Located beside the Seine to the south of the city, the Évry Water-Treatment Plant was first established in the 1970s. Following a design competition in 2003, AWP developed a new masterplan for the site, adding four new buildings and a surrounding landscape of trees and gardens that will all be accesible to visitors.

Each of the buildings has a prefabricated concrete structure, with timber screens wrapping the upper sections to soften the industrial appearance of the facades. These screens surround large external ducts, as well as a number of balcony corridors.

The smallest of the four buildings functions as an entrance and exhibition centre for tourists, who will be able to tour the plant when it opens to the public later this year.

We've featured a few water-treatment plants designed by architects on Dezeen, including a combined garden and plant in Germany and a floating island that purifies river water.

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See more architecture in France »

Photography is by Anna Positano.

Here's a project description from AWP:

Water-Treatment Plant, Évry

Construction and renovation of four industrial buildings and a water park

Located on the Seine river front, close to a key metropolitan route (the Francilienne), Évry water depuration plant is a major infrastructural element that is at once symbolic and highly functional, reflecting environmental, technical and urban considerations.

The first plant was built in the 70s and the aim of this renovation is to increase and optimise its capacity. The urban dimension of the equipment has guided us towards a strategy of opening-up and hospitality. Previously rejected and hidden, this infrastructure is now relocated on the urban scene, so as to have a public role and to become symbolic. Regularly open to visitors, this equipment will become both a landmark and an experiential water filtering park.

The formal strategy consists of a main axis along the river where gardens, new buildings and tanks are located. Buildings will be renovated and their façades completely redesigned as urban scale filters.

Location: Évry, France
Client: Communauté d'agglomération d'Évry
Architects: AWP (leading architect) + Ithaques

Team AWP: Marc Armengaud, Matthias Armengaud, Alessandra Cianchetta (partners), Miguel La Parra Knapman, Joseph Jabbour, David Perez (project team)

Engineering: Bonnard & Gardel (leading engineer)
Net surface: 6000 sqm (buildings)
Budget: €42 million
Competition: 2003
Delivery: 2012

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Loïc Picquet renovated the interior of the single-storey farmhouse to accommodate a communal living and dining room, then added the timber-clad extension to create four guest rooms, each with a double bed and en suite bathroom.

The timber frame of the existing structure is exposed inside the building, so the architect followed suit by leaving wooden ceiling beams uncovered in each of the new bedrooms.

Floors are also wooden, while stable doors separate bedrooms from bathrooms and timber-framed cubbyholes contain extra beds and storage areas.

"A new wood construction was added as a natural and fluid extension of the old farm, not only renovating it but mostly honoring it by the use of its history and details," said the architect. "Niches were built in the walls and double doors were chosen over the regular ones, so that a special interaction between the bathroom and the room could be created."

A chunky wooden staircase with staggered treads leads to the new upper floor and marks the divide between the new and old structures.

New timber-framed panel windows were added to the old building, while square Velux windows were installed for each of the bedrooms in the extension.

Other renovated farm buildings to feature on Dezeen include a house in southern England, a converted cattle shed in Belgium and a reconstructed stone stable in Spain. See more renovation projects.

Photography is by Stéphane Spach.

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by Loïc Picquet appeared first on Dezeen.

Located on Avenue Montaigne near the Champs-Élysées, the art deco-inspired Saint Laurent store features a marble staircase encased by rods of nickel-plated brass.

Black and white marble has been used for the walls, floors and a row of shelves, above which hang nickel-plated bars for displaying clothes.

The monochrome interior is reflected in the black and white photographs accompanying the opening of the store.

Formerly known as Yves Saint Laurent, after its founder, the fashion house's name was changed soon after Slimane took over as creative director last spring.

Saint Laurent's Sloane Street concept store in London is set to open in the autumn.

Other fashion boutiques we've featured lately include a shop in Warsaw with an upside-down living room on its ceiling and a Milan boutique featuring glass silhouettes of male and female figures – see all shops on Dezeen.

An exhibition of high fashion inspired by punk recently opened at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art – see all fashion design.

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The four-storey Morangis Retirement Home was designed by Vous Êtes Ici Architectes with a Y-shaped plan that divides the interiors into three wings.

Siberian larch is arranged in vertical strips over the exterior of the building and also forms canopies across the various entrances.

The primary entrance is located at the junction of two wings and leads into the centre of the building. Additional entry points are positioned along the northern facade for service access.

The ground floor of the building is taken up by communal rooms, health facilities and staff areas. Shared dining rooms, living rooms and other social areas are grouped together around the south-east elevation and open to a private residents' garden.

Bedrooms occupy the three upper floors of the building. The first and second floors accommodate typical residents and are divided into clusters of 13 bedrooms, each with their own dining and activity room. Meanwhile, the third floor is dedicated to patients suffering from Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases.

Central corridors provide clear routes between the different sections of each floor. Rather than relying on artificial lighting, they each feature windows to bring in as much daylight as possible.

The third floor also features two roof terraces with direct access to ground level via a pair of outdoor staircases.

We've previously featured a nursing home in Portugal on Dezeen, which was this year shortlisted for the Mies van der Rohe Award.

See more housing developments on Dezeen, or see more architecture in Paris.

Photography is by 11H45.

Read on for more details from Vous Êtes Ici Architectes:

Ehpad de Morangis - Vous Êtes Ici Architectes

How could we build a socially orientated retirement home and never neglect comfort and sensorial fulfillment?

A retirement home for all

Based on an off-plan concept led by AXENTIA as a social contractor and IMMODIEZE as a private developer, the Morangis Retirement Home was constructed with financial support from the Conseil Général de l'Essone, Regional support as well as the Regional Health Agency and the town of Morangis.

The operator and tenant of the new building is an Autonomous Public Establishment that offers stays as low as €60 per day. This low and democratic offer was attained without sacrificing the quality of service or the finish of the construction.

An orientated building

The building is constructed on 4 levels and is based on a Y-shaped plan. The building occupies the site as follows:
1) The main public entrance is located where the "Y' strands connect
2) The north façade is dedicated to service, deliveries and employee's entrance
3) The south façade is generously opened towards the residents private park

The plan is organized according to a few constraints: compact, rational and open towards the outside.

The living areas as well as the main activities areas (restaurant, salon) are developed around the private gardens. These areas benefit from the view and easy dedicated access to the gardens. The gardens include therapeutically themed spaces as well as more traditional paths around flower beds and a rose garden.

The rooms on floor one and two are dedicated to classical geriatric residents, the rooms are disposed into 6 units of 13 rooms each.

The third floor is dedicated to patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease or other similar neurological disorders. The floor includes vast dedicated spaces for specialized activities, rest and well-being.

All the floors are accessible from the central node intersecting all of the buildings functions and patient units.

Views and light for all

One of the base lines of this project is to offer, all through the construction and all its sleeping units, framed views. Each unit has a main gathering area for activities or meals as well as a smaller area placed in front of loggia or suspended gardens. All these small areas include large windows and quality framed views.

The corridors, usually blind and suffocating spaces, always include wider spaces with outside views, this allows our elders to move around at their pace towards lights and rest areas in the buildings circulations, they may easily meet and chat with fellow residents without having a difficult and stressing path to do so.

The third floor has two large terraces easily accessible to the residents. These terraces, widely orientated towards the park, are treated as a prolongation of the inner spaces.

On an individual's point of view, the building rooms were designed differently with windows offering distant views of the countryside and treated as hotel rooms more than hospital rooms. The windows all designed with a glass panel to the floor allowing bedded residents to have a view.

Materials and Volumes

A unique volume with different spaces: unity is not uniformity.

On the outer skin wrapping the building, openings are pierced following no specific symmetry; the sculpted facades offer various views and volumes behind the outer skin.

This envelope covering the building is made out of Siberian larch wood; these wooden boards are warm and comforting. The outer skin vibrates according to the sun and time of the day. The larch boards are top quality solid wood, they are butted together to prevent deformation and to remove defaults.

Wooden awnings extend the facades skin away from the building creating shelter from the sun and rain and protecting the ground floor's salons and restaurants.

Every time the outer skin is punched in to form a dent in the global volume this corresponds to a specific socializing space: inner rest areas widely opened towards the park or the third floors terraces. The "dents" allow the sun and the light to reach in deeply into the building for those whom have difficulties moving about. As soon as the outer skin is breached to create a volume a different material and color is used to outline these inner volumes. A warm orange to yellow coating has been applied on the outer walls exaggerating the warmth of the light. The ambiance is friendly and warm and the yellow resonates nicely with the natural warmth of wood. As a result the dynamic spaces we offer are worth the effort needed to reach by elderly people.

This bright and lively color, stimulating without being aggressive, is also the one used for the window and door frames of the facades found under the awnings and in the bedrooms. As one approaches the building and passes below the awnings towards the yellow coating, as he is welcomed, will feel and understand the building's harmony. One will easily understand how the building works and how it is connected to its natural and urban surroundings.

Developer: Immodieze and AXENTIA for the Conseil General du 91
Architects: Vous Êtes Ici Architectes
Location: Morangis southern Parisian suburb
Program: Retirement home with 91 rooms
Cost: 9.4 million euros
Calendar: First building permit 2010, final delivery 2013
Area: 5315 sqm, 46 parking spaces, total plot area 9950 sqm
Partners and collaborators: Dumez IDF (general contractor), FACEA (fluids engineering) LECARPENTIER (exteriors and landscaping) SPOOMS (kitchen engineering) CAP HORN (Acoustics engineering) LAPOINTE (roads and water engineering)

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by Vous Êtes Ici Architectes appeared first on Dezeen.

Considered a pioneer of 3D printing in the fashion industry, Van Herpen utilises both new technologies and hand crafting techniques to create intricate sculptural designs, as seen in the Skeleton dress (above) designed in collaboration with Belgium-based artist Isaie Bloch.

A 3D-printed piece modelled on the transformation of liquid into crystal (above) and a voluminous handmade dress that references billowing smoke (top) are among the items to be shown.

Thirty pieces designed since she began her own label in 2008 will be exhibited in total, along with photographs and footage from her catwalk shows.

The Iris van Herpen exhibition will be open from 15 June to 31 December at the International Centre for Lace and Fashion in Calais.

A design from Van Herpen's Crystallize collection features on the front cover of our one-off 3D printing magazine Print Shift. We also interviewed her for a feature in the magazine.

She recently created a dress modelled on splashing water during a live week-long web broadcast. Photography is by Bart Oomes.

See more designs by Iris van Herpen »
See more stories about architecture and design exhibitions »
See more stories about fashion »

Read on for further details from the museum:

The International Centre for Lace and Fashion of Calais consecrates a new exhibition to Iris van Herpen. At 29, this young Dutch fashion designer has largely impressed the fashion world with her futuristic sculptural costumes. Through the presentation of thirty pieces created between 2008 and 2012, the International Centre for Lace and Fashion invites the spectator to plunge into the avant-garde universe of this prodigious creator!

Iris van Herpen

Iris van Herpen is a young Dutch designer (born Wamel, 1984) who has made a considerable impact in the world of Haute-Couture in recent years. Following in the footsteps of Martin Margiela, Hussein Chalayan and Rei Kawakubo, her innovative, sculptural dresses represent a major contribution to the conceptual end of high fashion, deconstructing and examining the creative process and the relationship between clothes and the human form.

After training at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in Arnhem (Netherlands) and a passage with Alexander McQueen, Iris van Herpen set out to develop and explore her unique combination of traditional craftsmanship and technological innovation. Invited by the prestigious Chambre Syndicale de la Haute-Couture to show her first Parisian collection in July 2011, Iris van Herpen creates clothes of subtle, poetic, unsettling beauty. Their sculptural forms, enriched by the play of light, place them somewhere between Haute-Couture and contemporary art. And yet the designer does seem intent on creating designs which can be worn by everyone, capturing and reflecting the wearer’s personality and aspirations: she launched her first ready-to-wear line in March 2013.

Exhibition Layout

The International Centre for Lace and Fashion of Calais highlights the recent collections of Iris van Herpen through the presentation of thirty dresses and numerous photographs. The exhibition gallery is a large, minimalist plateau some seven metres tall and sixty metres in length, a majestic backdrop against which to appreciate the creations of this celebrated Dutch fashion designer, unique pieces which blur the boundaries between art, design and fashion. The gallery’s light walls and polished concrete floor will be plunged into twilight, with lights carefully placed to ensure that all eyes are drawn to the dresses on display.

These creations are arranged by date and by collection, displayed on stands so that they can be seen from all angles. These original Iris van Herpen dresses are placed in confrontation and conversation with the photographs displayed immediately opposite them. Visitors can also see the dresses in motion, with footage of van Herpen’s catwalk shows projected on the big screen in the auditorium.

The radically original forms and materials used in Iris van Herpen’s works qualify them as “wearable sculptures”. The pieces displayed here demonstrate her ability to craft complex designs which draw on a wide variety of techniques, with interweaving elements, intricate lacing and fluting. Certain parts of the body, notably the shoulders and hips, are accentuated with voluminous extensions. Some materials make recurring appearances: leather in various forms and styles, acrylics subjected to various manipulations, metal chains and plastic straps. The colour palette is deliberately muted, offset with occasional metallic effects and flashes of iridescence.

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