The chancellery and residence of the German Embassy in Canberra are to be built on the property on the corner of Empire Circuit and Turrana Road. It is currently occupied by buildings constructed in 1958.

The design should appropriately represent the Federal Republic of Germany in the guest country and fulfil the requirements of functional processes in the chancellery and residence. Practical access to both areas, as well as their structural security should be considered according to the competition brief. Until the completion of both buildings, the existing chancellery building must continue to be usable.

Important aspects of the building measure are high-quality architecture and design of the open spaces, taking the climatic conditions into account.

The buildings are to be planned according to the low-tech principle, while their conception and the selected building materials should be locally typical and certified products.

The German Federal Government’s climate-policy target of achieving an almost climate-neutral building stock by 2045 should be met while taking the local climate into account. The result should be exemplary new buildings.

For the buildings and the open spaces, the Australian Green Star assessment system is to be applied, with the aim of achieving  six stars. The buildings should be constructed in accordance with Australian norms and Australian contractual, planning and building standards.

The net costs for Cost Groups 300 to 400 are estimated at approximately A$25,000 while the net costs for Cost Group 500 are estimated at approximately A$4,500,000.

The aim of the competition is to receive a preliminary design that fulfils the demands of an embassy and serves as a basis for further planning, as well as to find a high-performance planning team from the field of building, open-space, structural and technical planning, and additional specialist planners for the subsequent planning stages.

The competition is aimed at architectural practices or groups of architects (in a leading role) and landscape architects. After the competition’s completion, the competition organiser will implement a negotiation procedure with the prize winners in accordance with the German Public Procurement Ordinance.

The goal is to close a general planning contract up to and including approval planning in accordance with Australian performance criteria and Australian contractual law.

How to apply: The application documents must be uploaded to the Federal Government’s BSCW server before the application deadline at 23:59 (UTC +2) on 25 September 2024 together with the attachments. To access the server, 16:00 (UTC +2) on 24 September 2024 by email to canb-db.wbw@bbr.bund.de using the keyword “WBW CANB”.

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