Embassy of the Czech Republic in Canberra

In 1996, we won 1st place in a competition for a new embassy building in Canberra. On the elongated plot, we proposed a complex of three buildings in a classical castle composition, including garden arrangements: the embassy, the residence, and housing for employees. The project referred to order and the generosity of representative spaces – for example, to the interwar extension of the Černín Palace by Pavel Janák. The built-up area of the competition design was approximately 1000 m².

In 2004, the land was exchanged for a smaller one, and the project underwent significant reduction. The design was then modified several more times. The villa residence was ultimately replaced by a caretaker’s apartment in the basement of the embassy building. The main feature remained the solid brick maintenance-free facade
and a high order reflected in the foyer space and the sala terrena leading to the garden.

In 2014, the interior of the building was designed, and since 2016, we have collaborated with the M1 studio of Jan Hájek and a local design office on the construction permitting project.

Structure: reinforced concrete skeleton.

Materials: brick facade, aluminum windows, and internal glazed partitions, entrance doors clad in copper sheet; floors – wood strip and large-format ceramic tiles (travertine pattern); wall coverings and internal doors made of oak; built-in furniture of lacquered white MDF / laminate and oak; movable furniture from Czech suppliers Ton and Modernista.

Carpets and glass decals by artist Barbora Zachovalová work contemporarily with traditional Czech and Moravian folk motifs.

The construction took place under the author's supervision for two periods of five days during the years 2023 to 2024.