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Ice Skating Arena
Until recently the university town of Enschede in the east of the Netherlands, was perhaps best known for having once had a thriving textile industry; this and the industrial decline that ensued when this historic industry came to a fairly abrupt end in the 1970s, owing to fierce competition from producers in the Far East.
Architect IAA Architecten Location Enschede - The Netherlands Company involved Tata Steel Website http://www.colorcoat-online.com -
Crown Metropol Hotel
Dark aluminium fins on the facade of the Crown Metropol Hotel in Melbourne, Australia play a vital but subtle role in giving a sense of excitement to a building that has to fit in a complex environment and also help define that environment. The sinuous 28-storey hotel is one of three on the city’s relatively new Crown Entertainment Complex. Sitting to one side of the complex, and linking to the entertainment facility and also to a congress centre, on one side it overlooks a relatively rundown area of small industry, ripe for regeneration.
Architect Bates Smart Location Melbourne - Australia Company involved 3A Composites (ALUCOBOND®) Website www.alucobond.com -
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