Siegfried Muktupavel: What are your thoughts, first of all, on what is happening in architecture this year? Have you noticed any differences from previous years? Oskar, I’d love to hear from you, you’ve been so deep in the process for a long time. What do you see?
Oskars Vāvere: This year there was a noticeable contribution of quality work…
Ugis Olte: … But for other years – I follow very indirectly, because it is not my occupation, at least not directly. I was surprised that there is no work that someone has done with high aesthetic or thought standards, but with inexpensive solutions.
Everything we saw breathed from it – money, money, money. It would be interesting for me, at least on such a jury tour, to see where a person’s thought is expressed without using expensive means of expression.
However, architecture itself has always been associated with these funds.
Ugis Olte: But I know that there is a genre where people think about how to build something nice – quick examples that come to mind are the exhibition “Wildlife” in Drusti. There, the artists come together, they build environmental objects that are like works of art, but at the same time they all build a sauna together, which consists of beams, films. The way it is done, you can see the thought there, you can see the sense of form there and it is also an architectural object.
I would be interested to know that the authors apply for this award themselves, that one day those who have done something with a good idea, but without spending a lot of money, would have the courage to apply.
Respectively, it is your opinion that the list of candidates for the prizes is chosen.
Ugis Olte: Exactly. Another example where I have seen an elegant solution that is certainly not a big-budget event is, for example, the open-air stage of a villa in von Strick. There, Andris Eglītis has also expressed himself with a wonderful sense of form, without spending almost anything. This is something I would find interesting to ride and watch and appreciate.
I do not know whether we will discuss all of them, as our guests said “money-making candidates”, but still – naturally, it would be difficult to build the Song Festival stage only with the power of thought. Maybe there is an object that you have to highlight for each individual, which falls not even in the eyes, but in the heart?
Oskars Vāvere: Maybe I could oppose Uģis a little bit about their money. Many public procurement objects were submitted this year and are almost always built under budget conditions. Of course, this budget cannot be very small, because it is construction and they are generally large investments. Compared to previous years, when there have been private, expensive projects with large budgets,
this year there were many projects designed as public procurement under budget conditions.
Are they also on the list of candidates?
Oskars Vāvere: Is yes.
Which one is worth mentioning?
Oskars Vāvere: There is the Ogre library, which, one would not say, is the most economical project, but designed as a unique project in wooden constructions. At present, due to the development of the industry, the construction and design of wooden structures for large and public buildings is still quite expensive. But this is such a pilot project in Latvia.
Ugis Olte: The Ogre Library is a good example of how people had figured out how to find a key to their drawer where a larger budget could be spent. They had chosen the “genre” of energy-efficient building. He puts the latest in this “genre”. There, for example, I saw probably the largest packages of energy-efficient glass to date – [viena] was seven meters long. Huge. And there, in principle, this window is the main object around which the whole room was arranged. There’s also a nice thought drive. If you have to sign up for some “genre”, which is a public building, built at the expense of the municipality and all that, they had figured out – we do better then super energy efficient and therefore we have the opportunity to ask for more there and there and there. It was very elegantly done.
Energy efficiency is one of the most popular, common words used in both architecture and construction. We spoke here at Kultūras rondo for last year’s Architecture Award. Then the guests expressed the idea that in Latvia, also in Europe and in the world, there is an increasing tendency to preserve the existing one as much as possible. Oskar, can you confirm that this is an agreement for architects – not to demolish anything, but only to develop and improve?
Oskars Vāvere: Of course, architects tend to be different. I could say that
the current global trend that the architectural community is following is not to demolish and rebuild, but to see how the existing can be regenerated and transformed,
or create a new function and use existing materials, existing construction volumes. Of course, situations tend to be different, but start with a starting point – what we can do with an existing building.
Will it also appear in our award this year?
Oskars Vāvere: Yes, this year one of the examples is the process of the architectural office “NRJA” on the preservation of Elizabetes Street 2. It is not a custom job, but an initiative of its own, where people have worked without any budget, everything has mostly been on their enthusiasm.
Ugis Olte: Also from my, that somewhat distant point of view,
there is a feeling that here in this country, we are in fact much better able to rebuild old things than to build new ones.
We had a lot of restorations [ēku]: an old goat barn built of limestone has been transformed into a family big house where the whole family can gather, or the old cow barn of Rūmene manor, which, for example, is now built into a super elegant conference and other similar meeting house. Where something is already to be taken, interpreted and transformed, and supplemented, it seems to me that the artists of this land are doing very well.
Ugi, I will ask about the work of the jury. You have repeatedly emphasized that you are not in the industry. However, you have had a connection. In fact, we all have a connection. How did the jury feel? How did this work go in general? Have you ever come together to a discussion table?
Ugis Olte: Our job was a whole week, every day in a row to get on one bus and drive first to the south, then to the west, then to the east and then…
Tell us what you said there. Without tearing?
Ugis Olte: We talked about what we have just seen. But you know, like, for such tours you should come up with a bus, I don’t know, where you can sit in a circle. Because when someone sits in front and talks, you don’t hear in the back, and vice versa. No, when you speak in the back, you hear in front, but vice versa – no. In any case, it is a wonderful thing, in a concentrated way, to get where you would not be with smart people. Never in my life can I imagine another format where in one week you would go around all the best that has been built this year.
It is a pleasant feeling to be in this company, to learn something new?
Ugis Olte: There is no doubt. A day of enrichment is a good day.
About those events. The ceremony will take place very soon – on Friday, August 27. But on August 25 [bija] discussion entitled “Is being together a core value of architecture?” [..] Oskar, are you you often come across the fact that the architect must be almost or a philosopher and an orator, be able to defend his point of view.
Oskars Vāvere: Yes.
One is to come up with your own idea, to implement it, the other is to convince a lot of people involved why it is needed and who will be better off. Yes, I would say that presentation is one of the most important in general.
Then such a big stone fell from your heart last year – if you are recognized in terms of professionals, then this thing of proof is easier, isn’t it? Is it better then?
Oskars Vāvere: Of course, inexperienced people are looked at differently. There are people who have a lot of experience [un] their name is often stronger.
I won’t ask which item, but do you have a favorite for this year that you would choose as an award winner?
Oskars Vāvere: There were several. I liked both the public projects and the processes I thought… It would be both interesting and pleasant this year for someone from one of the processes, including a private house, a large public object to receive the award. I hope you will find this list of award-winning works interesting.
Ugis Olte: I observe that, I don’t know if it’s a phenomenon, but in any case a connection that can also reveal something about the specifics of the architect’s work – the architect becomes a stranger, and he basically needs to know what his client wants, and then more be able to think from their own baggage of experience, as it applies in general to the whole, to all people, because no one is already a lonely island.
Ugi, it is in all arts, only others are cheaper.
Ugis OlteA: Yes, but what could be observed is that
the most successful things meet where the client and the architect have established a friendly and already deepened private relationship.
[..] And where there is this feeling that the architect is almost a member of the family, there is also a very, very great…
You can’t know who gave up there.
Ugis Olte: It was so lacking that the architect would submit to the client. Then the saying started that everyone needs an architect and the real architect is no longer needed. However, it is necessary to take a responsible approach so that someone can know more.
Oskars Vāvere: It is still often the case in the professional field that an architect becomes a family psychologist, a researcher of family life, an assistant and often comes to all sorts of conclusions about the structure of the family and mutual relations. Its family life already creates the overall look and feel of the house.
I’m still on the jury. Ask Ugis how you rate this principle at all evaluation is underway. Your stage, but now the final jury, which will evaluate and select the main winners, is international. How do you assess whether such a scheme is correct, that you drive there, you think, you think, you already know and know everything, and here suddenly the fine gentlemen come from abroad and evaluate something completely different?
Ugis Olte: For a small society, which is inevitably our society,
it could be said that the Architecture of the Year Award has the ideal format – the jury consists of the award-winning authors of previous years, plus another foreign field, in this case
– I from the field of cinema and Inga Gaile from writing. We make their first selection and then give it to strangers to look in a totally strange mirror. Similarly, if I’m not mistaken, with the Latvian film award “Big Kristaps” – local guild representatives select the films and then give them to strangers. [Tās] does not know anything, which is basically how things should be perceived – whether this object, this work in itself is able to stand on its own feet or on its own foundations, if you do not know the contexts around it.
Oskars Vāvere: … Do not know the architect of the project. Often all to each other [jau] are well – known, especially the architects mostly all studied in one school.
I also agree with Uģis that it is a very good format, it is objective enough and also brings some world, global view to Latvian architecture.
As I have already mentioned, the circle in Latvia is so narrow that all the excitement and dramas are already starting when selecting the final works. The Grand Prix scale would be even crazier.
Ugis Olte: There are already precedents for the health of such a jury format, because you see, writers – how ugly it is torn because the jury is the same contemporaries, contemporaries and who can not divide who is better now, who has reached the limits of his abilities, who is still approaching them. That way, however, everyone has a cool mind, and you can’t make that decision, no matter who he is, at least in scabies format.
Are you looking forward to the ceremony itself? We know that “Players’ Night” has extremely high ratings in terms of viewers, the Grand Music Award as well. How big do you think there is interest in the Latvian Architecture of the Year Award?
Oskars Vāvere: I think there is a lot of interest, at least within the industry or field. Due to the previous year, of course, there has been such a swing, but… This year the event will take place on the Hanseatic platform, with certificates. He will be open to everyone and will also have a live internet broadcast.
CONTEXT:
The Latvian Architecture Annual Award is an annual national architecture competition with the aim of identifying and popularizing the best performances of Latvian architecture and promoting the high-quality development of architecture. The annual award is the largest event of the year in Latvian architecture, recognized as a nationally significant event, and the award itself is the highest award in Latvian architecture. The Latvian Architecture of the Year Award is organized by the Latvian Union of Architects in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia.
–
