The Embassy of the Czech Republic in Addis Ababa

CTU in Prague - Faculty of Architecture

Project idea

The Embassy of the Czech Republic in Addis Ababa consists of five functional parts; the embassy, the ambassador’s residence, consulate and visa buildings, apartment building for the administrative employees and housing for the local forces.

Project description

Due to the design brief and the neighbouring school, I placed the housing for the local forces into the western part of the plot, that I divided with a newly proposed pedestrian zone. The pedestrian zone leads from the embassy itself. The compound of embassy is divided into three part - a garden for the apartment building, that is oriented towards the west, towards the housing of the local forces. The representative garden of the embassy is situated in the opposite direction – towards the east. The northern part of the plot is dedicated to the ambassador’s residence. The main entrance into the embassy is from the south, with a passageway for cars into the newly extended street that runs along the southern part of the plot. The southern tip of the plot, that is cut off, is allowed to be covered freely in greenery.

I perceive the building of the embassy as a heavy volume, that excerpts confidence and security. The entire plot of the whole compound is flat, without being divided zonally and without being directly linked to the surrounding built environment. In order to firmly anchor the building, as a solitaire in the surrounding development, I introduced a raster, that is orientated according to the legible orientation of the surrounding development. In order to introduce the missing diversity of the terrain, I have sliced the embassy according to its functions. The individual volumes are slightly separate into the garden, thought the stay in close contact with each other. Tension is formed in between the buildings, but the whole compound stays compact.

The embassy building has two floors – a representative floor of the embassy is placed on a raised ground floor and opens into the east, towards the garden. On the second floor, the offices of the embassy can be found. They are orientated towards the west, in order not to be in direct contact with the representative garden. The ambassador’s residence has its representative spaces on the ground floor, orientated towards the eastern representative part of the ambassador’s garden, that is separated from the garden of the embassy. The private part of the residence is situated on the upper floor and is orientated towards the inner garden, that is raised to its level.

Technical information

The greenery is an important part of the proposal, as it shades the buildings from the west and organically grows through the rigid structure. Bright concrete volumes penetrate the greenery in the north-south direction. They are joined by pathways, that service them. Their facades are lightened with glass and shading lamellas. This form of shading is also used on the wall to wall glazing of the windows of the embassy’s offices – as shading and shielding against rain. The outdoor pergola structures create pedestrian links between the individual volumes

Co-authors

doc. Ing. arch. Zdeněk Rothbauer, Ing. arch. Vojtěch Sosna, Ing. arch. Karel Filsak