Residenz

Santiago de Chile
2015

An ambassador’s residence is an uncanny combination of state and home. Formal rituals and events coincide with personal effects and domestic scenes. This doubleness provoked us to address two questions when refurbishing the German residence in Chile: How can architecture integrate both the vocabulary of national identity and the vocabulary of the private home? How can the design be domestic but not personal, embodying an ambassadorial role, and yet leaving room for the changing array of individuals who will inhabit it? The choice of grey for the paneling and wall surfaces is both neutral and specific at the same time: it is neutral as a backdrop for the varied furnishings that each ambassador will introduce to the space, and it is also highly specific, as it is one of the primary colors of the visual identity of the German government. In the private quarters, the official national emblem of the German eagle is subtly abstracted in a bespoke design as an unfolded origami eagle wall-paper.