The program proposed for the building was divided into two defined groups: the private dwelling and the public building.

This division defined, at the start, a configuration of implantation of the land.

The dwelling was treated as separate spaces, offering privacy to the residents, grouped on the western part of the land. The lots were delicately divided with a large garden that determines, with visual and spatial precision, each house. The Chancellery occupies an eastern portion of the land, treated contiguously, where a monolithic building and a pure second volume, a semi-underground dome, were disposed.

The large volume of the Chancellery rests above a reflecting pool. The exterior of this building indicates the solemnity demanded by the program and a commentary about the relation between the construction of the living space and the design of the waters.

The reflection penetrates the building and increases the environmental comfort of Brasilia’s dry climate. Here, the garden, entirely aquatic, is a radical reading which invokes, with tropical airs, the million-river country, the ancient Arab construction of the landscape, of the Islamic gardens constructed by the waters design.

The grand reflecting pool is also a poetic analogy to the Persian Sea that bathes Kuwait.

Externally, the Chancellery building has a skin made with hollowed concrete elements, with a spatial design developed by the American artist Erwin Hauer.

These elements, which refer to the Arab mashrabiyas, offer great thermal quality to the building as they shade the windows with no decrease of ventilation.

Emerging from this reflecting pool, the golden tile-coated dome contains the central program, symbolically as well as functionally: the Dewan.

From the outside the programmatic importance of the dome, highlighted against the solid cobblestone of the large chancellery building, is understood. Besides calling on an image of sacred spaces that converge to a single point, the dome invokes the typical Indian-type construction, the Oca, which Oscar Niemeyer modernly re-interprets in Parque Ibirapuera as well as in the National Congress of Brasilia.

From the inside, the dome is a type of celestial sphere, an inviting space.

Functionally, the Chancellery ensemble is divided into two internal groups, besides the Dewan which also connects to the ambassador’s house. The entrance to the grand building is through an ample hall of triple-ceiling height which distributes all the circulation.

In the western sector of the building, beginning with the hall, the consulate can be accessed; while the eastern sector contains the embassy program.

The vertical circulation can be used to directly access the spaces for meetings, social gatherings and parties: the Dewan is on the floor below, and the reception hall is on the top floor, in a suspended volume. The entrance hall is the large distribution hub of the entire Chancellery program.

Studio MK27

KWAIT

PROJECT FOR CONTEST
-
location > brasilia . df . brazil
project > june . 2010
site area > 20.000 sqm
built area > 15.000 sqm
-
architecture > studio mk27
architect > marcio kogan
co-architects > carolina castroviejo . eduardo chalabi . gabriel kogan . mariana simas . renata furlanetto

The program proposed for the building was divided into two defined groups: the private dwelling and the public building.

This division defined, at the start, a configuration of implantation of the land.

The dwelling was treated as separate spaces, offering privacy to the residents, grouped on the western part of the land. The lots were delicately divided with a large garden that determines, with visual and spatial precision, each house. The Chancellery occupies an eastern portion of the land, treated contiguously, where a monolithic building and a pure second volume, a semi-underground dome, were disposed.

The large volume of the Chancellery rests above a reflecting pool. The exterior of this building indicates the solemnity demanded by the program and a commentary about the relation between the construction of the living space and the design of the waters.

The reflection penetrates the building and increases the environmental comfort of Brasilia’s dry climate. Here, the garden, entirely aquatic, is a radical reading which invokes, with tropical airs, the million-river country, the ancient Arab construction of the landscape, of the Islamic gardens constructed by the waters design.

The grand reflecting pool is also a poetic analogy to the Persian Sea that bathes Kuwait.

Externally, the Chancellery building has a skin made with hollowed concrete elements, with a spatial design developed by the American artist Erwin Hauer.

These elements, which refer to the Arab mashrabiyas, offer great thermal quality to the building as they shade the windows with no decrease of ventilation.

Emerging from this reflecting pool, the golden tile-coated dome contains the central program, symbolically as well as functionally: the Dewan.

From the outside the programmatic importance of the dome, highlighted against the solid cobblestone of the large chancellery building, is understood. Besides calling on an image of sacred spaces that converge to a single point, the dome invokes the typical Indian-type construction, the Oca, which Oscar Niemeyer modernly re-interprets in Parque Ibirapuera as well as in the National Congress of Brasilia.

From the inside, the dome is a type of celestial sphere, an inviting space.

Functionally, the Chancellery ensemble is divided into two internal groups, besides the Dewan which also connects to the ambassador’s house. The entrance to the grand building is through an ample hall of triple-ceiling height which distributes all the circulation.

In the western sector of the building, beginning with the hall, the consulate can be accessed; while the eastern sector contains the embassy program.

The vertical circulation can be used to directly access the spaces for meetings, social gatherings and parties: the Dewan is on the floor below, and the reception hall is on the top floor, in a suspended volume. The entrance hall is the large distribution hub of the entire Chancellery program.

Studio MK27