Diplomacy of evolving identities

Project idea

HOW CAN THE DESIGN OF AN EMBASSY represent
the evolving HETEROGENEOUS VALUES AND IDENTITIES
OF A NATION STATE.
The project argues that a complete view of a nation state can be depicted by the design of its embassy building. It proposes a new hybrid typology
– Embassy as a Museum – that takes its inspiration from the dynamic nature of a nation’s identity, and utilises spaces as a canvas of the evolution of its identity.
The project sifts through a nation state’s culture to identify agents of national identity (beliefs and values), and represents those through architecture.
The project is rooted in cultural diplomacy, wherein the museum programme will transform the embassy complex into a place of cultural exchange.
In Embassy as a Museum, architecture facilitates the representation of the various past identities that have shaped a nation state’s present, and will affect how it is perceived in the future perception.

Project description

The hybrid of embassy-museum sits between the main embassy block and the visa block and the museum connects it together.
The museum space is made up off 5 galleries that individually tell a story of the evolving identity of Czech republic from being part of an Aristocratic empire to being a post-communist nation. The visa applicants will be made to go through this curated path to understand the history about Czech republic and their journey will end at the waiting lobby that is designed with columns of various heights to signify that the identity is changing again but hasn't taken up shape completely.
To symbolise the changing values, the galleries are connected by transition spaces that have an interplay of light and shadow.

The design of the project evolved from the concepts of MAT strategy and its compositional principles of : Metrics, Programme and Place
1. Metrics:
the site was divided into a grid of 6250x5000mm which is proportional to the gird of 80x100m, which is derived from how majority of Czech town squares use a similar ratio for their planning (Joines-Novotny, Laura. (1996). Czech Town Squares: Ten Spatial Patterns. Journal of Architectural Education.) The grid was then used to organise the movement and main office blocks on the site.
2. Programme:
certain spaces outlined in the brief were grouped together depending upon the type of use from public to private areas within the site.
eg: the tea room on every floor used grouped together with the photocopier room.; the entrance hall of the main embassy building was grouped with the assembly hall for major functions.
3. Place:
Bringing in the context of Ethiopia into the site, the building is designed with rammed earth as the main construction material as the Ethiopian soil is very rich in clay content and any excavated earth can be a potential source of building construction. Apart from the materiality, the project took inspiration from the everyday pattern found in the Ethiopian context and juxtaposed them onto the design.

For the facade, the grid was projected onto the walls as well, and the blocks of 800x1000mm were staggered to symbolise the fact that identity as a concept is dynamic in nature.

The whole spatial planning follows the concept of nodes and transitions, where nodes refer to the concrete identity and transition spaces refers to the change from one identity to another.

Technical information

Master plan 1:750
Floor Plan 1:250
Site Section 1:150
Part Section 1:50
Construction Detail Section 1:50
Embassy-Museum-Visa Axonometric view
render views