State in a State

Representing their country as a state within a state, the embassy fulfills political, economic, legal, educational, and cultural roles. To house all these functions in a suitable building while remaining flexible for future adaptations, we chose to integrate the program into a collection of various volumes—creating valuable interstitial spaces within a campus-like structure for the Swiss Embassy. The starting point of the project is the existing buildings and the surrounding walls. They define the layout and set the parameters for the positioning of the new constructions and functions. By extending, shortening, and modifying the existing walls, different spatial qualities of the site are emphasized and new ones are created: new gardens, passages, the entrance square, and the main courtyard.

Expansion of the Swiss Embassy in Beijing, China, including office buildings, a large representative multipurpose room, clear security checks, an apartment, garage, and the publicly accessible Swiss Tourism Office.

2018

Beijing, China

Total area: 6'200 m2

Phase:

Offener Wettbewerb

Client:

Bundesamt für Bauten und Logistik (BBL)

Team Studio Sito

Simone Schnyder, Thomasine Wolfensberger

Vasiliki Nikoloutsou (PM), Michiel Gieben

Partner:

Landscape: Enea Landscape Design GmbH