Described as the “collision between our values and our fears,” (F. Halsband) the international embassy raises useful architectural questions about the intertwined relationships between host and guest. As one country hosts the other’s embassy on its own soil, in turn the visiting ambassador may welcome citizens of the receiving country into and on that borrowed property. A diplomatic mission must be equally aware of the receiving country’s history as of the present moment and its potential impact on the future, ideally within and from an environment that understands the “link between design and diplomatic goodwill.” (J. Loeffler)

This studio examined “the contradictory demands of security and representation [that] encapsulates the dilemma of contemporary embassy builders” (T. Wilkinson) in service of developing forward-looking methods that allow a diplomatic architecture to safely model the goodwill of its purported mission. This work gave priority to the particularities of the rhetoric of the entrance; loaded as it is with the responsibility of first impressions, safety, accessibility, and their attendant spatial and social implications. We looked to the culture, history, and formal impacts of ‘making an entrance’ as we better understood the ways that architecture, invested (whether willingly or not) with power, makes its considered place in the world.