The new Polish Embassy for the US responds to nation’s collective anxiety rooted in territorial disappearance. As Poland was governed majorly in exile through its history, the embassy can transform into a temporary parliament during exceptional geopolitical crises responding to unlikely, yet consequential, scenarios born from national paranoia.

Located in Chicago, home to the largest Polish diaspora in the world, the building stretches above the Kennedy Expressway, infrastructure that physically separated the Polish Triangle from the surrounding Polish neighbourhoods. Acting as an urban stich, the proposal re-establishes old connections and introduces new urban routes. It positions the embassy as a diplomatic institution and a symbolic civic centre.

The architectural language derives from the translation of the vernacular Polish ornament under digital fabrication tools. It examines vernacular futures, investigating how craft traditions can evolve when removed from their historic context. The ornament operates at a variety of scales, translated from motifs to safety infrastructure, circulation and the built form, becoming both a cultural signifier and an organisational framework.