DESA1002 'Continuous City' Emmy Omagari

Abstract

Foreign Affairs Graduate Training Facility, Madrid. The culmination of this semesters work has led to a building that promotes interaction between the professional realm of politics and contemporary training and further educationresources. The design concept grew from the contextual specificity of my site. Being located adjacent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I thought it would be sensible to design a building that would create a dialogue with its prominent neighbour; both responding to specific contextual references and seeking to explore the relationship between public versus private space. The Foreign Affairs Graduate Training Facility is an institution that encourages occupants to have meetings, participate in academic exchanges and gain in sight within a political science domain, allowing students and staff to bridge the gap between undergraduate study and professional practice. Having been physically integrated into the Romanesque Palacio de Santa Cruz, currently the Minis¬try of Foreign Affairs, it is a building that creates a socially-reflexive dialogue between contemporary policy and practice. It is a space where ideas and criticism explode forth, creating an interstice between the general public and the interior realm of the Ministry. While the building embraces the streets below, the public are invited to look in. As glass tubes extrude from the southern façade, workshop pods along the northern corridor intrude into its historical predecessor. Student passages create an arteriole sense of flow and movement while at the same time the ter¬race above is a place to rest and reflect. The Foreign Affairs Graduate Training Facility is a building in which architectural design decisions mimic deci¬sions made by the students and faculty themselves.