When I first started working on this project, I studied different aspects of the Ethiopian culture, up until I started reading about the Gabi, which captured my
attention, and on which I decided to base my project. My fascination of the Gabi originates on its cultural significance and the way it symbolizes different aspects of the everyday life of both men and women, while worn in multiple ways.
This project integrates the domestic warm feel of the Gabi, with the innovative and strong spirit of the Czech, by covering the whole complex of the proposed
Czech embassy with a Gabi-like roof made from copper. As detailed below, the reason for the use of copper is mostly due to recyclability and sustainability.
The embassy complex consists two distinct grids, connected by the Gabi-like, copper roof. One grid includes all the offices and administrative facilities, whereas the
second grid contain the residence of the embassy's employees. The chosen structure of the proposed embassy let an outside observer the feeling of a single entity,
united under a single roof. However, the different buildings and their different functionalities can be easily distinct and recognized from the inside.
The proposed complex of the embassy consists four distinct layers whose order from bottom to top include the different structures, a construction layer, an additional layer made of either glass or copper, while the outermost layer is the Gabi-like copper roof.