The new song festival ground in Latvia is a symbolic update—an architectural interpretation of contemporary song festival culture as well as a nation’s independence in the very centre of the Baltics.
Although dictionaries define the term ‘plateau’ as a stable, fluctuation-free state, they also include a caveat: it only lasts for a certain period of time. So, what comes next?
Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, collectively known as the Baltics, are three small countries that most of the world finds pretty much indistinguishable. As a geopolitical term, ‘the Baltics’ took root only in the 20th century. The more distant past and cultural history of the three countries differ on several levels.
Perhaps it is namely in defiance against externally imposed homogenising simplifications that we tend to turn to more distant places for inspiration and view local trends and tendencies as something confined only to national borders. However, anxious times encourage unity, urging us to discover and interpret our identities ourselves instead of letting others define us. In order to be carried and consolidated not only by fear, but also joy, pleasure, and curiosity we invite to discover commonalities and peculiarities of the Baltic countries!
Wide breadth, blurred boundaries, ambiguous endings and beginnings—the charm of the Baltic condition is not easy to grasp. But as Latvians say, per Reinis Salins: ‘Katram savs stūrītis’ (‘Everyone has their own corner’).
Johan Tali is the winner of the 2021 Young Architect Award from the Estonian Association of Architects. He earned this distinction for his wide-ranging activities as an architect, curator, lecturer and populariser of architectural topics.
Over the course of the past thirty years, designing school spaces has migrated from being a marginally positioned subject matter to the centre of focus in the field of architecture, supported by scientific studies and continual research and development. The spaces for learning have acquired a new image and meaning.
Teist põlve arhitekt Ralf väidab, et tal ei ole eriala suhtes illusioone; seda muljetavaldavama järjekindlusega seisab ta projekteerimisprotsessis arhitektuurse tuumidee säilimise eest. Arhitektiks olemine defineerib Ralfi kogu tegevust ja maailmavaadet töötegemisest reisimiseni – võib-olla ainult muusikal õnnestub hetkiti samavõrdse tähelepanu eest võistelda. Küsis Ingrid Ruudi.
Each public competition and design carries in itself both potential and responsibility to make a contribution to the spatial environment surrounding the building.
The fate of a shrinking town is greatly influenced by the location and building of the state secondary school. In the course of the process of establishing twenty new state secondary schools, it is only natural to consider what contemporary pedagogy and the respective learning spaces are like.
Elering’s new office building is technically a reconstruction, an extension. Although everything is new, the small remaining part of the former structural frame came to define the building’s location as well as its overall height and width. It is actually the old building extended by three times, a simple rectangle with two particular islands in the middle of the office spaces located along the perimeter. The former atrium has become a secluded inner courtyard balanced by the second enclosed and highly secured control centre in the middle part of the extension.
