Ecca collection

Maas Tower

On a misty day in Rotterdam, the taller of the two towers that make up the Maas Tower development seems to disappear into the sky. Oddly, on a clear day, the effect is not entirely different. Although the light silvery colour of the tower stands out sharply against a blue sky, there is a fading away at the top that cannot just be put down to the diminution that comes with distance.

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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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ThyssenKrupp Headquarter Essen

ThyssenKrupp’s decision to relocate its operations from 15 different sites across the Ruhr region to a former industrial site at Essen, where the company was founded, has resulted in an award-winning collection of strikingly modern buildings amid a newly created green and peaceful urban district boasting its own micro-climate.

Images courtesy of C. Richters / AACMA / JSWD

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