Embassies and Berlin Dome, June 17

Today we saw three embassies; the Mexican Embassy, the Nordic Embassies, and the Saudi Arabian Embassy. Embassies are some of the best ways to represents a country's architecture in a nutshell - like an architectural spark notes. Designed to reflect the landscape of Mexico, the concrete facade evoked a sense of a heavy material connected to the land.

Next on the list was the Nordic Embassy for the five Nordic countries; Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. This embassy is the only embassy to contain five countries as one embassy since the countries have many similarities. The complex is wrapped in a copper-plate skin that is angled to control the amount of light that comes in. Each country's embassy is designed by a national architect, giving each building a distinct design of each country. The highlight of the trip was the Norwegian embassy which was designed by the firm Snohetta, who came to lecture at our school earlier in the school year. A massive 120 ton piece of granite anchors the south corner giving a large presence within the courtyard.Norwegian Embassy

Danish EmbassyFinnish Embassy lattice
IKEA furniture boxes next to the Swedish embassy

I guess IKEA now makes embassies too

Saudi Arabia Embassy

Next on our list was the most prominent Protestant church in Berlin, the Berliner Dom. Built in 1905 under the Hohenzollern ruling, it was meant to be the foremost protestant church in the western world - a Protestant version of the Vatican City. This church had a beautiful interior that was luxuriously decorated on the inside and a dome so big, it nearly knocked me off my feet. At the top of the church, you could walk around the dome and get a 360 panorama of Berlin. I was in awe the whole time.