David Adjaye to Design Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art

UK architect Adjaye Associates with Latvian architect AB3D beat out six other finalists (including Sauerbruch Hutton, which won a special mention) after the jury met the first week of June. They called the winning design "a beautiful and poetic response to the challenge of the design brief." Further, they said that "through its materials and form, [their proposal] is subtly informed by Latvian architecture." The jury praised as well the "the museum’s distinctive silhouette with its animated roofscape," the porous entry sequence, and treating the museum "as an active social condenser, bringing people together through different interactions, from the formal to the serendipitous."

The statement from Adjaye Associates and AB3D:

The Latvian Museum for Contemporary Art will offer an experience of contemporary art that synthesises art practice and art perception. Speaking to a wide spectrum of artwork, the building comprises a group of flexible spaces for a multi-nodal display sequence – offering smaller spaces for intimate works through to more expansive environments to facilitate larger installations. The form resonates with traditional domestic Latvian architecture, like a simple wooden house, elevated to an institutional architecture. This suggests the idea of the museum as a home for the collection, inviting a wide audience to participate in the cultural and civic exchange it will offer. The roof structure refers to a distinctive architectural trope of the region. Each tilt is a highly specific geometry designed to sculpt the pure northern light in order to define the interior organization and flexibility of the museum.

The Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art is a new institution that aims, with its €30 million museum building, to become "a cultural and arts center of interregional as well as national significance."