Swiss Embassy in Seoul

The project of the new embassy, which is located near one of Seoul’s imperial palaces and surrounded by high-rise apartment buildings, draws its inspiration from the traditional Korean courtyard houses, the Hanok. The embassy develops like a spiral around an intimate courtyard towards which the spacious receiving rooms are oriented. An expressive timber-frame gabled roof crowns the building. The construction is characterized by its exposed concrete exterior facades; their mineral, solid appearance is emphasized by an array of orthogonal ribs. The inner facades, made of wood and glass, adopt a more inward-looking character, and highlight the courtyard as a central, sheltered space.

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