top of page

RIGA DESIGN AND ART HIGH SCHOOL





















Recognizing the architectural and cultural-historical value of Riga's wooden architectural heritage, in 2000 Europa Nostra offered financial and professional support in updating and implementing the preservation of Riga's historical wooden buildings, and proposed that the city of Riga jointly restore a valuable wooden house in the city center. The Latvia Nostra association was established (founders: Director of the Danish Cultural Institute Rike Helmsa, co-owner of Berga Bazaar, art historian Ieva Laukers, architects Pēteris Blūms, Juris Dambis and Zaiga Gaile) and a building at Lāčplēša Street 55, built in 1819 as the Katrīna School, was selected for restoration. The aim of the international cooperation project was to highlight the unique features of Riga's wooden architecture and change society's attitude towards its wooden heritage, as well as to demonstrate a modern approach to the reconstruction and restoration of old wooden buildings. In 2001, the office of architect Zaiga Gaile developed a project for the renovation of the school building, which was revised and updated twice over the course of ten years, until in 2011 it received ERDF funding, and renovation work began.
The reconstruction of the building was completed in December 2013, and in May 2014, at the Latvian Architecture Show of the Year, the project won the Latvian Architecture Grand Prize of the Year - the jury assessed its conceptual idea and implementation as a sensitive and timeless work of architecture of the highest level.
The building is a typical example of a wooden log building in the suburbs of Riga, the design of which used drawings of the classicism-empire model facades of Tsarist Russia. The building had two functions from the beginning - it housed both classrooms and teachers' apartments. In this respect, the building is unique, as similar wooden buildings are unknown in Riga. The building's construction volume was almost completely preserved with a high degree of authenticity. The original layout of the rooms was easily reconstructed, the original windows on both the first and roof mezzanine floors, and the solid doors were preserved.
The main goal of the reconstruction project was to restore the architectural image of the wooden school building built at the beginning of the 19th century as close as possible to the original. The restoration concept envisaged preserving the original and current function of the building, restoring the original volume of the wooden structure, freeing it from later extensions on the farm side, restoring the facades to the original log house appearance without board cladding, carefully insulating the exterior walls from the inside with only one layer of fibrolite, preserving the furnace heating in the building, covering the roof with S-shaped clay tiles and painted metal sheets. The interior walls of the log house of the building were fragmentarily preserved, exposed without plaster. The main entrance and central hall have been renovated as the main space, with a new central staircase being installed. The original layout of the building has also been reconstructed, with art studio spaces carefully designed, and the possibilities of using the attic floor expanded, illuminating the art studio spaces with aluminum skylights on the backyard side.
Reconstruction of a wooden building
Riga, Lāčplēša Street 55
Architects: Zaiga Gaile, Liene Griezīte, Andra Šmite, Ģirts Kalinkevičs, Ingmārs Atavs, Ineta Solzemniece-Saleniece, Dāvis Gasuls, Kristīne Riba, Romans Siņicins
Project client: Riga Design and Art High School, Latvia Nostra Association
Construction company: SIA “Abora”, SIA Āboltiņa Construction Company "AG"
Total area of the building 897 m2
bottom of page