Polish Embassy Berlin / JEMS Architekci

Architects: JEMS Architekci
Year: 2025
Photography: Marcin Sadowski; Maria Kot
Lead Architects: Marcin Sadowski, Izabela Leple-Migdalska, Tomasz Napieralski
Architects Team: Justyna Kościańska, Marek Kuciński, Anna Bilińska, Jan Damięcki, Łukasz Krzesiak, Agnieszka Rokicka
Structural Engineering: Buro Happold
Building Services Engineering: Buro Happold
Landscape Design: RS Architektura
Facade Technical Design: Biuro Techniczne Tuscher
Interior Design: Towarzystwo Projektowe
City: Berlin
Country: Germany

The new Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Berlin occupies a strategically and symbolically charged site along Unter den Linden, placing it within one of the German capital’s most historically resonant urban sequences. Designed by JEMS Architekci and inaugurated in January 2025, the building responds to the representational demands of diplomatic architecture through compositional restraint and spatial clarity rather than formal excess. A layered facade mediates between public space and the interior, revealing an internal courtyard that serves as the project’s organizational and symbolic core. The architectural language draws on proportion, rhythm, and depth to engage with Berlin’s established streetscape while articulating a distinct national identity. Internally, a flexible structural framework accommodates a wide range of diplomatic and cultural functions, supported by material choices that reinterpret principles of Polish modernism within a contemporary institutional context.

Diplomatic buildings occupy a unique position within the city, where architecture becomes an instrument of national representation subject to constant public observation. In Berlin, a city marked by layers of political and architectural history, the Polish Embassy was conceived as a measured response to this condition. Rather than asserting dominance through monumentality, the project explores how discretion, balance, and architectural discipline can convey authority and cultural presence along one of Europe’s most prominent boulevards.

The embassy is located near the Brandenburg Gate, embedded within an area shaped by postwar reconstruction and the deliberate reestablishment of Berlin as Germany’s capital. Surrounded by other national missions, the building participates in a broader diplomatic ensemble that privileges continuity and urban order over expressive singularity. Its massing and facade articulation align with Berlin’s preference for rhythmic streetscapes, reinforcing the city’s characteristic visual coherence while allowing subtle differentiation through depth and texture.

This differentiation is most evident in the multi-layered facade facing Unter den Linden. Composed of vertically aligned elements, the envelope shifts in appearance as viewpoints change, alternating between solidity and permeability. At street level, recessed columns form arcades that create a dignified transition from public thoroughfare to institutional interior. The facade simultaneously conceals and reveals, offering glimpses into the courtyard while maintaining a controlled civic presence.

Inside, the architectural logic of rhythm and structure continues through the careful alignment of columns, beams, and openings. The ground floor and principal hall are organized as a sequence of adaptable spaces, where sliding partitions allow the interior to transform in response to different diplomatic, cultural, and ceremonial needs. Light and shadow play across structural elements, reinforcing spatial legibility while encouraging movement and exploration.

Material choices further articulate the project’s conceptual foundations. Concrete structural rhythms are offset by warm wooden surfaces, hardwood floors, and custom-designed furnishings that reference the legacy of Polish modernism, a tradition that balanced rational construction with tactile richness. At night, the building adopts a quieter yet striking presence as the inner facade is illuminated and the outer layer recedes into darkness, revealing the courtyard and flagpoles as a luminous core. In this condition, the embassy communicates its identity through composure and depth, reinforcing its role as both an urban participant and a symbol of the Polish state.