Six months ago, the design competition for the project ended, in which the work of Mailītis Arhitekti and MARK architects with the motto "Baltic shine" won. Currently, an international team of designers has been formed and the project implementers are negotiating with the client - Riga City Council - on technical issues, reported Latvian Radio.
On Wednesday, June 12, the architects of the future concert hall, are due to talk about the plans and challenges involved in creating the long-awaited "house of music" in Riga.
According to the current scenarios, it is planned that in five or six years the former Congress House will have turned into a bright, contemporary concert hall. The architect Austris Mailītis highlights the openness as one of the main codes of the reconstruction. Currently, the existing building is completely closed and inaccessible, but the new project envisages opening it in three directions - both towards the city and the park, as well as vertically, which is necessary to create a larger hall with better acoustics.
The existing stone building will be given shine and transparency by wavy glass facades, says the architect: "Its wavy surface, similar to the sea, will reflect light. Accordingly, a wavy glass surface better captures the atmosphere, the light that is outside and reflects it, along with becoming this light itself - or winter light, or summer light. These are the wavy glass facades that will be a special sign for our Riga Philharmonic."
Besides the big hall, the concert hall will have several other halls, among them – the small hall and the multi-purpose hall. The building will not only be a place for concerts, but also a home for the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, the Latvian Radio Big Band, the Latvian Radio Choir, and almost half of the building will be occupied by musicians' work spaces and rehearsal halls.
Planning the logistics so that the activity can take place in several halls at the same time, in order to successfully ensure the flow of visitors, is one of the most difficult tasks of the project.
As the architects emphasize, the existing building will be reconstructed respectfully, preserving the cultural-historical value as far as possible. For example, the pink dolomite visible in the exterior decoration, which is Latvian stone, came from the Kranciems dolomite deposits.
After the reconstruction, the famous, six-meter high chandelier of the Congress House, produced by the Līvāni glass factory, will also return to the interior. However, the huge statue of writer Andrejs Upīts which currently buttonholes arrivals outside the main entrance will be moved to another location.
Design work is expected to take two years, while the construction will take three years, so the operation of the New Riga Philharmonic could start in 2029 or 2030, says Latvian Radio.
