010
2017

German Embassy in Vatican, Holy See

by Johannes Walterbusch from Technische Universität Darmstadt (TUD), Faculty of Architecture, Germany
Tutored by: Prof. Dipl.-Ing. M. Arch. Felix Waechter

Author comments:

The building, consistent of a chancellery and residence, should reflect the connection between Germany and the Holy See. The design confronts a solitaire construction with the enclosed Goethe-Institute, together they form an integrated whole. The building is made up of two vertically stacked parts, which make the functional separation of residence and chancellery visible. In between a free floor is located which can become an outside space to the respective uses.
The design task demanded a high degree of public and free accesibility. Therefore the whole lower unsecured part of the building is expressed as an open, adaptable structure which allows several scenarios.
The groundfloor includes the entrance hall, which works as a distributor to all uses of the building.The event hall, heart of the embassy and understood as an open and generous structure, is located in the first upper floor. In the upper part of the embassy, the secured part, the chancellery and the private flat of the embassador is located. The design solves this task with an unconventional steel structure, which abandons the current picture of a German embassy in favor of a simple, open and flexible expression. In particular concerning the colorfulness, recollections of the appearance for the 1972 summer olympics in Munich arise.
The cosmopolitan representation of Germany at an international level.
In positive sense, an irritating multi-layered impression originates.

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