Royal Danish Embassy, Berlin

Inner atrium with elevator tower.

The lobby is surprisingly bright - even on a cloudy day the light admitted by the large glazed roof will create a feeling of sunshine for those standing on the lobby floor. The tall room also holds a potential for some very special displays - long banners, the hanging of objects of many different sizes, the use of the bridges for a three-dimensional display of chairs, audio-visual experiences on and in the wooden screen, and on festive-occasions it will accommodate a considerable crowd of people as the bridges can be included, too.

In the southern end is a heavy concrete core with lifts, restrooms and other facilities to be shared by all sections, and with the added function of acting as a tower differentiating the spatial experience in the lobby.

Triple-layer window to Germany.

The sharp element

The other element is a prismatic, sharp object and thus appears as a tense contrast to the first one. It opens up towards the Inner Plaza and the other embassies by means of a wide cut in which the entrance invites you to enter the hall and the reception. Above the entrance is a wide balcony adorned with the Danish coat of arms whose red and golden colors are beautifully enhanced by the grey background: the facade is clad in stainless steel sheets with tiny perforated holes that make them remarkably transparent. They therefore act as sunshields, and the facade appears as a calm and homogenous structure with a subtle play in the opening sheets - a necessity in a building that is but one of five different buildings with frontage to the same plaza.

It is a general feature of the layout plan that all office units must have daylight; they all have facade frontage. The inter-related functions are grouped closely together, with connection across the lobby whenever possible. This generates circulating traffic that is enriched every day by the frequent crossings of the panoptic room.

Materials

The building is one of contrasts. The mixture of organic shapes and shapes that are sharp; of soft and hard materials, and of hot and cold surfaces accentuates the architectural idea.

The attitude to materials is above all one of dignity, but it is also friendly. Bright and light - 'Scandinavian-style'. The vision was to make the embassy epitomize what Denmark has to offer within design and technology.

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