Concert hall, Riga

Music is the most ancient and emotional of the arts, and Latvians claim a long and affectionate relationship with it. While the classic image of a building for music is that of a monumental, compact structure, the winners of the 2006 competition for the Riga Concert Hall, Latvian architects Sīlis, Zābers & Kļava, proposed a clustered structure, modest in scale and with a dynamic skyline.

Having chosen a site for the new concert hall – a narrow plot on the AB dam, on the left bank of the Daugava River, just opposite the medieval core of the city – the organizers held an invited competition in which five Latvian architects – Sarma & Norde, Arhis, Arhitektonika, Sīlis, Zābers & Kļava, Z4 / Standardsituation / B+G Ingenieure – were pitted against five European firms – Henning Larsens Tegnestue A/S(DK), CoopHimmelb(l)au (AT), Kada Wittfeld Architektur (DE), Snøhetta (NO) and Behnisch, Behnisch & Partner Architekten (DE). The competition brief was to design a contemporary performance hall and a home for three professional organizations – the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Latvian State Choir and the Riga Chamber Orchestra. The traditional solution – a compact and homogeneous volume – as suggested by most of the design teams, was judged too heavy for this specific site. Sīlis, Zābers & Kļava, one of the best-known architectural practices in Latvia, took a different direction; they proposed a linear cluster of dark-coloured volumes arranged in a sculptural composition and capable of expansion.

The arrangement of clearly defined public spaces, three performance halls with ancillary spaces and staff areas was located on the northern part of the site and linked to the left bank by a new bridge for cars and a narrower bridge for pedestrians. There is an underground car park with links to the car parks of adjacent office buildings. The faceted composition of the volumes and the cladding of reflective, dark tinted glass and ceramic panels ensure colour variations in response to changing natural light, at the same time maintaining the integrity of the structure. The architects believe that a concert hall calls for a subtle, elegant and multilayered design approach, while keeping in mind the human scale of historical Riga, a World Heritage Site. They relate the dark colour to the festive and spiritual character of classical music, and are not afraid of associations with the coal harbour that was located here in the early 20th century.

One of the first public buildings to be built in a city where commercial construction is booming, the Riga Concert Hall has reignited the debate about the needs and desires of society in general. Most of the criticism concerns the cost of the technical and climatic installations, presumed functional shortcomings of the site and the dark appearance of the structure.

While the concert hall is a huge project in itself, it does not stand alone: it is part of an ambitious government project that includes the National Library (designed in the 1990s by US-based Latvian architect Gunnar Birkerts) and the Contemporary Art Museum (to be designed by Rem Koolhaas).