The architectural significance of the iconic building housing the Embassy of Switzerland in the Diplomatic Enclave here, which was inaugurated by the country’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, will now be documented in a book.
“A Tropical House: The Embassy of Switzerland in New Delhi” has been edited by Bruno Maurer with contributions from the Faculty of Architecture of the Swiss Federal Polytechnic Institute.
Architectural heritageIt will be released at the Embassy’s premises on April 4 to mark the conclusion of the 50th anniversary of the “Year of the Swiss Architecture, Design and Engineering in India 2013-14”. Shedding light on the architectural heritage of the building, Ambassador of Switzerland Linus von Castelmur said the importance of the building can be gauged from the way Pandit Nehru complimented its architecture.
“When a foreign journalist asked the Prime Minister what a small country like Switzerland represents to a huge country like India, Pandit Nehru replied: ‘Countries do not depend on their size, but on their quality. In history, many a times, small countries have played a very important role and big countries have not played any important role. Now Switzerland is a country of quality, small, but it has made great differences in many ways. I am glad that the Swiss Embassy has become one of the landmarks here — a very attractive landmark’,” Mr. Castelmur added.
Describing the book as a significant piece of architecture, architect Anupam Bansal, one of the contributors, said: “It is an architectural monograph. Some renovations have been done in the Embassy, but in a sensitive way.”
