Supermarket, Riga

Supermarket

RIGA (LV) - GMARP have turned a simple supermarket into a contemporary local landmark.

In Riga, there is a story behind every new project. Sometimes the story is sad, sometimes joyful, and sometimes it encapsulates the entire history of modern times. Ziepniekkalns is one of several large Riga suburbs built in the early 1980s. It is located on the southernmost edge of the capital. Most of the flats in such suburbs are owner occupied, as a result of a privatization process carried out in the 1990s. The land under and near the buildings is either privately or municipally owned, and it forms a rather picturesque patchwork. In the 1980s, amenities in these large suburbs were poor. Today, new, commercially operated services are filling that gap, including in Ziepniekkalns where Rimi, one of Latvia's leading supermarket chains, was keen to build a store. They chose a small, trapezium-shaped lot opposite the existing retail and services area, a site previously occupied by a petrol station.

On this occasion they engaged a young architectural practice that was eager to turn the challenge into an asset. The plot was small, there were underground traffic engineering cables that needed to be taken into account, and there was a long list of dos and don'ts. They were required to design a car park that would also provide access to existing shops on the ground floor of the adjacent ten-storey residential building. As the narrow corner of the site protruded into the area's main pathways, a small public space was required in front of the new building. There were to be no rooftop building services and the supermarket volume had to step back ten metres from the residential building. And on top of all this, the building needed to be a bit special – unique – in order to compete with its rivals on the other side of the street. There was no way the architects could resolve all these issues with a traditional supermarket box and, to make matters worse, the available ground floor area fell short of the required 825 m² of floor space.

To meet this challenge, the architects decided to move all utility rooms to the second level of the steel-frame building, above a shopping area and facing away from the main street. To balance the volume, the entrance area on the main street and the pedestrian paths were also raised, creating a high, glazed entrance lobby that appears much larger and more spacious from inside, while on the outside it helps the building merge with its surroundings. The building's roof slopes towards the middle from both sides, creating a dynamic skyline from the street and from the neighbouring apartment building, while the roof with its skylights becomes a fifth facade for the building. All the technical equipment is hidden on a balcony above the delivery entrance, facing away from the main street.