New US embassy in London gets a moat

Despite having the largest foreign embassy in Europe, the United States have decided that their current UK embassy in Grosvenor Square, London is "too small, outdated and hard to defend from security threats".

Even though the 1950s building is imposingly surrounded by concrete and metal barriers, as well as armed police officers, the US has been pursuing a newer modern, welcoming and secure base for the American diplomatic headquarters, and today it was unveiled.

Gone will be the concrete facade and 1950s architecture, instead a modernist glass cube will house the US ambassador and his staff. The US embassy will also move for its current location, despite it being based in Mayfair, an upmarket district known for its luxury hotels, expensive shops and galleries.

Instead a more defensible location has been picked in Nine Elms on the south bank of the River Thames, just upriver from the MI6 headquarters and slightly downriver from the abandoned Battersea Power Station.

The move will cost over a USD$1 billion, but the embassy will hardly be in an 'exclusive' area. Its neighbours will include a Royal Mail sorting office and the Covent Garden fruit and veg market.

Futuristic design

Designed by Philadelphia-based architects Kieran Timberlake who won a competition to design the embassy, the new building will consist of a glass cube sheathed in a stretched, sculptural membrane embedded with gossamer-fine photovoltaic cells. This crystalline second skin both shades the interior from the sun and converts the sun’s rays into power in one of the multiple measures to make this an eco-Field as well as defensive building.

Despite the US saying the old embassy wasn't 'defensible' enough, the new embassy is much less domineering and intrusive, with the designers placing in upon a colonnade intended to create a feeling of civic engagement and openness.

The site also includes a sensible and sensitive landscape strategy, which while it may look beautiful has a defensive purpose. There are no high walls, because instead the embassy is set back far from the road behind a series of landscaped ditches and moats.

A semi-circular 'moat' will  protects the building on the side facing the river, while the building itself is slightly elevated atop a mound, like a castle, to avoid the possibility of ramming the structure with the car bombs.

This subtle design provides a strong defence without the need for high walls and an imposing compound, something US embassy have been reminiscent of in the past.

The cost of construction of the new embassy is estimated to be about US$500 million. Qatar will get the old building.

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Timon Singh

Timon Singh is a graduate of Liverpool University where he received a degree in Social and Economic History. He has previously worked for BBC Magazines on BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, the publication for the popular genealogy show.

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