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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Refurbishment Police Academy

Architect Leon Thier talks of the unexpected silence in the 25m-high atrium, the focal point and “new heart” of the recently refurbished Apeldoorn Policy Academy building in the central Netherlands.

Images courtesy of Thea van den Heuvel

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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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