The 21st century is an era of perceived terrorist and ecological threat which sends architecture to the frontline and the city into defensive mode. The embassy building lies at the core of this threat and embodies an apparently inevitable contradiction between being both welcoming and at the same under constant security alert. Like almost no other building type, embassies face a fundamental dilemma: the disguise of defense. The project makes imaginative use of materials and technologies from the defense industry. Chosen initially for their performative qualities, we then explored their formerly untested potential to deliver a new architectural aesthetic. Porous aluminum foam operating as a sacrificial front facade is commonly used to strengthen military vehicles. Used here as an architectural material, it gleams during the day with a mysteriously diffuse light and at night offers glimpses into the interior. Inside, loosely draped fine-net curtains hang in front of the windows. At first glance they offer warmth and homeliness; at the same time they trap the shattered fall-out of a violent attack. The recessed main entry offers a welcoming and luxuriously quilted check-in point, with Russian green velvet covering a matrix of pcm-filled pockets usually used to absorb explosions in public infrastructures such as trash cans.
FAR
frohn&rojas
with rheinpark_r,
project team: Marc Frohn, Mario Rojas Toledo, Max Koch, Martin Kraushaar,
Friedrich Prigge,
Marina Stoynova, Ulrike
Stier, Niels Rosteck
consultants: Downie Consulting Engineers, FKJ, IB Paulus, Stütz