On the 29th of June, those who registered for the event will have the opportunity to have a guided tour of the Nordic Embassies in Berlin. This includes the German embassies of the respective Scandinavian countries, including Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

The peculiarity of this formation has historical and diplomatic ties and is proof of the innovative and brilliant ideas of the Nordic countries. When diplomatic officials and corps were moved from Bonn to Berlin in the 1990s, the aforementioned Scandinavian countries decided to place their respective embassies together in a common complex in Berlin - Tiergarten. The aim of this was to demonstrate their close ties and good diplomatic relationships, as well as representing the individual cultural identities of all the countries involved.

Flash-forward to today, the initiative has been initiated as part of Berlin’s MakeCity architecture festival. The festival is Berlin’s first and aims to initiate a different kind of conversation and to think about possible urban alternatives in modern architecture. It will see the participation of architects, civic groups, planners and developers from the 14th of June until the 1st of July.

The specific event is extremely innovative, in that it aims in showing to the public the everyday life and routing that take place behind the embassy walls. Because of this, the tour will include long-time employees as the tour guides, touching upon the themes of architecture and also the role and task of diplomacy in our present-day society.

The focus of the event will be dedicated to dissecting and understanding the relationship between architecture and diplomacy, and how the former relates to the execution of the latter. The main question that will be tackled is whether architecture affects international cooperation, and if so, in what way. The initiative is thus an innovative and clever way of opening and promoting discussion about the role of art and culture in diplomatic affairs, and their use as means to reinforce one’s national culture and message.

• - http://www.nordischebotschaften.org/veranstaltungen/architekturf-hrungen-durch-die-nordischen-botschaften
• - http://makecity.berlin/en/