Embassy of the Czech Republic Addis Abeba / Ethiopia

Faculty of Architecture and Design STU in Bratislava

Project idea

The aim of the assignment was to create a functioning complex of the embassy in Addis Ababa, which would represent Czech Republic, expressing the cultural level of the state and the traditions of Czech architecture ( within the European and world context). Architecture should
in terms of form and content, to express the appropriate degree of state representation, to reflect genius loci and to meet the requirements of functionality and efficiency.

Project description

The embassy complex consists of an entrance building, an official building of the Embassy of the Czech Republic, consular and visa office, apartment building for the embassy staff, residences of an ambassador, a garage, a service building and premises for leisure activities of employees - sports facilities, swimming pool, playground.
The object of the local forces is designed as a separate object, located behind the proposed road and is separated by fencing from the other office. The land is large enough, so we also dealt with it in a certain way as representative a garden where social events can be organized. From the zoning point of view, the land is designed as an official, representative, residential, technical-economic, recreational zone and zone for local forces (see design scheme).

Objects are treated as separate functional units. Controlled entrances are suggested 3: entrance + drive in for employees and official visits through the gatehouse to the area by the official building, private entrance and entrance of the ambassador, entrance for the consulate visitors and
the visa facility (the operational solution prevents the movement of visitors to the rest of the embassy, the employees primarily use the entrance to the building from the premises of the Embassy) and enter the premises of the local forces.

URBANISTIC SOLUTION

The urban design of proposal of the Czech Embassy in Ethiopia's Addis Ababa is based on the skeleton / overlapping walkway principle, followed by individual objects:
- official building
- visa and consulate object
- Housing object of employees
- Ambassador's residence

Between these individual buildings there are various exterior spaces - "yards", which have different functions - representative garden, tukul, sports field with pool, playground, ambassador's private garden with swimming pool. Parking is solved as underground garage with entrance directly opposite main entrance to the area. This is also complemented by parking lots on the surface (within the secondary zone). The Ambassador has a private covered garage with two parking spaces.

Technical information

The architecture of the buildings itself is based on simple materials, with a rectangular shape. Location of individual buildings adheres to the necessary safety distances from the site boundaries - 10 meters. The building of the official building consists of 3 above ground floors + 1 above ground floor, residence of ambassador has 2 floors, residential object of employees has 4 floors and object of local forces has 2 above ground floors. Others are designed as one-storey objects. Representative buildings - the official building and residence of the ambassador are distinctive by a pre-shielding / forming a shielding support structure and a perforated sheet /. The pattern of perforation was created by abstraction of traditional Ethiopian patterns, which are mainly used on textiles. Facades in terms of materials are dominated by concrete and brick. The lining is designed as recessed and oblique. The cover of the walkway and the terrace is solved by shielding with wooden lamellas.

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