A046_Housing Block
Riga, LatviaIn the Old Town of the city of Riga, Latvia, some new luxury apartments have to be built.
The assignment is to create within Riga’s historical centre high-quality multi-storey dwelling houses that had to take into account today’s requirements for comfortable living, moving about, safety, and recreational activities.
The location enjoys views over Saint Peter’s Church and over some areas of the historical city.
The proposal seeks to achieve two main objectives:
1 To create an architectural element according to the society of our time, with flexible and spacious living spaces, panoramic views over the historical surroundings and with good ventilation and natural lighting.
2 To generate an image according to our time but at the same time sensitive to the historical surroundings.
The building is divided into three main parts that respond to these objectives.
A glazed building with panoramic apartments:
The building consists of a service core attached to the separation wall with the adjacent building and of a continuous living space with a 34 meters long glazed facade that covers a 250° panoramic view over the historical part of the city of Riga.
The different functions within this continuous living space around the core are distributed depending on the sun orientation. Bedrooms are located at the north side and living and dining rooms at the east and south ones in connection with the outdoor spaces.
The continuous living space around the core provides big flexibility of use within the apartment. The apartment can be transformed from a loft with a big single space into 1, 2 or 3 bedrooms typology.
This flexibility offers the possibility of developing different types for different target groups (young couples, families, people working at home, etc.) and also the possibility of easy transformation of the apartments in the future.
An outer skin as interface with the context:
Seen from inside, the skin controls the light and allows panoramic views. Seen from outside, it covers partially the glazed facade in order to establish a more delicate dialogue with the neighbouring buildings.
The outer skin is made of vertical lattices that provide intimacy in the dwellings when seen from the street, but that allow clear views from inside.
The exterior facade will become a random composition of openings and voids that establishes a subtle dialogue with the other historical facades and that will become an icon of the contemporary way of living in the historical context.
Top roof terrace:
It acts as a big open-air surface that can be connected with the apartment located underneath it on the fifth level or that can work as a collective space for all the owners.
This space provides panoramic views over the surroundings and sunny outdoor spaces during the whole day.
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