Levitating Diplomacy
Moscow, Russia
Inspired by the work of Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, my project uses transparency as a design parameter to reimagine how foreign relations architecture presents itself to the city – how can transparency of policy be matched with transparency of dwelling? This fundamental question guided the process in designing a new residence for the U.S. Ambassador to Russia.
Understanding transparency is understanding layers, for transparency depends on layered relationships; one layer provides insight and association to the next. Using this generative idea, my project layers material opacities within the dwelling. The translucent double enclosure envelope provides a sense of ambiguous privacy to those inside while simultaneously allowing in light and an obscured surrounding context. On the inside, adaptable curtains within the glass rooms allow for continual adaptation of living conditions and varies public and private functions, creating various levels of privacy depending on how the residence is manipulated.
For secretive diplomatic requirements, an underground continuous network of rooms connects the basement of the old residence to the new. This underground bunker provides a relief from the transparent levitating dwelling above.
Beyond the architecture, the entirety of the site is reimagined as a forest landscape, once again lush and verdant like it was in the past. The existing ambassador residence on site is relinquished back to nature - its degraded state allowing time to be made visible on site, in stark contrast with the new transparent dwelling.
For the new ambassador residence, the key design parameter was to lift the dwelling off the ground as if it appears to be levitating. Hovering over the lush, romantic, and primitive landscape reintroduced to the site, the interior rooms are cloaked by an ethereal, ambiguous enclosure where movements are made visible and recognizable, but diffuse and obscured.
