Design studio The Miller Hull Partnership has drawn upon Mayan structure and the “openness and optimism” of American democracy to create an embassy in Guatemala’s capital that consists of rectilinear buildings set in a lush panorama.
Situated about 9 kilometres from the town’s historic centre, the embassy advanced sits on a sloping, 9.4-acre (3.8-hectare) website and encompasses a predominant workplace constructing, help buildings, a storage, a gymnasium and a sports activities court docket. Roughly 300 folks work on the campus.
Designed by Seattle’s The Miller Hull Partnership, the advanced incorporates a collection of rectilinear volumes of various dimensions which are set inside a richly vegetated panorama.
“The conceptual type is reflective of the necessary relationship between our two international locations,” stated David Miller, founding companion of Miller Hull.
The location’s predominant aspect is the workplace constructing, which consists of conjoined bars that step down the hillside. Decrease ranges are clad in gray granite. The higher portion is a glazed tower wrapped in a brise-soleil manufactured from translucent glass with stainless-steel fittings.
“The mega-structural, dark-stone base references the pre-Hispanic Mayan structure of Guatemala, whereas the sunshine and ethereal, white-steel workplace tower symbolizes the openness and optimism of the USA democracy.”
Through the design course of, the architects additionally thought of the encompassing context, which incorporates mountains, forested ravines and close by ecological parks.
The constructing website posed challenges given its steepness, and the staff used a terracing strategy to stabilize the topography and set up the campus.
“It was a posh puzzle, working to suit all of the campus program onto a comparatively small, steeply sloped website,” stated Mathew Albores, principal at Miller Hull.
“The design manages to combine the constructing with the location topography and supply beneficiant outside gardens for each guests and workers.”
The location’s ample greenery, together with quite a few inexperienced roofs, are supposed to supply “water recharge, safety towards pure disasters and shelter for biodiversity,” the staff stated.
Among the many pure hazards in Guatemala Metropolis are earthquakes and tropical storms.
Inside finishes embody basalt stone flooring, uncovered concrete, walnut and machiche wooden.
Many items of paintings have been created by native artists.
A number of outside areas are shaded by metal and glass canopies. Visiting an embassy typically requires loads of ready time, and right here, guests can comfortably wait open air, the architects stated.
“The design staff centered on creating snug areas each in and out, with shade being essentially the most crucial – and easy – part of these areas as a result of Guatemala’s intense solar,” the staff stated.
Sustainability was a guiding concern for the staff, and the campus is focused to exceed the federal authorities’s objectives for vitality effectivity and renewable vitality. In response to the staff, the design reduces vitality consumption by 27 per cent when in comparison with an identical mission.
Photovoltaic arrays on two completely different buildings present about 10 per cent of the primary chancellery constructing’s vitality wants. Within the entrance foyer, a digital show exhibits how a lot vitality the arrays are producing.
The constructing’s brise-soleil reduces photo voltaic warmth achieve whereas nonetheless preserving views of the encompassing panorama.
“Balancing vitality efficiency with consolation and expertise, intensive research have been performed on the positioning of the fins, and the way their orientation may permit for this delicate concord,” the staff stated.
Attributable to Guatemala Metropolis’s restricted wastewater infrastructure, the staff included an on-site system for treating wastewater and reusing it for irrigation. Detention tanks assist handle stormwater runoff.
The embassy mission was guided by a Miller Hull initiative known as Emission Zero, which goals to eradicate carbon emissions by way of design, training and advocacy.
As a part of this initiative, the agency calculated embodied carbon emissions that have been generated throughout the embassy mission. Carbon-offset credit have been then bought to account for about 33 per cent of the emitted carbon.
Based in 1977, Miller Hull has an intensive portfolio of eco-friendly buildings comparable to a Seattle analysis centre with exterior shading gadgets and a net-positive constructing at Georgia Tech College that’s topped with an enormous photovoltaic cover.
Different US embassy tasks embody a “crystalline dice” in London designed by Kieran Timberlake and plans for an embassy in Bangkok that consists of irregularly stacked bins designed by SHoP Architects.
The pictures is by Gabe Border.
Challenge credit:
Design architect: The Miller Hull Partnership
Architect of report: Web page
Contractor:Â BL Harbert Worldwide
Consumer: US Division of State Bureau of Abroad Buildings Operations (OBO)
