A two-storey office building sits above a three-storey car parking podium on three double-volume cones clad in lacquered steel “scales” from ArcelorMittal. These, together with high-specification glazing of the office space, comprise a dynamic architectural envelope that reflects the ever-changing sunlight, the sky and surrounding landscape, adding an element of high drama to an otherwise serious looking structure.
Architect Paragon Architects (Anthony Orelowitz) Location Melrose Arch, Sandton - South Africa Company involved ArcelorMittal Website http://www.arcelormittal.com/construction -
City Hall Gauchy
Should you choose to get married in the town of Gauchy en Vermandois, in the Picardy region of France near the Belgian border, you may find yourself a little distracted while taking your vows. Architect Dubosc & Associes has carefully sited the city hall so that the marriage room enjoys spectacular views across the valley. This is calming, one hopes, for tattered nerves rather than a distraction for anyone who is wondering if they have made the right decision.
Architect Dubosc & Associés Location Gauchy - France