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In recent decades, the topic of embassy architecture has increasingly drawn the attention of architectural historians. Whereas scholars have already shed light on the building policy of the United States, Great Britain and France, the architectural approach of small state actors such as Belgium has largely remained untouched. The Belgian purpose-built embassy (1980–83) in New Delhi was designed by the Indian artistarchitect Satish Gujral. While the unusual design, with its references to indigenous Indian architecture, is often mentioned in the literature on Chanakyapuri, New Delhi’s diplomatic neighbourhood, scholars have not addressed the Belgian rationale for constructing an embassy whose architecture paid more tribute to India than to Belgium. Examining the architectural and political meaning of this project in the context of both the receiving and the sending states, this article asks to what extent Belgium approached this diplomatic building project as an opportunity to cement its bilateral relationship with India. This embassy design was the result of not so much a well-considered building policy of Belgium but rather Gujral’s personal stand with regard to the postmodernist debate in India’s architecture scene at the time. In doing so, we make the case that purpose-built embassies – even the most expressive ones architecturally – are often more complex projects than closely monitored designs upon which governments project ideological and national visions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The text offers an analysis of the MHJP's core exhibition, the architecture of the Museum's building as well as the transformations of its surroundings, seen as operations in as well as on a space that is a sign and a designate of the Holocaust. This observed de-Holocaustization of the Holocaust story takes place in the context of progressing Holocaustization of the story concerning the past of ethnic Poles. The main narrative uniting the MHJP's surroundings, building and core exhibition is the idyllic myth of Polin which dictates the selection and presenting of information. The story of Polish hosts and Jewish guests that is inherent to the Polin myth establishes inequality and dominance/subjugation as framing principles of a story of majority-minority relations. It also constitutes a mental gag and an instance of emotional blackmail which precludes any rational -- analytical and critical -- conversation based on historical realities. Furthermore, in practice, it is a part of a pattern of culture which produces -- and at the same time legitimizes -- violence and exclusion. The article reconstructs the principles governing the Polinization of the history of Jews in Eastern Europe (a term coined by Konrad Matyjaszek). These principles include: emphasizing the Polish over the Jewish lieux de mémoire; presenting the figures and landmarks of importance for both groups through the prism of those aspects which concern the majority group; refraining from problematization of specific phenomena (like Judaism or transboundary character) and from applying to the a longue durée perspective; and decontextualization (e.g., by passing over anti-Semitism -- Christian but not only Christian -- and its significance for the construction of the majority group's collective identity, an identity that over time increasingly determined the Jews' conditions of life, until eventually it determined their fate). In relation to the core exhibition the text discusses such issues as: "last minute" censorship; affirmation of anti-Semitic phantasms (like the Paradisus Iudaerum or Esterka); the abandonment planned -- and prepared -- part of the exhibition dealing with the period after the regaining of independence by Poland in 1989; presenting numerous events and questions in a way that contradicts the state of research not only known but often arrived at in Poland (a particularly outraging example of this is abstaining from a realistic presentation of the Polish context of the Holocaust in favor of a return to the outdated category of the innocent, or indifferent, Polish bystander to the Holocaust). The stake of this retouched story is the image of Poland and reputation of Poles, that is to say -- the complacency of the non-Jewish majority. The price is the mystification of Eastern European Jewish history and the thwarting of the potential for change which arouse as a result of the Jedwabne debate. This potential promised a chance for a revision of culture and a remodelling of social relations in the spirit of equal rights and integrated history. Apart from the period from 1944/45 to 1946, this chance was unprecedented in the Jewish-Polish and Polish-Jewish "common history" that divides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Guest-Editors Åsmund Izaki and Lucy Helme describe the work that they undertook as part of the Computational Design Research (CDR) group at Aedas|R&D, under the directorship of Christian Derix (2004- 2014), when algorithms were specifically developed 'to calculate, visualise and stimulate human-centric architectural conditions'. As an initiative, it focused around three main themes - movement and networks, visibility and space, and behaviour and experience, and was applied to large-scale projects such as an urban study for Crossrail and a massing study for Euston Station, as well as to individual buildings such as the Polish Embassy in London. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper represents an attempt to reflect on the Turkish identity in the formation period of the Republic, from its constitution in 1923 until 1939. The discussion is focused around two buildings that were constructed in 1939, both of which were built abroad to represent the new state; the Embassy of Turkey in Tehran and the Turkish pavilion at the New York World's Fair. These buildings were both featured in the same issue of the architectural magazine Mimar, and offer a fruitful starting point for delving into historical and theoretical issues in identity discourse. That said, the paper goes beyond merely analyzing the different formal vocabularies and personalities of the different architects and patrons involved in commissioning these structures. Rather than addressing only the different cultural and architectural responses to the contemporary national identity debate, the paper will also consider the question of whether the host countries and the addressees of these rather symbolic buildings also had a role in their design and evaluation stages. In other words, the study aims to understand how representation in a location in the "West" or in the "East" affects the identity of a nation characterized by its duality of "West" and "East." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

El artículo discurre sobre el diseño del interior del cabildeo de la embajada de Azerbaiyán en México. El autor comenta sobre la relación del arte y de las estatuas con la historia de Azerbaiyán, las cuales sirven para distorsionar varios aspectos de su historia, según el autor. También se consideran los estudios relacionados con la tergiversación histórica del país.

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Hadi Mirmiran formulated a third way for Iranian architecture. During the 1980s he created an influential shift in thinking and practice by developing an alternative approach, which neither directly imitated Western Modernism nor copied traditional building forms. As Saman Sayar explains, Mirmiran developed a uniquely Iranian treatment that owed as much to the geometrical purity and simplicity of the 17th-century Bridge of 33 Arches in Isfahan as to Mies van der Rohe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the designs for the Battersea development project at the Battersea Power Station site, by architects including de Rijke Marsh Morgan (dRMM), and the Nine Elms Corridor site development, by architects including Foster + Partners and including a U.S. Embassy, both in London, England.

The article discusses the visit of Islamic Republic of Pakistan prime minister Syed Yousf Raza Gillani to Afghanistan on December 4 to 5, 2010. Gillani inaugurated the construction work of the embassy of Pakistan in Karte-Parwan, Kabul. Gillani and Islamic Republic of Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai showed support of the outcomes of the Kabul International Conference on July 20, 2010. The leaders established working groups to oversee areas such as planning and trade facilitation.

The article features the architectural firm Amanda Levete Architects, which is led by director Amanda Levete. It states that the firm is in existence for six months, in which its projects are managed by Levete and are designed under Future Systems. It adds that research systems of the firm focus on areas including new technologies, materials and science that are similar to Future Systems. It mentions three projects of the firm, such as the Spencer Dock Bridge in Dublin, Ireland, the Hill Place in London, England, and the Central Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. It says that creating vectors in design development that enables the project to grow and stretch its historic interwoven research into evolving trajectories is one of the core strengths of the firm.

This qualitative research study examines some of the motivating factors and personality traits found in American construction professionals who have experience working on United States embassy projects. In response to global terrorism in the 1990s, the United States federal government has entered into a phase of building newer, more secure embassy buildings in several countries across the globe. Construction professionals who choose to work on these projects are faced with a multitude of conditions which would not likely be found in U.S. domestic projects. Twenty construction professionals were interviewed about topics such as motivations to work overseas and personal challenges encountered abroad. Structured, videotaped interviews were used as an investigative research tool. Analysis and conclusions are based upon the interviewees' responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reveals that United States (US) State Department's Office of Foreign Building Operations (FBO) is responsible for the design and construction of American embassies throughout the world. Information on the major building program of the State Department; Traditional versus nontraditional construction; Project management guidelines.

The article presents information on the design and construction of the United States Embassy Chancery that is located at the beach front between the Gulf of Osman and the Hajar Mountains in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula. It is mentioned that the design of the structure aids to the security needs and functionality for the Embassy, as directed by the Department of State Office of Foreign Buildings' Operations. The structural elements of the said building are also disclosed.