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ZAņAS LIPKE MEMORIAL















New building
Riga, Ķīpsala, Mazais Balasta dambis 8
Concept authors: Māris Gailis, Augusts Sukuts, Viktors Jansons
Architects: Zaiga Gaile, Agnese Sirmā, Ingmārs Atavs, Ineta Solzemniece-Saleniece, Zane Dzintara, Maija Putniņa-Gaile, Dāvis Gasuls
Artist: Kristaps Ģelzis
Exhibition author: Reinis Suhanovs
Sound: Jēkabs Nīmanis
Customer: Society "Žanis Lipke memorial"
Construction: SIA "Balts un Melns"
Construction company: SIA "MG būvnieks"
Useful area 394.7 m2
In Ķīpsala, Mazā Balasta iela 8 is the place where Žanis Lipke hid Jews rescued from the ghetto in a pit under a barn during World War II. The memorial building is the BLACK SHED - as a symbolic shed, in the basement of which people were hidden. The image of the building is borrowed from the tarred sheds of fishermen and sailors of Ķīpsala, built from straug trees with a characteristic color and smell. The form and image of the museum ideologically and visually resonate with Noah's Ark, also an overturned boat, which can also be considered a refuge for life.
The memorial territory is surrounded by a dense black wooden fence. The inside of the shed is a path through a labyrinth and a search for a hidden hole. The visitor is emotionally guided along the passages around the perimeter of the barn, then climbs into the attic and reaches a hatch, where you can look into a hole in the depths of the basement, which is built in an area of 3x3x3 m with wooden beams and corresponds to the space of the historical bunker. The attic room is the museum's main exhibition hall with a visually transparent roof, through which the rays of the sun shine in the twilight from the longed-for and desired outside world - freedom. On the first floor of the building, there is another roundabout around the pit and a sukkah (‘sukkah’) built above the pit - a symbolic Jewish divine refuge for a while from the harshness and cruelty of the outside world, a longed-for house with painted walls. Visitors are allowed to look into it only through the windows. The 36m2 drawing of the sukkah was created by Kristaps Ģelzis.
The memorial was built entirely with donations collected by the association “Žaņa Lipke Memorial”.
Building area 226.4m²
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