Ecca collection

Radisson Blu Hotel

Completed in March 2013, the Radisson Blue Riverside hotel in the Swedish port city of Gothenburg overhangs the Göta river like a shimmering shard of titanic proportions.

Constructed for Radisson Hotel’s owner the Winn Hotel Group by major Swedish contractor Skanska, this striking building accommodates 266 guest rooms, together with conference facilities, a bar and restaurant with outdoor seating, and a deluxe roof-top spa.

Images courtesy of Alcoa Architectural Products

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Soweto Theatre

When the sun is setting in Soweto, South Africa, the walls of the new Soweto Theatre glow in a warm gold colour. In fact, these walls are clad in a grey colour, but their double curvature means that they reflect their surroundings, picking up not only the warm tones of the low sun but also the green of nearby trees. This visual richness is simply one manifestation of the wealth of ideas and ambition that are invested in a building that will serve both the local community and the national and international visitors who already come to the township, bringing much needed tourist income.

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AV College

Look at one side of the AV College Helsinki and you appear to be studying a pixellated image of ... well, you can’t tell what, and that is a deliberate strategy on the part of the architects. Ark-House Architects, also based in Helsinki, used six different off-the-shelf colours of prepainted metal to create an almost entirely windowless facade that makes reference to the digital techniques that are happening inside this college, dedicated to audiovisual education. The practice’s Pentti Kareoja says that they considered putting in a definite image, such as a face, but decided to leave it abstract – a wise decision. ‘Now people can find their own images,’ said Kareoja.

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