Canadian Embassy building in Warsaw has been officially opened at the end of October 2001.
The new building replaces 36-year-old technically outdated existing structure. It provides 3800 m2 of new office and exhibition space doubling the size of the original Embassy.
It has been partially built on the foundations and the basement of the existing building.
Situated in Warsaw Embassy district in close proximity to Polish Parliament (Sejm), the Embassy is surrounded by city parks, French Embassy compound and eighteenth century buildings.
In the design process it was important for architects to maintain an interplay between the openness and transparency of the publicly-oriented functions, and the sense of security and impenetrability that is still very necessary in an Embassy.
This sense of security is most clearly expressed in the top floor of the Chancery with its solid stone cladding and horizontally slit windows.
Double height multipurpose room located near the immigration entrance opens up into the lobby, accessible from the Public Zone, thereby providing an opportunity to host a variety of public functions. The transparency of the glazed two storey street elevation of this space conveys a sense of openness to the passers by.
- design Voytek Gorczynski Architect
- WZMH partner Jay Bigelow
- team Hady Lotfy, Paul Marcoccia, Natasha Djordevic, Kwang Kim, Rosmal Sereviratne
- Structural Quinn Dressel Associates, Ben Burke
- Mechanical Hidi Rae Associates, Kaz Swiderski
- Electrical Mulvey & Banani Int. Lana Magines
- Architect of Record WZMH Architects, Toronto
- General Contractor Bilfinger & Berger Polska
- client Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Canada
- gross fl. area 3,842 m2