This Belgian embassy is the first Passive House building in Africa. Representing the official image of Belgium in a foreign capital while also hosting the Dutch Embassy in Congo, it offers a dynamic program that includes public areas as well as those demanding special protection.
An embassy is a complex building. Seeking to enhance its symbolic dimension while ensuring its functionality, the simplicity of its urban implantation was exploited in order to create a clear and efficient space disposition.
Notwithstanding the need for sheltered, secured spaces, the expression of openness, dialogue and diplomacy was also brought to prominence. That is, large building openings help to clearly distinguish the different types of entrances and guide the user to the various embassy departments. Honoring its commitment to the future, this embassy is anti-seismic and designed so as to remain functional and capable to withstand flooding.
The building enveloped played a key role into achieving passive house standard. Indeed, the challenging climate of Kinshasa (i.e. high temperatures and humidity levels) called for parametric design to generate every sun screen variations according to the overall solar radiation on the city. This gives the project a truly unique signature.
The Belgian Embassy in Congo was also designed to integrate every sustainable target and achieve a BREEAM Excellent equivalent. It is worth noting that during the development of the project a know-how exchange program was carried out in the form of local workshops as a means to share passive house concepts with members of the local architecture school.
