On a larger scale, the project for the new Embassy acknowledges the historic urban composition of Bryanston Square with its four stuccoed corner
landmarks, bookending the brown brick canvas of the Georgian terraces conforming the square. The existing building, itself a conglomerate of parts, responds to different conditions (square, road, mews) in a disparate way. The proposal aims at both re-articulating and consolidating the building and its contextual relationships, embracing its historical complexity and establishing new dialogues. Strategically, it adopts the tripartite composition of base, shaft and capital to deal with the programmatic and physiognomical transformations, converting the existing aggregative rigidity into a looser continuity around its three aspects. The project looks at the opportunity posed by the least formal aspect of the setting (the mews) and how it can be activated by a new semi-public wing, connected to the Embassy or the mews on a flexible basis and affirming the Swiss representation as a place of openness.

Visualisation: Ethan de Clerk