Meaning, culture and symbol.

Project idea

What value does the word have?

For some, words are no more than sounds that emerge from the mouth; however, for others they represent the meaning of life itself, its honor, its value as human beings. The word as such gives meaning to the existence of man. It is the image of your inner being, this is the result of the dynamics of your internal dialogues.

But the word does not only govern the individual, it encompasses the collective: it identifies it, defines it and in many cases it is the mantle under which a feeling of belonging to the community is generated.

In addition, the value of the word is not limited only to a purely interstitial regime of the community, culture or country. The word allows contact between the different peoples of the world, is the support of the only mode of communication and understanding, the ultimate goal of diplomacy.

The proposal for the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Ethiopia orbits under the idea of ​​contact between peoples and how this is translated into the architectural space in composition, materiality and symbolism.

Project description

OFFICIAL EMBASSY BUILDING.

The Official Building of the Embassy is configured from the composition of four prisms arranged around a large intersiticial space, which are losing their compactness with height. The placement of these prisms responds to two logics: the functional (imposed by the strict program that is requested) and the conceptual (idea of ​​embassy as a place of contact between two states).

At the level of composition of the plant, two main entrances are arranged, each one on an opposite side of the volume. The visitor enters through the main entrance through the walls and the great hall and the host enters the opposite entrance, that is to say the ambassador, the consul and the officials.

Programmatically the building follows a very clear logic. To elevate the building it is decided to place the parking, storage rooms and technical rooms at elevation (+0), so that the entry is made by the First Floor. With this operation, two objectives are achieved: generating an integrated plinth in the volume that gives greater representation to the whole, and raising the representative halls to the first floor, generating visual relationships with the surroundings that exceed the perimeter security wall.
In the upper floors (+2 and +3) the offices of sections A, D (+2) and B, C (+3) are distributed.

Conceptually, as has been said, the building is considered the institutional meeting point between the state of the Czech Republic and that of Ethiopia. This is expressed in the access walls to the embassy, ​​as well as in its configuration in plan and section. The main entrance is made through a stairway between two walls that goes to the large entrance hall. These walls have a great symbolic load: fragments of Czech politics, culture and thought are engraved on them, which serve as a letter presenting the country to the visitor. On the left wall the fragments are written in Czech and on the right its symmetric in ahmarico. One wall is the reflection of the opposite in the other language.

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CONSULAR AND VISA BUILDING.

The building is located on the southern edge of the plot adjoining the street and the neighboring buildings. Given its peripheral condition and the opening operation of the interior of the complex, it is constituted as an entity with greater autonomy than the rest. This allows it to operate towards the outside of the complex as well as towards the inside. This will be the main design strategy of the building.


The building must respond to two entrances: one towards the street and another towards the embassy complex. For this, you do not choose to generate them literally, but both inputs are the same in the form of an arc. This arch, which connects both realities is the generator of the rest of the building that is built transversally to it and placing its interior access inside.
Towards the south face there is a sheet of water that seeks to enlarge the space, refresh it, provide greater security and generate a pleasant place to wait for the issuance of visas or meetings with officials.
On the north side it will face the interior street of the complex and the representative access of the embassy.


On the ground floor is the waiting room, the windows for personal attention of the Visa Issuance Department and the meeting rooms. The access is made by a double height entrance hall and a security lobby. The offices of the Consular Department and the Visa Department as well as the archive rooms are located on the top floor.

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OFFICIAL RESIDENCE.

The official residence follows simultaneously two logics that mark the language and composition of the constructions in the project. It constitutes in itself a formal transition between the language of representativeness marked by the embassy and the consulate, but translated into a domestic logic.

For this, the L-shaped building is made up of the use of the blocks used in dwellings but generating places among them of greater spatial tension.
Thus, the entrance follows the strategy of the consulate in which two entrances and a porch are generated in height from a spatial gesture. On the one hand it responds and has an eye on the urbanization of the embassy, ​​and on the other a private entrance.

It also uses the ceramic skin that appears in the representative buildings, because although it is a private residence it will also be the meeting place for personalities and a place of high institutional activity.

The program is arranged in height, so that the halls, the hall and the official dining room are on the ground floor and the private rooms on higher floors.

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RESIDENTIAL BUILDING OF THE LOCAL WORKFORCE.

The residential building for local workers is located outside the embassy complex but adjacent to it. It has a priority access to the northern entrance of the urbanization and has its own space and plot.

Compositively it is generated from the placement of two blocks of houses in the longitudinal direction separated in the middle by the entrance hall and the vertical communication core.

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RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS OF THE EMBASSY STAFF.

Located between the water channel that adjoins the safety wall and the walkway where the common garden for residents is located, the project is based on the desire to maintain the intimacy and delicacy of the place, prioritizing the quality and comfort of the homes. All the blocks are oriented towards the common garden where there is a nursery, technical rooms and a tukul where to make a fire in community.

The program is divided into three buildings with East - West orientation that houses four housing units each, all with triple orientation and natural ventilation. Among them, two atypical volumes contain covered galleries for private use that, through walkways, give access to homes. With space for storage, pantry, parking for bicycles and even barbecue, these galleries avoid the invasion of common outdoor areas.

The construction of these blocks is done by means of prefabricated panels with an integrated structure in order to look for a simpler and cheaper construction and wanting to create an effect of deepening the wall in the openings that it opens.

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COMMUNITY GARDEN.

The place of community life is in the garden. In it is located a covered space for the celebration of parties or events, an indoor pool and a place that can also serve as a playground for children. A “tukul” is also placed: a traditional African construction, authentic symbol of meeting between people around a fire.

The entire garden is surrounded by water, which delimits it, gives freshness and helps plant indigenous flora.

Technical information

EMBASSY COMPLEX MASTERPLAN

Urbanistically, the operation of joining two streets is being carried out, creating a new interior road that gives access to two different points. In this place the main access to the site is located and serves to make the consulate independent from the rest of the urbanization.
Internally, the aim is to create a microworld in itself, since the relations with the environment outside the enclosure are conditioned by height and are only possible in elevated floors. Therefore, a game is proposed between nature, (as a garden, unstructured as would be the European French canon, but as a place of free nature with different native species), water and construction. The water seeks to generate a pleasant and fresh environment and internally subdivides the large dimensions of the plot. The constructions play to be placed playing with both elements and creating special places with their own characteristics. Subdivide the space allows you to limit it, understand it and grant programs that allow you to enjoy its use.

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TECHNICAL SOLUTION

The project plays with the contrast of the use of the wall in raw concrete, heaviness, gravity, tradition ... against the light wall: lightness, transparency, modernity.

The constructive detail of the double ceramic mesh skin generates the image and identity of the whole. It has a dual function: privacy and passive regulation in the face of climatic factors.