Awakening the Landscape is an attempt to identify the multifaceted nature of the landscape and outline the focus areas of landscape architects. The book also gives a sense of the values of the ALPS team and offers an in-depth view into the workshop’s projects.

Architect Miķelis Putrāms (MADE Architects), one of the authors of the project that won the Latvian Architecture Award 2025 Grand Prix — the wooden kindergarten in Salaspils — talks about a method that helps overcome communication barriers.

Until October 30, registration is open for the Unbuilt Award 2025, which highlights the most innovative unrealised architecture projects and concepts. In addition to cash prizes, winners will receive a trophy designed by Germans Ermičs.

In the Nice Touch section, artist, designer, and illustrator Zahars Ze talks about an activity that helps him not only to recharge his batteries but also to collaborate with others.

In the section «Nice Touch», Mārtiņš Mežulis talks about a digital information aggregation tool that he uses both at work and in academia.

Streets of Baltics is a Baltic-wide collaboration project between porcelain designer Esmeralda Purvišķe (Esse Ceramics and Krasta Keramika) and artists and illustrators from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

The exhibition Ogres rītausma (Dawn of Ogre) is on display at the Ogre History and Art Museum until October 10, curated and designed by architect Zigmārs Jauja.

Dace Sūna calls herself a designer-maker, as it is important for her to develop her work not only conceptually and visually but also to experiment with different materials herself. In the Nice Touch section, she talks about a garment that allows her to get her hands dirty in the workshop.

At the Latvian design exhibition 89th Second at Expo 2025, Studio Sarmīte is presents the PineSkins pouf, a functional yet sculptural object covered with scales made from innovative softened pine bark material.

For the Latvian design exhibition 89th Second, currently on view at Expo 2025 in Osaka, the studio Gateris Works has created the Freckle Chair — a tribute to all the wood that the furniture industry classifies as «lower grade».

Designer Dace Sūna’s light object Sky-Set captures the changing colours of the sky using the Rayleigh scattering effect. The shape of the object also references dendrochronology — the study of climate history through the tree rings.

This and next week, the international contemporary theatre festival Homo Novus is taking place in Riga, Ķemeri, Valmiera, and Daugavpils. In the Nice Touch section, Santa Remere, the programme curator of Homo Novus, recommends something useful for travelling.