If You Have Ever Wished To See,

the "ideals of the American government" 

 in the shape of a building,

 this is it, 

 Kieran Timberlake has completed work on the US Embassy in London, a glass cube swathed in shimmering sails of plastic that is set on a plinth and surrounded by a moat-like pond on the edge of the River Thames, the Philadelphia-based firm won the competition to design an embassy to embody the "ideals of the American government" back in 2010 and the building broke ground in 2013, the new embassy was unveiled to the press last week ahead of its official opening in January 2018, when staff will begin moving into the building,

the £750 million building, has been engineered to balance impenetrable security standards with a visual language of openness, just like the American Government, the 65-meter-tall, 12-stories cube has a facade of laminated glazing enveloped on two sides with a transparent film of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), the same type of plastic use for the bio-domes in the UK's Eden Project,

 the unusual form of the building's facade is designed to minimize solar gain and glare while still allowing natural light in, the reflective facade shifts in colour according to the weather and the position of the sun, the 48,128-square-meter embassy, also makes use of responsibly sourced materials that demonstrate a commitment to "mapping a passage toward a diplomacy for the environment", visitors will enter the embassy through a pavilion on the northern side of the complex, before passing along curving pathways in the landscaped gardens and over a pond set into the large protective plinth the main building rests upon, critics have pointed out that this yet-to-be-filled pond surrounding the building appears as a protective moat to rival the Tower of London's, but the pond is part of the site's storm water strategy, with the aim of reducing strain on London's sewer system and providing a water source for the gardens, 

a park is planned, planted with native oak trees and tall grasses and wildflowers to recall both America's rolling prairies and the original wetlands that once occupied this stretch of the Thames, and in case you are wondering where the new embassy is located, a familiar London landmark can be seen in the right of the picture, the Battersea Power Station, I am not sure if I like the design, but it certainly, for a building that looks a square block, is different.