New visions of what the national concert hall could look like in the future in the building of the World Trade Center have been gained at the plein air of the Baltic School of Architecture – the received ideas will be the basis for a design competition.
Judging by the future of the concert hall, the architecture students of the Baltic States have created a total of 12 ideas for the development of the territory on Elizabetes Street 2. The considered options are various – some offer to build separate parts of the complex underground, others – on a green roof. There are also options to integrate the concert hall into the green area of Kronvalda Park or to build a large complex of three buildings in the direction of the Daugava.
“With this plein air, we are convincingly proving the principled possibility to create a national concert hall here. (..) This is a very good basis for formulating the rules of the international competition, ”said Jānis Dripe, Deputy Head of the National Concert Hall Project Development Working Group.
Representatives of Tallinn and Vilnius universities pointed out that the reconstruction of such a large building would be challenging, but not impossible. And it would give new winds to the whole territory of Kronvalds Park. This could give this green belt a whole new identity, function and additional connectivity with the urban environment.
“We found that there are several groups of buildings in Riga, including houses of culture and other important buildings, which are located in green areas as complexes, rather than separate pavilions. Therefore, we created a group of three new buildings that would form the Riga Music Garden, which would have a significant connection with the Daugava and the port, ”admits Professor Rolands Paleks of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University.
Home architecture students have concluded that unless the state is ready to cut down trees in the park and significantly increase the cost of the project, it will not be possible to join the construction plot at this time.
“Our main conclusion is that the currently offered program cannot be conveniently built on the existing plot without compromise. These would be either additional costs or giving up certain functions, ”Edgars Bondars, Assistant Professor at Riga Technical University.
According to students, not only economic but also social factors should also be taken into account. It would be important to involve the public in the evaluation of the project.
“We have to try to understand what we really want to achieve. Do we want to respect something that is already there and that is our heritage – do we want to acknowledge it or not. Or we want to create something new to represent a new country, a new future. We think that we should respect what is already there, ”says Christian Ivan Hrgetich-Vitol, a lecturer at RISEBA.
The developed ideas will be used by the Ministry of Culture and State Real Estate to prepare regulations for the international design competition, which is planned to be announced at the beginning of next year. It is planned that as a result of this competition it will become clear what the national concert hall will look like in the future.
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