A BOOK DEVOTED TO THE ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN REGENERATION OF RIGA

Megaphone Publishers have published a book „9 Conditions of Riga” that is devoted to regeneration and transformation of the city, urban environment and architecture.

More than 50 architecture and urban design projects are included in this publication. They have been grouped according to brand new classifications of urban typology which distinguish those conditions of Riga which best describe the city’s architectural and urban planning projects.
Editor-in-chief of the book is an architect Oskars Redbers. In this publication he offers to give up the traditional classification of buildings according to their function and style. Instead, this book introduces a new system of classification that aims to identify new urban typologies and highlight the processes of architecture and urban development in a much broader sense.

The projects included in the book are grouped into the following 9 typological categories: New Pastoralism, En Plein Air, Upcycling, Highway, Autonomy, Takeover, Infills, Amplifications, Elusions. In order to describe those typologies, different medical, financial and economic terms are used. Architecture is the art of making connections between different seemingly unrelated things and ideas, combining them in a significant form and finding an ultimate meaning for their mutual existence. That is why this book ‘9 Conditions of Riga’ shows architecture as a process and as an outcome of complex and multilayered economic, social, cultural and political dialogue due to the impact of different regulations and restrictions, as well as other important circumstances.

The representational role of the architecture of Riga is by no means predominant. This book also presents such architectural examples which, in terms of the quality of urban environment and architecture, are rather controversial. At the same time, these examples provide a clear insight into the conditions of contemporary architecture and culture which promote its development in current conditions.

The book features essays written by architects Oskars Redbergs, Jānis Lejnieks and Jānis Dripe, architect and journalist Artis Zvirgzdiņš, urban theorist Krzysztof Nawratek, and art historian Inga Karlštrēma. Graphic desing: Edgars Zvirgzdiņš (Associates, Partners et Sons Design & Development). Photographies: Aivars Siliņš.

The book serves as a catalogue for the exhibition of the same title „9 Conditions of Riga”, which was exhibited at Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany from 23 October – 24 November 2013. Exhibition was part of the official programme of European Cultural Days of the European Central Bank.

The book can be purchased at „Jāņa sēta”, Kalnciema kvartāls, „Jānis Roze” and other bookstores, or by contacting Megaphone Publishers.