Participants in this studio presented their proposals for a U.S. embassy in the monumental modernist capital city of Brasília, Brazil.

Brazil's built environment is, by all accounts, not well adapted for the high rates of disability among it's population. Furthero Brasilia itself can also be seen as the "the unwalkable city", having been designed almost exclusively for the automobile.

In this studio we considered ways in which the design of an embassy can center the diverse needs of its occupants. We attempted to embody, the premise that those who practice architecture can be strong–and successful!–advocates for a built environment that better meets the needs of its occupants.

Looking to current scholarship in disability studies, neurodivergent design, environmental design, and other fields, each participant has “imagine(d) spaces that could liberate and value diverse bodyminds, rather than merely going back to perpetuating a world designed for normative bodies and relationships.”

Participants looked closely at the essential functions of an embassy in 2022, studying examples adjacent to the Brasília site and elsewhere. We also asked ourselves, how an embassy, through its physical presence in a foreign state, embodies its home country’s values, ideals, and cultural practices?