The general Song and Dance Festival is over, the waves of emotions from the heights of the tsunami have subsided to a normal wave of the Baltic Sea coast. The reality of our century – the insatiable appetite of time swallows the last morsels, leaving only beautiful memories of what was experienced on the Mežapark stage.
Dancers, singers, conductors, organizers, lighting, all the hardworking hands and feet – you were mesmerizing, but this will be the story of the Mežapark stage and its creators. More specifically about Austri Mailīti. I spoke to him, but I didn’t get an answer. I even tried to use an artificial intelligence chat program c.ai, it was also silent. Then I started using the oldest method in journalism – data collection.
I have cooperated with many architectural offices for 11 years, a third of my life has been related to this field, more precisely to the creation of 3D pictures, which was an integral part of architecture for many years. Currently, artificial intelligence is successfully dealing with it. That’s why I, as a professional in this field, was interested in what one of its authors thought about his performance – Mežaparks Estrada.
About the stage as a building
The Mežaparks stage building is unique – for both large-scale choral music performances and concerts of world-famous groups. The origins of the building in Mežapark can be traced back to the end of the 19th century, when a temporary wooden structure was built for group singing. The stage that we recognize from movie chronicles was built in 1955 and was built as a permanent stage in Mežapark. As time passed, both literally and figuratively, the stage was rebuilt several times, and as a result, it was no longer able to provide safety and acoustic parameters that meet modern requirements. The new stage needed a new approach.
The author of the idea himself, Austris Mailītis, says that when creating the new aesthetic and mythological image of the stage reconstruction SILVER GROVE ON THE MOUNTAIN OF SONG, inspiration was sought in Latvian cultural heritage and nature. Today’s stage is a free-standing metal structure GROVE, which acts as the defining acoustic element. The roof part is designed to resemble a forest, the trees of the metal columns intertwine in a spatially stable grid, and the adjustable acoustic panels fixed in it direct the sound in the desired direction.
The architectural structure, designed in the likeness of a forest, ensures smooth and natural sound. Local choral music professionals have described it as a unique silver sound. The key words in the design of the structure are “openness” and “transparency”.
Austris Mailītis: Latvian architect finds solace in nature and folklore
“In Latvian pagan traditions, we have Forest Mothers and Wind Mothers. The hall is sacred and you can talk to the trees,” says Austris in an interview, starting the construction of the first phase of the new Estrada. The reconstruction of the National Open Air Stage is the architect’s biggest order. “We* are gradually rebuilding the entire venue to adapt to the growing audience and choir, as well as to update the existing premises,” explains Mailītis (*the project was created by Mailītis in collaboration with the office of architect J. Pogas, sound engineers Andris Zabrauskis (RTU), Prof. Karlheinz Müller (Müller-BBM GmbH), Michael Wahl, Harald Frisch, Juris Saprovskis (RD acoustics)).
The open-air stage is surrounded by a dense forest, and the new design merges the venue with the surrounding environment. “The stage works as a metaphor for Latvia’s natural environment: calm, slow and smooth,” says Mailītis. A circular structure of steel branches rises from the ground. It provides partial shelter while keeping the venue directly facing the sky. “Nature appears through a set of abstract symbols: there is the shape of the horizon, hills, trees and foliage,” says Mailītis. Architects used representations of nature in Latvian folklore. “The forest in Latvia is a sacred place. It is a forest of purity, honesty, mythology and ideas. However, the anthropomorphic representations of nature that dominate folklore and pagan traditions are absent here. Emphasis is placed on simplicity and abstraction. The building built in 1955 and its decorations conveyed a strong propaganda message of Soviet imperialism,” says the architect, “we wanted to distance ourselves from everything political and talk to the audience through nature.”
And through this 2022 reconstructed Mežapark stage “Sidraba birzs” the XXVII General Song and XVII Dance Festival took place as part of the 150th anniversary.
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2023-07-17 18:28:17
#missed #conversation #architect #Austri #Mailīti
