Miera 31

Status: competition, 2014
Location: Riga, Latvia
Program: apartment building
Space: 1 512 m²
Team: Vytautas Biekša, Dovilė Krikščiūnaitė, Eglė Matulaitytė, Olga Voišnis

The Miera 31 building design utilizes the formal language (and the building rules) of the RVC (Rīgas vēsturiskā centra) to define it’s clear volume. The proposed volume is blocked to Miera iela 33 buildings fire walls with the matching cornice hight for both perimeter and courtyard buildings. The courtyard separates the building from the Miera iela 29 building and forms a passage towards A.Briāna iela with preserved trees and the rest area for the local residents. The building volume is carved out by stepping terraces and opens towards the souther side. This move not only allows to preserve existing insolation levels for Miera iela 33 buildings, but also creates desirable terraces for apartments on all floors of the building. The excellent insolation properties, good views and quiet private spaces provided by the terraces also enables to fit the Miera 31 building into the quarter inner space landscape matching it’s surroundings. The volume containing 18 apartments is divided into two starting from 2nd floor. The building’s floor section is of relatively small width and can be constructed with no or little internal bearing elements. This allows to flexibly plan different size apartments. The 2-4 floor features smaller 50-60m² – two room and 65-80m² three room apartments. The top 5th and 6th floors are occupied by single units with excellent views towards 3 sides and flexible planning options. Further accent for the passage is also given in the facades. The facades are inspired by the 1930’s modern buildings common in this part of Riga and are made using clearly defined structural pre-fabricated concrete modules with large aluminum framed windows.