Archwalks

We invite you to explore Frankfurt am Main - an international financial center, an important industrial, service and trade fair center and one of the world's economic cities. Frankfurt am Main is home to the European Central Bank and numerous financial institutions. The specific aspect of the city is the constantly growing high-rise skyline. Some striking skyscrapers are among the tallest in Europe, the first high-rise buildings were built here in the 1960s. We will walk form the Frankfurt Messe district (the second largest fair trade in the world with the history dated back to the 12th century) to the central business district called also Mainhattan to explore its gorgeous skyscrapers.

We invite you to visit the Louis Vuitton Foundation designed by Frank Gehry with its magnificent terrace views. It is a French art museum and cultural center sponsored by the group LVMH situated in the Bois de Boulogne and opened in 2014. “ I dream of design magnificent vessel for Paris that symbolizes France's profound cultural vocation ” – Frank Gehry

The Rolex Learning Center is situated in the campus of EPFL - École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne - in Lausanne, Switzerland. EPFL is a public research University established in 1853,   specializing in engineering and natural sciences. The University has an urban campus that extends alongside Lake Geneva and includes the EPFL Innovation Park as well as university research centers and affiliated laboratories.  The Rolex Learning Center functions as a laboratory for learning, a library and an international cultural hub for EPFL, open to both students and the public. The building consists of library, training centres, social spaces and studios, bar, restaurant and open spaces. To enter the Rolex Learning Center, it is necessary to cross the space under the huge vault with polymorphic curves, pierced by numerous openings. The visitor, immersed in a unitary and homogeneous space, is hardly able to fully embrace the landscape painted by the undulating slab. The proje...

  Les Étoiles d'Ivry are a group of buildings located in the city center of Ivry-sur-Seine 5 km away from the center of Paris . In the 1960s, the municipality decided to rebuild the city center, removing the old housing. The district was designed by architects Renée Gailhoustet and Jean Renaudie . It was the result of reflections on new forms of social housing. The star shape and the terraces are characteristic of Jean Renaudie's work, which broke the standardization of the 1950s and 1960s.  The district buildings contain housing, cultural facilities and shops and traffic routes. The apartments have garden terraces, which are arranged in the concrete cascading pyramids. Jean Renaudi in his practice designed a form of architecture that, due to its starkness and the simplicity, is described as 'Brutalist'. The Jeanne-Hachette Centre (the part of the disctrict) gave him international recognition. Jean Renaudi never wished to systematise architecture. He created a wid...

  We invite you to discover Düsseldorf - the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. We will take a walk in the Marina Duesseldorf port, discovering the gorgeous project by Frank Gehry - Neuer Zollhof . Then, we will go to the city center to see the Kö-Bogen commercial center by Studio Libeskind, Kö-Bogen II by Ingenhoven and Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus by Bernhard Pfau. After that, we will walk to the Altstadt - the Old City - the historical, political and cultural center with numerous shops and over 300 pubs and restaurants giving the Old Town the reputation of being the “longest bar in the world”. And, in the final part, we will do the promenade along the river Rhine - one of the major European rivers.

  This magnifiscent brutalist district Les Choux de Créteil is situated in the commune  Créteil  in the suburbs of Paris. It is the large complex of cylindrical buildings which includes ten 15-floors high round towers, a ring building of 6 floors, two schools and car boxes. The complex was designed by Gérard Grandval and was completed in 1974. This project is a kind of architecture-sculpture, the concrete poetry. The shape of the towers, similar to a cauliflower because of the balconies, gives its nickname to this neighborhood.  The project was recognized as a "Heritage of the 20th Century" by the French Ministry of Culture in 2008. Les Choux de Créteil was initiated in 1966 at the place of the market garden which was one of the main vegetable production centers in Paris.  The architect Grandval said “he was tired of seeing enormous buildings rise, perfectly aligned, similar to each other and without character: the excuse of the war - was no longer enoug...

We invite you to discover the modern parts of Lausanne , Switzerland: the new arts district Plateforme 10 with its Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts which manifests the industrial memory of the site with rigid and precise geometry and stiff lines. It was designed by the studio Barozzi Veiga and opened in 2019. Then, we will take a ride on the automated metro line of the city which has its peculiarity - it has inclination of 5.7% to 12% - to arrive to the Olympic House - the new HQ of the International Olympic Committee designed by 3XN + Itten+Brechbühl and opened in 2019. Picturesque views of the Lake Geneva and an architectural bonus - in the end of the video.

  La Samaritaine (currently owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) - the historic department store in Paris. The history of this store dates back to 1870, when Ernest Cognacq opened a small shop that over the years became a 70.000m² block combining Art Nouveau and Art Déco styles of its facades. The Japanese studio SANAA has designed a new futuristic facade of undulating glass that marks the entrance to the department store which became a mixed-use development and contains now a hotel, offices, housing, and a kindergarten. Its double glass skin reflects in its folds the Parisian ornament and the life of the city that surrounds it.

  We invite you to walk throught the historic center of Paris to discover its luxury elegance, the historic department stores - La Samaritaine (currently owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton), Yayoi Kusama and the gems of architecture: Forum des Halles and The Centre Pompidou . The relaxing walk under the rain with unique Parisian vibes.

  We invite you to visit the Rolex Learning Center designed by Japanese studio SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa) which contains campus hub and library for the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), in Lausanne, Switzerland. It has one of the largest scientific collections in Europe and it is also one of the most emblematic architectural projects at the beginning of this century. The building is a rectangle in plan, but very organic in shape because of the way it undulates touching the ground lightly and leaving an open space beneath. New episode about Lausanne is on our channel.

The bus shelter of the Mendrisio FFS station is designed by  Bassi Carella Marello Architectes and completed in 2014. The new bus shelter connects the railway station with the bus stop by the concrete gallery. This project is crucial for the promotion of public transport. Next to the shelter is situated the new 'Bike & Rail' parking area. This intervention permits travellers to easily switch between four wheels, train and bike.