The building of the embassies of the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, is so far the only example of such close proximity in the world. The complexes of the Scandinavian embassies, for example, in Nepal, can be considered some analogue, but they are united by a common "northern" identity and aesthetics and a long tradition of various kinds of common cultural and social institutions, which is not the case in Germany and France. According to Stéphane Pomier, the "primary source" for his project is the Elysee Treaty, signed by Konrad Adenaer and Charles de Gaulle in 1963: it laid a new basis for cooperation between France and Germany, ending centuries of rivalry. Actually, the idea of common embassies is more recent: it belongs to the turn of the XX - XXI centuries, the time of Gerhard Schroeder and Jacques Chirac.
The competition for the project of the Franco-German embassy was held in 2009; Pomier notes with surprise that his team was the only one who proposed a project with the theme of duality, duality. The building was influenced by the Jenga game, which the architect often played with his little daughter at the time, and the double helix of the DNA molecule as an expression of identity. The coexistence of two embassies in one building is also marked by material and color: Germany was marked with red bricks (from the same manufacturer in the Ganges delta that supplied it for the construction of the National Assembly in Dhaka, designed by Louis Kahn), and France - with concrete bricks - this is a reference to its stone architecture, and to Auguste Perret and other innovative French architects who experimented with reinforced concrete.
On the ground floor there is a common lobby, a visa office issuing the same Schengen, security service, technical support and parking. The "tower", reminiscent of the keep of a medieval castle, houses the offices of both embassies, the actual offices of ambassadors and independent departments of information technology. To protect against a possible explosion on the surrounding streets, only the visa and technical departments touch the boundaries of the site with an area of slightly less than 8000 m2.
The double embassy is located in one of the diplomatic quarters in the prosperous Baridhara district, reminiscent of Dhaka in the mid-20th century, then still a green garden city.
Stéphane Pomier's architectural office is based in New Delhi, and his portfolio primarily includes buildings for various Indian institutions. The difference between his familiar context and Bangladesh is not so great, but in the case of Dhaka, almost all materials had to be imported, while India produces almost everything that is necessary for construction. The project and implementation were also influenced by the presence of two customers with often different approaches to business - the governments of Germany and France, and the tightening requirements for security even during the construction process, caused, among other things, by popular demonstrations and Islamist terrorist attacks in Dhaka in the 2010s.
