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China Pavilion - Shanghai Expo
One of the most striking pavilions at last year’s Shanghai Expo came, appropriately, from the home country. It was obvious immediately that it was Chinese, through both the inverted pyramid of its shape, with strong horizontals, and the bright red that is immediately reminiscent of monuments such as Beijing’s Forbidden City. The horizontals, with ends cantilevering a short distance beyond the supporting elements below, pay homage to one of the most typical forms in traditional Chinese architecture, interlocking ‘dougong’ brackets. These were always realised in timber but here, in this modern interpretation, are clad in aluminium.
Architect South China University of Technology Institute of Architectural Design (He Jingtang) Location Shanghai - China Company involved Hunter Douglas China Website http://www.hunterdouglasgroup.com -
Chatterley Valley Blue Planet Distribution Centre
If you think you know what a warehouse looks like, even a quick glimpse at the Chatterley Valley Blue Planet distribution warehouse in Newcastle-under-Lyme, North Staffordshire, will confound your expectations. Where most warehouses are rectilinear this one is sinuously curved; where most are of a single dull colour, this one is clad in stripes and different shades of green.
Architect Chetwood Architects Location Newcastle-under-Lyme - UK Company involved Tata Steel Website http://www.colorcoat-online.com -
IT Fornebu
You can’t miss the portal building at IT Fornebu. Set between four intelligently designed but monochrome office blocks on the site of the former Oslo airport in Norway is this brilliant shock of orange, a building that manages to be arresting without being garish, to stand out without seeming incongruous.
Architect a-lab Location Fornebu - Norway Company involved 3A Composites (ALUCOBOND®) Website www.alucobond.com