Unit 2 – Low in energy, high in style
Postgraduate Architecture

Unit 2’s project in 2019-20 was for an Embassy located in Regents Park consisting of a Chancellery, the workplace of the Embassy and a Residence where the Ambassador and family would live and entertain. No national identity was given or required-the building had to be intrinsically representational for its named use. Studies of John Nash’s design for the Park and its buildings were required, along with a detailed study of one of his or Decimus Burton’s terraces. Alongside students were required to study an architect from a given list. A detailed brief with areas was given, supplemented in tutorials by my experience in realizing the British Embassy in Warsaw and a visit made possible by Katherine Nolan to the former US Embassy in London currently undergoing transformation by David Chipperfield Architects.

There was an outright requirement to show that representational buildings could be low in embodied energy and constructed in accordance with Passiv Haus methodology, perhaps the most timely requirement in Architecture at this time.