Echo-logis: Unusual

SINOPSIS

The resolve of states to promote green construction has led to the establishment of numerous norms concerning materials and the energy efficiency of buildings. How can those that construct buildings invent a new architectural language with a rich vocabulary when these constraints seem to condemn it to have a meagre one? By thinking about the surrounding landscape and the functioning of the future building, and very often, by freeing themselves of those norms. In Austria, the solar tube encapsulates in its very name the problem and its solution: a tube in order to take maximum advantage of the sun’s heat and light. The Comptoir forestier designed by Philippe Samyn looks like a flying saucer and yet this unidentified object placed in the Belgian countryside is a pure product of the land. The Cadoles brionnaises, designed by the Frenchman Patrick Bouchain for the chef Michel Troisgros. The study of the hospitality and behaviour of the guests of these very uncommon rooms led them to be shaped as they are.