New U.S. Embassy in London: a Fortress, but Open
Design to be "welcoming" -- but protected from terrorists.
LONDON, Feb. 23, 2010 — -- The age of terrorism has left U.S. embassies around the world with an architectural identity crisis. America wants to show itself as welcoming and friendly -- but its embassies stand in both foreign and American minds as the targets of attack. How to balance demanding security requirements and an intent to convey American principles of openness and democracy?
The new U.S. embassy in London is an eagerly anticipated indication of how the State Department plans to solve that.
Louis B. Susman, the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, today announced the Philadelphia firm Kieran Timberlake as the winner of the new London embassy design competition.
"Kieran Timberlake's design meets the goal of creating a modern, welcoming, timeless, safe and energy efficient embassy for the 21st century," he said.
In a statement, the firm said it set out "to resolve, in architectural terms, what an embassy aspires to be and what aspires to do. The expressive challenge is to give form to the core beliefs of our democracy -- transparency, openness, and equality -- and do so in a way that is both secure and welcoming."
The proposed building is described by Kieran Timberlake as "a transparent, crystalline cubic form atop a colonnade." It will occupy a new site near the River Thames. The building is flanked on one side by a man-made pond and by a series of manicured lawn enclosures, or an "urban park" on the other. The result is a welcoming space -- that also acts as a circular zone of blast protection.
"It happens to be visually open as well as metaphorically and diplomatically open," said Jane Loeffler, author of "The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America's Embassies."
"[The State Department] has made a big effort to underscore that kind of connection, that transparency and that welcoming kind of setting," she said.
The firm says "its precise dimensions have been selected to afford the optimum distance for visitors and occupants to daylight and view." It will also seek to perform as a highly sustainable structure. Solar panels will adorn the roof and three sides of the building will be wrapped in ETFE, or ethylene-tetrafluroethylene. This flexible scrim will provide both shade while also admitting daylight and creating portholes to the outside. It will also transform solar gain into energy.
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