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US Embassy Building, Wandsworth, London, UK, 2025 (cdn.masto.host)
submitted 11 months ago by to c/photography@fedia.io
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US Embassy Building, Wandsworth, London, UK, 2025.All the pixels, each unsure of which side of the road on which to drive, at flickr.com/photos/mattblaze/54#photography

Abstract photo of a pattern formed by a curtain of semi-transparent textured teflon sheets over a glass office building exterior.
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[–] [S] 1 point 11 months ago (11 children)

Captured with the Rodenstock 70mm/5.6 HR Digaron-W lens (@ f/8) lens, Phase One IQ4-150 digital back (@ ISO 50, 1/50 sec), Cambo WRS-5005 camera (Shifted vertically -19mm, horizontally -10mm). Cropped to a 4x5 aspect ratio.The embassy's exterior "envelope" curtain forms an interesting abstract pattern that reminds me of the sound absorbing tiles that line recording studios and anechoic chambers. This photo shows the western-facing side.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (2 children)

    @mattblazeInterestingly, actual recording studios rarely use anechoic spikes — completely dead rooms are rarely desirable. Instead you get a mix of flat (usually rockwool or melamine foam) absorbing panels and (generally wood) diffuser strips/panels. Some of the 2D quadratic diffusers look vaguely similar to anechoic spikes, but function very differently. In home studios, you sometimes see people putting "egg crate" foam on the wall, but this is largely ineffective — anything under 10cm thick won't do much for reflections below 1kHz, and that foam is rarely treated with flame retardant, with the consequences you can imagine.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    @dymaxion I have fond memories of the anechoic (and heavily sound isolated) chamber behind Bell Labs Murrary Hill. So weirdly quiet and dead it was uncanny and disorienting.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago

    @mattblazeI'd love to get to try one some day. The large wind tunnel at NASA Ames was semi-anechoic, so shockwaves didn't reflect and disrupt tests. Standing in the 110' test section was extra weird because of it — an impossible large empty indoor space with weirdly indirect lighting, and no cues as to how big it was. No echo, and someone speaking from ten feet away was weirdly quiet.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 11 months ago (7 children)

    The new US Embassy to the UK, completed in 2017, is a roughly cubically-shaped glass box covered on three sides with a semi-transparent textured Teflon "envelope" that aids in temperature regulation. Situated in a landscaped compound on the Thames between the Battersea Power Station and MI6's famous Vauxhall headquarters, it's one of the most distinctive recent structures in that part of London's South Bank.

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  • [–] 1 point 11 months ago (1 child)

    @mattblaze That MI-6 building is something else. To be fair, the last time I was actually in London was 1977 and laid over a the most excellent Virgin Lounge at LHR in 2023 (only time I have ever been happy at a 7 hour layover lol)

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 11 months ago

    @cvvhrn My understanding with the MI6 building is that in spite of looking like an imposing modern fortress, it was just built as a generic office building and the UK government bought (or maybe leased) it after the fact.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 11 months ago (3 children)

    Deigned by the Philadelphia architectural firm KieranTimberlake*, the chancery building incorporates a number of sustainable design elements, and has been generally well received (international politics aside) by staff and local residents. It replaced a mid-century modern structure (by Eero Saarinen, now being redeveloped as a hotel) in the more traditionally fancypants Grosvenor Square neighborhood.* Coincidentally, also the designer of Penn's Levine Hall, where I once had my office.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 11 months ago

    Aside: Although the new embassy, which had been in the works for years, opened during the first Trump administration, he disliked the building so much that he refused to attend its official opening. Presumably not enough gold leaf.

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