The New LMA Building in Riga
This autumn, make sure you include Riga in your new architecture destination itinerary! The new building - or rather, the reconstructed old household building - of the Art Academy of Latvia (LMA) is a true architectural adventure, both atmosphere-wise and functionally. The comparatively compact size of the building in which every single detail has been perfectly thought out and 'staged' is yet another proof to the fact that 'small can be big' - sometimes even bigger than flagrantly huge. The reconstruction project of the 1948 two-storey brick building, originally conceived as a 'warehouse of materials for art studies', was designed by the 'SZK un Partneri' architectural firm (architects Sīlis, Zābers and Kļava) and financed with the support of the European Regional Development Fund. The new building was designed to meet multifunctional needs, housing both study and exhibition rooms and storage space. The interior of the building can be transformed with the help of mobile partition walls that can be used to set up exhibitions. The whole volume of the building has now been submerged: it has its base at three metres under the ground level, creating an underground storage space to replace the former wooden barn. The 115-square metre roof can also be habitable and adaptable for a variety of purposes, serving, among other things, as an unusual viewing point that allows to contemplate the Neo-Gothic image of the main LMA building as if through different eyes.
Set in the very heart of the LMA premises, as the central element of the inner courtyard, the new building also carries a certain symbolism, serving the LMA students both as a functional object and a source of inspiration. According to the concept of the project, the fact that the new object is located 'inside' the historical substance implies the idea of the continuity of knowledge, of new things born from old ones, of a dialogue between different generations: students and the faculty. The movement is extended into a completely different direction by the new habitable rooftop that serves as a counterpoint to the artistically significant concept of 'gesture' simultaneously also symbolising the possibility of alternative routes (the end window of the sloping passage opens to the view of the National Museum of Art). Contrasting with the Gothic verticality of the LMA main edifice, the emphasised horizontal overhang of the new building underlines hierarchy and contextual respect while also confirming of adherence to a different age in architecture, foregoing any decorative details and achieving sculptural expressiveness through volume and new technological resources.
Block No. 2 of the Art Academy of Latvia
13 Kalpaka Boulevard
www.lma.lv
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