Ecca collection

Torre Agbar

The cigar-like shape of Barcelona’s 38-storey Torre Agbar was inspired, according to its principal architect Jean Nouvel, both by the image of a geyser rising into the air and the profile of the nearby mountain of Montserrat.

Images courtesy of Rafael Vargas

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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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Maison Hessel

The brief for Lille’s Maison Stéphane Hessel called for the design of a building which would serve three main functions: a 200-bed youth hostel, a creche for up to 70 children, and government-sponsored incubator for social and economic innovation.

©Julien Lanoo

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