On June 29, 1925, King George V was handed a set of keys crafted from a variety of precious metals. Standing side by side with Queen Mary (who was resplendent in an ostrich feather hat) he unlocked the doors of London’s Canada House and the building was declared open. Positioned on the edge of Trafalgar Square – a location Canada’s Prime Minister at the time, Mackenzie King, noted was “the finest site in London and, being in London, the finest in the world”, Canada House has been at the heart of Canada’s presence in the UK ever since. And it has witnessed a great deal more notable comings and goings, events, wars and refurbishments over the course of almost a full century.

Last week those big bronze doors were once again ceremoniously reopened after an extensive refurbishment. Sweeping away the unsympathetic conversions and dodgy design decisions of past years, the new scheme brings all of the Canadian High Commission’s activities in the UK together under one rather fabulous new roof.

Flooded with natural light and air (while carefully respecting the building’s heritage) Canada’s new cultural and diplomatic London HQ has been designed to reflect Canada in the 21st century: a vast country rich in natural resources and – evidently – talented designers and artists.

Throughout the 8,000 sq m building – which links the Grade II-listed original Canada House on Trafalgar Square with an adjacent building on Cockspur Street – the renovations have been undertaken with one clear objective: to inspire and inform. Every room (meeting rooms are named after a Canadian province, territory or ocean in order of size) is filled with the diverse talents of Canadian artists and designers.

As the world’s largest exporter of wood, Canada House naturally, features quite a bit of it. From the red oak floors, to the beetle-beautified pine in the Pacific Room, to the brand new hemlock-clad Queen Elizabeth Atrium, a veritable forest offsets the grandeur of Canadian marble and granite.

The atrium makes for an arresting entrance. Powerfully invading the space, like futuristic alien life forms tumbling into the grand neoclassical entrance hall, is a bespoke chandelier of cascading glass bulbs by Bocci. It’s a bold choice and was by all accounts no mean feat to install.

But while looking up might be inevitable, looking down provides the real highlight. On the grand stairway under the atrium, a beautiful blue and white design entitled Slats, by Vancouver-based artist Elizabeth MacIntosh, sweeps visitors up through the floors. And that’s only the beginning: through the building there are 29 bespoke carpets designed by artists from all across the country. Their images, selected from numerous solicited entries, have been translated into hand-woven woollen carpets by Toronto-based design company Creative Matters. “Our designers were both challenged and delighted to faithfully reincarnate many symbols of our immense land: from cicadas, fall foliage and cranberries to the Northern Lights, sprinklings of snow and expanses of glacial ice,” says the company’s president Carol Sebert.

“We strove to reproduce the breadth of colour, evoke the moods, generate the motion and achieve sublime balance.” The level of detail required the designers to consider every square inch of each carpet, making sure every thread was colour-matched and grouped to remain as true to the original work as possible. According to Sebert: “It was a challenging project that really pushed us to new limits. At times, we were wary of adding texture where the original art did not call for it and alternately we were challenged to reproduce the energy that is showcased by a bold hard-edge painting technique.”

Throughout Canada House the furniture and artworks are bespoke, and a roster of new talents has been unveiled in the commissioning process. Embassies worldwide would be wise to follow their lead. In the meantime Canada House has much to teach the word about its provenance and provinces alike: from the marvels of its nature to the real origins of Winnie the Pooh (he was named after a Canadian black bear from Winnipeg, don’t you know?).

As the Duke of Edinburgh said, in passing, to High Commissioner Gordon Campbell when he and the Queen left the ceremonies last week: “It’s brilliant”. And he’s never been one to mince his words.