Unique housewarming gift idea

To celebrate German reunification and to give the new capital city a sense of the world's hope for its future, the five Scandinavian countries together reached an extraordinary diplomatic agreement: to build new embassies collectively in Berlin, once again Germany's official seat of government. To deliver their message of Nordic unity in symbolic terms, the Scandinavians enlisted the cream of their architectural talent to translate their common heritage into the universal language of design.

This is the first time the Nordic countries have ever grouped their embassies together, a decision grounded in political reality but gracefully resolved in a synthesis of good design. The construction of five new embassies and a sixth shared building is a logical outgrowth of "Nordic cooperation," a concept in effect since 1952, when Scandinavians formed the Nordic Council to bring the parliaments and ministers of the five countries into closer contact. Its practical realization has brought many benefits to Nordic citizens: the freedom to cross five borders without passports, for example, and the opportunity to find employment in any of the five countries.

The new embassies suggest yet another dimension of Nordic cooperation: the idea that national interests can be harmonized by a shared vision of unity. To express this symbolically, each country selected a native architect to design its unique embassy, based on common Scandinavian design principles, rooted in the Nordic appreciation of nature. The finished buildings are unified behind a louvred copper wall that flows around the site to form a protected embassy compound. As a whole, it packs a powerful design presence that has already made it a Berlin landmark, with a bus stop at the entrance named Nordische Botschaften (Nordic Embassies).

The German political establishment in Berlin has not restored any historical sites to their previous uses except for the Bendler Block and the Reichstag (parliament). The Scandinavians, by contrast, displayed a surprising loyalty to place in selecting a locale for their new embassies. Finland and Sweden returned to the pre-war site of their old embassy buildings and repurchased the neighboring properties for 31 million German marks. Denmark acquired land nearby, and it was not long before Iceland and Norway followed.

Opening Fanfare

The site chosen for the embassy complex is located on the triangular plot of land between Rauch and Klingelhofer streets at the southern edge of the Tiergarten park, a wealthy residential area in the heart of Berlin. Besides serving the political interests of each country, the embassy complex stands as a permanent expression of the Nordic outlook and lifestyle. In sharp contrast to its staid surroundings, the embassy complex seems like a Scandinavian entry in the year 2000 Expo in Hanover placed on permanent loan in Berlin. The five proud pavilions and a sixth shared facility, Faelleshuset (house for everybody), form an architectural wonderland in the city's old diplomatic quarter, where they formally opened on October 20, 1999, in the presence of the Nordic heads of state.

Scandinavia is familiar to many Germans from vacation visits, so it was hardly surprising that 20,000 spectators showed up on the first day to tour the facilities. In his opening remarks Germany's president, Johannes Rau, referred to the complex as a "Laboratory of the Modern" presented to the capital city. Critical acclaim followed in German, Swedish, Finnish and British newspapers and design journals. In Architektur Aktuell, Klaus-Dieter Weiss described the complex as "artfully staged...political architecture. The democratic ideal of equality," he wrote, "has perhaps never found a more attractive and convincing gesture than in this ensemble." In London's Wallpaper, Jessica Cargill Thompson praised the "optimistic and singularly modern international spirit" of the new embassies, whose completion marks Berlin's first decade as a united city. In Berliner Morgenpost, Rainer Stache wrote, "The stunning new embassies should help Germany and Scandinavia to work more closely together in shaping the New Europe....their diversity and unity prove that a synthesis can be achieved."

Power and Glory

If embassy buildings are the calling cards that nations leave in the capitals of the world, then the Nordic countries have certainly given Germany quite a housewarming gift at their new address in Berlin: a powerful architectural statement of the Nordic spirit conveyed in the treatment of space, materials and light in the six structures designed by Scandinavia's foremost architects.

The master plan for the embassy complex originated with the Finnish-- Austrian architect couple, Berger & Parkinnen. Their scheme ties together the individual pavilions with a banderole of green-patinated copper laminate to constitute a mutual facade. Within the curved copper boundary wall each country has kept its sovereign freedom of appearance, its embassy enveloped in a genuine little city plan complete with streets, alleys and waterfalls.

The 7,200 square meter complex shows how practical it is to erect big-city, block-like, closely-spaced buildings around an internal grid. This design concept was achieved by cutting one solid volume into smaller volumes that define six distinct units (the buildings). The cutting edges also create voids which form the main square, the pond, and the streets, leaving no space unused. The surrounding copper wall encloses the six buildings with a flowing movement that transforms the scale of the individual structures, giving each embassy an appropriate presence within the unified design.

The Community Building (also designed by the master planners) resembles a slatted wooden box instead of the glass cases so typical of office architecture. With an atrium cut into the entrance facade, it concentrates spatial energies in a combination of multiple-purpose rooms that function as the embassies' shared reception and information areas. Outside the security zone (but still in the building) is an exhibition area that extends to the terrace, a 100-seat auditorium paneled in red leather, and a communal staff restaurant, all of which are expected to attract the general public to Nordic social and cultural events.

As an aid to orientation, the architects positioned the five pavilions according to their geographic location and aligned them in an East-to-- West arch: Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Denmark. The moderate height of the pavilions (15 meters, four floors) may seem more proportionate to a dollhouse than to such official structures, but the asymmetrical floorplans and the interiors, which open onto cross-like walkways beneath the sky, enlarge the space to create an illusion of considerable depth.

Nordic Style

The daily consular work of the five Nordic countries is done on the east side of the Community Building in a sober-looking room, reminiscent of bank offices. Co-workers and political guests pass from the opposite side through a central security control. Behind the filigreed wood fencing, there is an expansive, freestanding glass staircase surrounded by open floorspace that can be used for conferences or festivities.

Despite all the miniaturization, there is surreal sense of space in the complex. The voids between the buildings and the copper wall that envelopes them have been made into interior streets, paved with heavy granite. The volume of each building is sharply defined to emphasize its sculptural form; each wooden facade follows the line of the plot, while its other exterior walls curve gracefully to complement it.

Each embassy is like a small architectural exhibit, expressing the country's unique design identity. The Embassy of Finland (by the team of Lehtinen, Maki and Peltola) is like a glass box seen behind a latticework facade covered with slats of aspen wood, which act like a Venetian blind to protect the interior by filtering incoming light. The entrance opens into a central hall that runs through the building and ends in a small courtyard outside. A plywood-clad conference room suspended above the skylighted central hall offers a panoptic view of the interior from a height, a feature which also promotes discipline and order among employees during office hours. The circular steel staircase beneath the aerial conference room further elaborates the complex use of space.