Alpine hybridization

The surroundings are apprehended with the duality which is an implicitly axis of the whole project.

This duality comes first with the specificities of the embassy’s program (both domestic space and place of representation), with the highly contrasted urban context (hard side of Jima Road toward soft side of the Akika river valley) and with the dual culture of the ground (the symbolic and cultural ground of Switzerland and the Ethiopian physical ground).

Thus, our vision for the Swiss embassy is a hybridization.

To create links within the hybridization we have declined each landscape tool in order to propose a whole range of elements to play with.

A declination of the forest typology using only native Ethiopian species:

- on the sloping hillside, it is the mysterious forest that one contemplates: a dense wood planted with a lower stratum of tropical vegetation with large leaves and higher stratum of trees of Hagenia Abyssinica.

- on the upper part of the site, it is an open forest, a place to walk which also the parking spaces. Planted with groups of Acacias Abyssinica, large herbs, it is an evocation of savannah plateaus.

- finally in the dry courtyard we find some Giant Lobelia, tropical alpine plants. They are ordered according to a strict frame to gives a specific character to this entrance place.

A declination of soil materials that preserve porosity in a red-brown colour unity:

- For the dry courtyard and the impluvium a diamond pattern of terracotta pavers

- For the car park, compacted granite sand lane and large concrete slabs marking the car places

- For the paths, different types of stones opus incertum coming to be lost in the undergrowth.

A range of walls ensuring the protection of the embassy:

- high and thick rammed earth walls that organize the shape of the plot in the axis of the greatest length and offers both a raw and luxurious setting for the plot and the building.

- a local stone wall that preserves the defensive character while offering a visual opening

 - finally, simple and strong concrete walls covered with climbing vegetation form the rest of the enclosure.

To complete the landscaping tools and qualify the exterior spaces of the embassy, ​​some exceptional elements are implanted: 

- The basin of the impluvium that gather and store rain water

- a swimming pool with natural filtration by volcanic rocks

- the garden pavilion sliding behind the wall

- some exceptional and colourful botanical trees in the courtyards like Ficus sycomorus, Delonix regia or Jacaranda mimosifolia.

ADD

Competition for the embassy of Switzerland,

Lieu : Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Équipe : grue. paysagiste / A-platz architects

Année : 2019

crédit images : grue / A-platz