Latvian Architecture Award 2015 — finalists ← FOLD

Rundāle Palace. Photo from Rundāle Palace Museum archive

Last Friday at Bergs Bazaar in Riga, for the first time ever, the ceremony of Latvian Architecture Award 2015 ended without a Grand Prix winner. Instead, the jury gave a special mention to the restoration of Rundāle Palace, but silver awards — to four finalists.

Stories Editorial May 18, 2015

Headed by the winner of the previous year, Zaiga Gaile, the International Jury included Andrejs Andersons (Australia), Octavio Mestre (Spain), Annie Cohen–Solal (France), Noah Boe–Whitehorn (Denmark) and Triin Ojari (Estonia). Together they took the decision that no architectural work is worthy of the main prize this time. Announcing that «we didn’t find architecture any greater» and confusingly presenting a golden pineapple figurine, the jury especially praised the lengthy and accurate work of Imants Lancmanis on the restoration of Rundāle Palace, which concluded last year.

Even though the Grand Prix wasn’t given to anyone, silver awards went to four finalists of the competition: «AB3D» for Rēzekne University Department of Engineering, «Jaunromāns un Ābele» for apartment block on Skārņu Street in Old Riga, «Sintija Vaivade_arhitekte» for holiday home Brieži and «Didzis Jaunzems Arhitektūra» for Nature’s concert hall and laboratories.

By the way, the design of the awards themselves was finally refreshed this year — studio «Variant» has created a transformable metal pineapple, based on the Rubik’s cube principle.

Rēzekne University Department of Engineering

Authors: «AB3D», — architects Juris Mitenbergs, Pēteris Spuriņš, Uldis Tučs, Guna Priede. Interior in collaboration with «Dizaina studija A», landscaping by Linda Zaļā.

Apartment block on Skārņu Street, Old Riga

Authors: «Jaunromāns un Ābele» — architects Mārtiņš Jaunromāns, Māra Ābele, Ieva Skadiņa, Jolanta Šaitere, Liene Danilēviča, Oskars Žuks, Juris Pupainis, graphic designer Edgars Zvirgzdiņš.