Danes take brewery in Riga
Architecture and urban planningRiga, which is the Baltic states' largest city, will is to have the mostly abandoned buildings of its historic Kimmel Quarter transformed into a commercial development. Kimmel Quarter is the former site of the Kimmel brewery, which was built in the 19th century. Schmidt Hammer Lassen was one of eleven entrants to the open competition, along with firms such as Henning Larsen and Zaha Hadid.
The investor behind the project is Modern City. The buildings to be renovated stand will have 6,500 sqm gla, while new office space will add a further 30,500 sqm. There will be also an 11,000 sqm underground car park build.
Schmidt Hammer Lassen's concept is for an office building and hotel with public amenities on the ground floor. The overall design will create a strong urban development with a timeless, classic appearance that is also uniquely contemporary.
"We wanted to create a new composition of buildings that was as pragmatic and straight forward as the old industrial complex and included a lively façade that seems to push back and forth and up and down," said Rasmus Kierkegaard, an associate partner at Schmidt Hammer Lassen. "The resulting architecture is distinctly modern but creates a rewarding dialogue with the old restored buildings. We have designed a new Kimmel Quarter in which history and the future are bound by timeless architecture."
Schmidt Hammer Lassen's concept centres on a 30,000-sqm office building that is open and inviting with direct access to indoor and outdoor public areas. The existing buildings at Kimmel Quarter will remain as unaltered as possible, enhancing the charm and authenticity of Riga's historic architecture. The new office building's ground floor is inspired by the arches of the brewery and will be built from bricks recycled from the site. The development will include a number of terraces and roof gardens.
"The plaza is one of the primary elements that will bring new life back to Kimmel Quarter," said Geerte Baars, an architect from Schmidt Hammer Lassen. "It will be a place to enjoy a meal or a cup of coffee."
The new office building's rectangular grid is designed to allow maximum daylight deep into the building site. In order to avoid overheating and to reduce the need for cooling the exterior. In addition, the amount of glass in each panel depends on the orientation of the façade, so the north side is almost fully open and the south side more closed. The building is to be BREEAM certified
Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, now part of globalarchitectureanddesignfirmPerkins+Will, is one of Scandinavia's architectural practices. The company was founded in Aarhus, Denmark in 1986 by Morten Schmidt, Bjarne Hammer, and John F. Lassen, and is led today by all three founding partners along with senior partners Kim Holst Jensen and Kristian Lars Ahlmark and partners Rong Lu and Chris Hardie.
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