'As architectural statements go, the Foreign
Office on Whitehall must be one of the most brazenly self-confident
buildings ever constructed. Its 19th-century bulk is festooned inside
and out with symbols of imperial superiority: marble shipped in from
far-flung dominions; sculptures, carvings and murals representing
Britain's possessions, heroes and virtues; allegorical paintings
with titles such as The East Offering Its Riches to Britannia. This
sumptuous
palace designed by George Gilbert Scott, was once the throbbing heart
of the empire, from which British power spread to outposts in virtually
every country on the map. Today, though, the flow has been reversed.
Where Britain's overseas embassies were once the application points
of national might, they are now starting to look like exposed extremities,
and direct channels back to a sensitive homeland.
'Embassies have always been vulnerable buildings, but now they are in
the firing line more than ever. Al-Qaida's first significant strikes
against the US were on its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in 1998,
killing more than 200 people. Since then, British embassies in Iran,
Yemen and Istanbul, Turkey, have also been attacked, the latter incident
claiming 10 staff last November. With about 4,000 properties to administer
in 230 countries, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has been
presented with a serious security headache.
'At the same time, Britain has been attempting to rebrand itself through
its embassies. Having realised that much of the world still associates
the UK with Beefeaters outside the Tower of London, the FCO is keen
to communicate an image of Britain as a modern, dynamic, bridge-building
nation. From a diplomacy point of view, the ideal embassy building
is a marquee with a sign outside saying, "Do come in and have a cup
of tea". From a security aspect, the ideal structure is an underground
bunker accessible only by a well-guarded trapdoor. Added to which,
it has to be something "British".
'"I think the world has changed from three or four years ago, when we
felt we weren't under the same pressure," says Julian Metcalfe of
the Foreign Office. "It remains a desire that we should use our diplomatic
buildings to project the right image of the UK, but reality needs
to dictate priority and naturally security is a key driver. That,
I think, is challenge we have to address."
'Metcalfe leads the Estate Strategy Unit, which is responsible for the
FCO's international building stock and, in contrast to Whitehall's
grandeur, operates out of a concrete office tower in Croydon. Since
the Istanbul attack, the department has no shortage of projects on
which to spend its annual £50m budget Many buildings are simply too
old to cope with security demands; some have shut down completely
- the British embassy in Algeria now operates from the Hilton. Manu
others have been patched up with ungainly temporary measures: concrete
barricades, checkpoints, roadblocks, even a small tank outside the
Madrid embassy - clearly not the 21st-century image the government
had in mind.
'The US's response to the new security climate has effectively been to
batten down the hatches. In high-risk countries, US embassies are
being moved out of city centres and rebuilt to fortress specifications,
using imported building materials, blast-proof structures and limited
amounts of glass. The FCO is striving to avoid such extreme measures,
says Metcalfe. "We want to continue to be seen to be reasonably accessible
to our customers. We have had to revisit our priorities on security
grounds, but we have not embarked on a programme of building bunkers
all over the world."
'So how to resolve the marquee vs bunker dilemma? Judging by the FCO's
slate of projects, the first step has been to treat security as a
key design factor that must be integrated into embassy architecture
from the start. The second step has been to pick thrusting young
architects rather than established names, as it has in the past.
The FCO now prides itself on being a good client for architects.
The Architects' Journal ranked it 14th in its top 50 British clients
last year (up from 26 the year before), saying: "This is the only
central government department with a reputation for decent, even
great architecture."
'A contributing factor was the nomination of Tony Fretton to design
the new Warsaw embassy last year. Fretton, 55, is hardly
a teenager, but works such as the Camden Arts Centre
in London and his Faith House in Dorset have earned him
a reputation for understated refinement and sensitivity
to surroundings. Between Warsaw's neo-classical stucco
buildings, his scheme inserts a sleek, minimal box of
glass and bronze, with a generous open-plan interior.
It is a promising-looking design, but since the Istanbul
attacks, Fretton has had to "reconsider" the security
aspects, which could affect the aesthetics. Furthermore,
it has been deferred for a year to make way for more
urgent projects.
'Two new embassies, in San'a, Yemen and Kampala, Uganda, are due to
be completed sooner and although their contexts are totally
different, they also illustrate the FCO's intentions.
Winchester-based architects Design Engine were surprised
to win the San'a commission. "Our company has only been
around for three years, so we were quite excited just
to get onto the shortlist," says director Richard Jobson.
The Kampala project went to London practice Cullum and
Nightingale, which had already delivered a smart new
High Commission in Nairobi (in Commonwealth countries,
British embassies are called high commissions).
'Unlike in Warsaw, these new embassies sit on relatively large suburban
sites, which means they can employ the simplest and most
effective security devices: the standoff - placing the
building well away from the perimeter so it is more
difficult to reach with a truck full of explosives. The
San'a embassy needed replacing for exactly this reason.
A bomb was thrown over its wall four years ago and an
al-Qaida plot to drive a truck bomb into it was foiled
last year. Design Engine's proposal cuts away a corner
of the perimeter wall, making a quarter of the site into
an open, public approach to the building. open in perception,
that is, rather than reality: a low concrete barrier
will stop truck bombers and the cut-away corner enhances
surveillance visibility.
'Cullum and Nightingale's Kampala High Commission is a larger
building, but it too, sits back from the road in the
middle of the site. Fronted by a welcoming entrance canopy,
the buildings are grouped to create a secure central
courtyard, like a cloister. Security and architecture
did not initially go hand in hand here. Richard Nightingale
cites a design of open clay grilles they had been developing
for the upper floors of the inner courtyard, which would
have allowed for natural ventilation. "We went to great
lengths and the FCO's bomb people actually approved them.
Then very late in the day they decided it was not acceptable,
because of the risk of devices being inserted. Now it's
floor-to-ceiling windows, which is a shame because we
wanted it to be as open as possible."
'Overall, though, both architects praise the FCO's commitment
to good architecture as well as good security.
"That was my biggest worry," says Jobson,
"but the two sides seem to be quite well
meshed. They're prepared to revisit first
principles and try to understand what we're
aiming to achieve from an architecture perspective."
'That still leaves the question of Britishness. Is there anything particularly
British about these new embassies? Both Cullum and Nightingale and Design Engine
sought to incorporate
local materials and techniques into their essentially European designs; Nightingale
had already proved this could work in Nairobi, where Kenyan stonemasonry skills
were put to good use on the building's hand-chiseled exterior cladding. In Kampala
it was the crude homemade bricks, usually associated with poorer homes, that
caught Nightingale's attention, plus small details such as banana leaves imprinted
into concrete ceilings. In Yemen, Design Engine borrowed from the Arabian paradise
garden concept for their landscaping, dividing the site into four quadrants
in accordance with Islamic cosmology.
'Perhaps this desire to assimilate and integrate, rather than strive towards
some sort of architectural chauvinism, is where the true Britishness of these
buildings lies. "The British are the greatest magpies of the world," Jobson
agrees. "They take everything from everywhere else and utilise it in their
own way."
'Perhaps the whole notion of British embassies built by British people is
itself old-fashioned. The FCO has successfully collaborated with local architects
on many projects - Pakistani architect Anwar Said on the striking Islamabad
High Commission, for example, or on the recently completed Tunis embassy,
but local architect Lofti Rebai. British embassies have even taken to cohabiting
with other nationalities under one roof, with the Germans and the Dutch in
Dar es Salaam, for example, or with the French in some parts of Africa.
'In light of the government's expressed intentions to reduce the number
of civil service jobs, Britain's cumbersome diplomatic operation could well
prove unsustainable. "The notion that we necessarily need a full-blown
permanent embassy in every location may well change," says Metcalfe. "But
I think there will always be a need for people on the ground, talking to
the local community
and informing policy-making at home." In Baghdad, the FCO experimented
with a "flat-pack" embassy, a prefabricated facility delivered
in containers to be set up in 12 weeks. Ultimately, it proved to be too risky,
but the concept could
one day come to replace the full-blown ambassadorial system. Now that would
be 21st-century.
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