Wilford Schupp's workshop received an order for the project of the British Embassy in Georgia after completing a similar complex in Berlin. The British Foreign Office highly appreciated this project, and formulated its wishes for the new embassy in a very simple way: the building should be just as spectacular in appearance and at the same time as reliably protected as possible.
A site for the construction of a new diplomatic mission was allocated in Krtsanisi, one of the most prestigious districts of Tbilisi, which in the city is also often called "ambassadorial" for the large number of representative offices of foreign states located here. On three sides, the site is bounded by streets with rather active traffic, while the fourth is facing the picturesque valley of the Kura River, which largely predetermined the compositional solution of the complex.
Visually, the embassy is divided into two independent volumes - a three-story perimeter lined with basalt and therefore looks very impregnable, and a golden carved cube that grows out of it - although in fact it is a single building. The "cube" is the residence of the British Ambassador to Georgia. It should be noted that such a combination of functions - places of work and residence of the ambassador - is unconventional, and the architects tried to do everything possible to separate one zone from another as much as possible.
All public areas and offices are grouped around a central atrium. An elegant staircase leads to the second floor, to the representative part of the embassy, the interiors of which are finished with oak panels. There are several meeting rooms, a conference room, and two cafeterias. Separated by glass partitions, they can be combined into one large room, ideal for holding receptions.
The ambassador's residence is connected to the main complex with the help of a miniature elevator, safely hidden from the eyes of potential visitors. The living space rises much higher than the office part, and its windows, in contrast to the windows of offices, face the river, which gives the impression that these are two completely different buildings. The "carved" facades of the residence represent an elegant paraphrase of the traditions of Georgian architecture, in which the terraces of residential buildings are often decorated with patterned wooden hedges. True, in this case, for reasons of safety and ease of use, metal was used.
