Meuser Architekten GmbH
Caroline-von-Humboldt-Weg 20
D – 10117 Berlin
Phone +49 (0)30. 20 69 69 20
Fax +49 (0) 30. 20 69 69 32
info@meuser-architekten.de
www.meuser-architekten.de
Office
“We measure ourselves by our ability to make invaluable contributions to contemporary architecture and to promote current architectural discourse. We believe that to think and build modern is to acknowledge the achievements of architectural history, learning from its mistakes in preparation for the future.”
NATASCHA AND PHILIPP MEUSER
Since 1996, Meuser Architekten have been working in an interdisciplinary fashion as a team of planners, designers and editors on the interface of constructional practice and theory.
Wherever in the world the practice has been active, their work bears witness to an intensive involvement with the location, its history and the respective conditions under which architecture develops. In doing so, their designs and implementation can be measured against the requirement
to use people as the benchmark and to respect that which is already in place.
The practice can demonstrate countless international projects in which their experience of working with listed buildings and ensuring that buildings are accessible to disabled users was as sought after as their special expertise in questions of safety and security.
Project
British Embassy, Astana Kazakhstan
The United Kingdom’s diplomatic representation in the Kazakh capital Astana combines security requirements and spatial design in one compact combination. The UKVK Vereinigtes Königreich presents itself in a refreshing melange of conservative understatement and an open commitment to pop culture. Instead of having its own separate building, the embassy is situated in the 1,200m² floor of an office high rise. Taking local conditions as a starting point, the architects worked out a design concept based on a simple dichotomy: dark floors and gleaming white walls. In this way, it was possible to integrate the somewhat sombre and gloomy looking covering of dark red polished granite into an interior architecture that conveys something of the UK’s self-image. The pop art elements and graphics in the wall designs in the public areas are variations on the Union Jack, the national flag, whereas the office of the British Council was furnished with wallpaper that reflects the colour palette of the institution.
CLIENT: Foreign & Commonwealth Office, London/UK
LOCATION, COUNTRY: Astana, Kazakhstan
COMPLETED: 2006
GFA: 1,200m2
BUILDING COSTS: € 1.9m
LPH (service phases according to German HOAIHOAI Honorarordnung für Architekten und Ingenieure system): 1–9