This was a student project by Chris Burroughs for Jane Murphy's course ARCH 4410 in Autumn 2017. This embassy is a reaction to the current relationship between the United States of America and Mexico. The current relationship is a negative one; one that is filled with tension and disapproval of the United States Administration from the Mexican people. As a reaction to this, my goal for this project was to make the image of America very welcoming while still maintaining adequate security, in the form of an embassy. To start off, I began with a simple box scheme, and I started to carve away from this box to do a few things. The first of which was to break up the program and scale of the building into four parts: Embassy office space for employees, shared space for both employees and citizens, a civic center for both Mexican and American citizens, and lastly, parking along the entire side of the site. Another thing this carving allowed me to do was to create two different conditions. The exterior skin condition, which would be constructed using channel glass, holds a strong and secure edge. The channel glass would allow light into the building while limiting views to and from the street, so that it appears welcoming while still performing its function as a secure edge. The other condition, an interior condition, is a result of the subtraction of mass from the original box form. This would be constructed as a curtain wall system, and would allow interior views from one building to another, as well as into the raised patio that is open to the public. Combined, these conditions and breakup of scale and program allow the building to be understood easily and appear welcoming to the Mexican citizens.
