Cyndy Li

Emerging backlashes from nature, from social movements, from politics are revealing the widening gap between standard policy approaches and dynamic systems. How can architecture be a device to reconcile between species and entities by asserting that humans co-engineer the environment with other beings, while taking responsibility for our impacts?

The New Embassy starts re-conciliation between species and entities, by asserting that humans design the built space with other beings in mind, while taking responsibility to combat our impacts.
As we proceed with increasing trepidation into what we’re now calling the Anthropocene, the roots of all problems stemming from poor design comes down to our mindset of generally treating the natural world as a resource to serve our ends, acting on the dominant premise that we are superior to our environment.

The New Embassy approach diplomacy by removing the pre-existing boundaries we have constructed. By defining that nature is no longer the binary opposite of culture; In the context of Anthropocene, wilderness is non-existent because human imprint is everywhere. We cannot talk about wilderness as a pristine space independent from human contact because that in itself is a new form of colonialism.
Then, we evolve the relation between human and other species through ‘placing’. The way forward is to shift from protection of external nature to thinking about human practices, away from human-centred design to an investigation of how buildings can also serve other species and entities.

Through a consistent interaction between species, the building dissolves boundaries between public and private, indoors and outdoors. Creating opportunities for play, display, gathering, and intimacy.

With an aim to recenter, the building design celebrates the emergency of contemporary definition of nature & reposition ourselves as part of the ecology by re-articulating the relationship between humans, other species and technologies.

The New Embassy respond to and utilize the living and natural systems that exist on site for the ‘building blocks’ of regenerative architecture, which is the practice of engaging the natural world as the medium and generator of buildings.

The façade design is the result of regenerative architecture using biomimicry. An operable façade housing algae production.