Ecca collection

Two Housing Blocks

The housing designed by Dubosc & Associes in Montargis, France, is certainly uncompromising. Clad entirely in metal, it eschews any of the conventional domestic touches but it does so in a manner that is refreshing and bright. The only punctuation to the neutral metallic colour comes from the front doors in a cheerful red, with large painted numbers, and sensibly generous vision panels. There is no chance here of forgetting where you live, and the sloping external staircases are both inviting and, argues Eric Dubosc, important places of social interaction. ‘People never talk on internal staircases,’ he says. ‘Here they are out of doors, so they talk and their children play together.’

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Las Arenas de Barcelona

Barcelona’s historic bull ring Las Arenas, constructed at the very end of the 19th century, fell largely into disuse during the 1970s, owing to the declining popularity of bull fighting in Catalonia.

Images courtesy of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

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HiLASE

The futuristic HiLASE Centre in the Czech village of Dolní Brežany, to the west of Prague, has been built to house the DiPOLE, a diode-pumped solid state laser (DPSSL) developed to help scientists expand the use of laser technology, and which its Anglo-Czech owners hope will justify a €33m (£24m) investment from the European Commission.

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