Continuing the tradition, this year the contemporary photography platform ISSP is publishing a planner for 2025, which includes 40 photographs by Latvian and foreign artists. The theme of the year is Metamorphosis — a symbol of transformation and development.
One of the selection jury chairs of the National Design Award of Latvia 2025 is architect Brigita Bula. Her practice is dedicated to sustainable architecture for environmentally conscious and forward-thinking clients. Brigita Bula Architects recently won third prize in the competition for the Latvian exposition at the Venice Architecture Biennale, proposing a completely new model for the construction process, Not to Build. In the Nice Touch section, Brigita talks about a method that helps her develop ideas when working on projects.
The New Riga Theatre, whose concept and project were created by the architecture office Zaigas Gailes Birojs but later also worked on by the studio Sarma and Norde, stands out both for its multi-layered architecture and for its complex construction process, which was widely discussed by the local media.
Photographer Filips Šmits captures people in vivid and somewhat utopian photographs, which are most aptly described by the title of his photo series Sun Kissed, where he captures staged scenes of people relaxing in an urban environment. In the Nice Touch section, Filips recommends a thing that helps fight the autumn darkness.
e materiality of architecture is a theme that architects selected by the curator Angelina L. Starkova are exploring at the Tallinn Architecture Biennale. FOLD presents five resources proposed by the participants of the biennale.
In creating the new visual identity of the Latvian National Museum of History (LNVM), the design studio Kid Design reflects on the passage of time and the museum’s mission — to collect, preserve, research, and promote. Design solutions combine references to the historical with contemporary elements.
Among the winners of the Red Dot Design Award 2024 is the interior design of the medical products manufacturer Lightguide, a joint collaboration between the design studio H2E and the architecture office Mindaro Arch.
Illustrator and graphic designer Ingus Sproģis combines the modernist style of illustration with modern details in his work. For inspiration, Ingus collects historical visual materials, and in the Nice Touch section, he talks about how to extend his collection into the digital world.
Fashion designer Iveta Vecmane has just presented her latest collection, Melancholia X, designed in collaboration with her daughter Hanna. This time, the X in the collection’s title stands not only for its sequential number in the brand’s Melancholia series but also refers to the unknown, as well as to the intersection of various opposites.
Last week, the foundation Arhiteksti received the Latvian Architecture Award for the process Astra Zariņa — A Force of Nature. In the Nice Touch column, co-founder of Arhiteksti, architect and explorer of architectural ideas Igors Malovickis talks about a physical and digital activity that helps him think.
Valga’s architecture residency VARES invites architects and spatial practitioners from the Nordic and Baltic countries to participate in a winter school on the theme of darkness, taking place in Valga, Estonia from December 4 to 8.
Each year, tens of billions of used clothes hangers, mostly made from plastic, are discarded worldwide. Designer and founder of Trempel brand Aleksandrs Bobrovs offers an alternative product — high-quality hangers made from recycled cardboard and produced in Ventspils.
From October 31 to January 31, Annas Maskava’s exhibition Ancestral Body / Senču Ķermenis will be on view at the ISSP Gallery in Riga. The artist explores aspects of vulnerability, fragility, and the inheritance of memory through women’s experiences.
Latvijas Banka (Bank of Latvia) has issued a collector coin, Building the Unbuilt, a tribute to the work of the outstanding Latvian modernist architect Marta Staņa. The coin was designed by Rūta Jumīte, making it her debut in coin art.
Graphic designer and art director Kristiāna Marija Sproģe talks about a technique that helps her overcome creative blocks and come up with fresh ideas.
To celebrate its 100th anniversary, the legendary embroidery atelier Lesage has opened the exhibition Lesage, 100 Years of Fashion and Decoration at the Le19m gallery in Paris. Alongside Chanel, Saint Laurent, Schiaparelli, and Balenciaga, the exhibition also features a look by designer Laima Jurča.
How can different interventions in the city help unleash the freedom and joy we experienced as children, climbing trees or crawling into sheds through a gap in the wall? Liene Jakobsone, project manager of the public art object Play Stage, summarises her observations on playing in the urban environment.