March 14, 2002
Diplomacy, security part of embassy designs
If the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks changed architecture, students in one UW winter course took on the task of starting to reinvent it.
Every student in the ARCH 504 design studio had to create a hypothetical new U.S. embassy in India incorporating super-heightened security barriers along with the traditional diplomatic features.
Helping guide the designers, along with associate professor Vikram Prakash, was Army Maj. Brian Lamson, a Foreign Service defense attache who is doing graduate work at the Jackson School.
The assignment to design a new embassy in New Delhi, on the site of the present 1950s embassy designed by American architect Edward D. Stone, forced students to ponder the image America should present to the world in this dangerous new era.
The dozen embassy creators had to incorporate anti-terrorism guidelines that include 8-foot-tall perimeter walls and bombproof exterior skins.
A fortress is difficult to present as a symbol of diplomacy, Prakash said. But the students showed a host of inventive solutions at their final review last week before a prestigious panel of experienced architects.
Some of the students sank the embassy underground, protecting diplomats not only from potential attack but also from Delhi’s tropical heat. Another student turned the fortress “inside out” by concealing an open plaza within the citadel.
Ariel Kemp, with his thick, concrete walls, took still another approach.
“After Sept. 11, I’m sort of unashamed to focus on the security,” he said. “We have to face the fact that this is one of the major targets.”
Most of the students, however, sought to camouflage the fortress image, or at least soften it by focusing on lush landscaping and indigenous Indian design gestures.
“Being a friend,” said student Myoungsub Song, “is the best protection.”
