This was a student project by Tyler Krebs for Kay Bea Jones's course ARCH 4410 in Autumn 2017. Inherently, the program of this project causes a division, resulting in a duality of spaces. Certain spaces are extremely private, secure and protective; they are reserved for the ambassador, officials, and certain staff members. Another set of spaces in an embassy are very public, open, and welcoming. They include the areas to receive service or use an amenity. Typical embassy design leaves these spaces separate, with no interaction with each other. My embassy seeks to create interaction between this differences in program. Allowing the private section to see into the public areas allows officials to see the people they are serving. Visitors are constantly changing and seeing this change certainly breaks up the monotony of a normal work day. Allowing the public to get glimpses of the private areas yields an interesting psychological effect, where visitors are able to “see things they’re not supposed to” which is something humans inherently find appealing. Color is an indicator of these two different groups and emphasizes this disjunction. Color, applied through filtered light, will give a James Turrell-esk experience. The intensity of this light will vary based on approximate length of stay in a space (an everyday office will be much less intense than a room a visitor will typically spend 5 or less minutes in). The result of all of this will blur the lines between the two different groups, while maintaining a sense of individuality. This is just like what an embassy is attempting to do with the two countries involved. It ultimately results in an experiential architecture, exploring the architectural voyeur.
