Negotiating cultural identity through the architectural representation case study: Foreign embassy in Belgrade

Abstract

This article reports methods and results of Master students' Diploma Thesis and Design research on representing identity through architecture. A group of 12 students have had the task to examine potentials and limitations of positioning and conceptualizing foreign Embassy in the context of Belgrade. Students were expected to rethink architectural representation and to find new possibilities for networking global aspects of identity and local aspects of context, thus creating architecture that emphasizes and promotes culture through its spatial and programmatic framework. Article concludes that architecture can become a resource for understanding cultural identity. It does not stop only at the physical, but affects the process of urban living, negotiating between global and local dimension of urban living, making a new culturally responsive urban landscape.