Building Diplomacy: The Architecture of the Australian Embassy in Tokyo

Buildings that represent nations—embassies—can be potent cultural diplomats. In addition to satisfying the functional requirements of diplomatic business and housing embassy staff, one of the most valuable attributes of an embassy or foreign mission building is its symbolic capital. An embassy can signal international neutrality. It can signal political ties. It can tell national stories—some selective, some inclusive—but rarely, of course, will it relate unwanted ones. There is also the necessary measure of welcome expected in any embassy complex. That is part of an embassy’s role: to assume in physical form the role of the diplomat;