I arrived in Riga on December 18th. The weather was Scandinavian dreary. Firstly, we went to the small excursion in the historic center. The city has met us with medieval architecture, the narrow streets with difficult structure and three towers, which at the same time were the landmarks.

I founded a litter box on the wall, it's strange that I hadn't met it before or maybe, I didn't pay attention to it. From our clients, I knew that in Riga nearly all soviet movies about Europe were filmed in Riga, for example, “17 moments of spring”. 

The museum of architecture. It is one of the oldest buildings of Riga. But it only has 2 small exposition rooms, It turned to be pretty dull. 

Day 2. Jurmala.

The rain was drizzling, the atmosphere of ´The bothersome man´ was in every detail. The client has discovered to me the fact that this is normal weather for Jurmala, and there are not so many sunny days. The life of inhabitants is measured and sedate, no one in a hurry even doesn´t try to do it.

Beach.

The special place. This sandy strip with a width of 100 meters and length of 100 kilometers, and maybe more. The sea on the one side and the pine forest on other, the unique place in its way. 

And if there is a storm in the sea, then you can't feel it in the forest. As the front between two worlds, chamber wood and openly marine, and cell and universe.

The projest area.

That was the area with calm relief, with 20 pine trees and a lot of limitations from the local municipality. There were no doubts that the house with its main facade must be turned to the south and catch every sunlight. The location of the tree had dedicated the possible area of construction. The forest atmosphere dictated its context with which you has to make friends with. The old architectural images started to enter in my head and tried to claim to be in this area. I felt tiredness.

The architectural context.

There are a lot of wooden houses in Jurmala. Here you can find masterpieces of wooden architecture on every step of yours. Truthfully, in 90th our nouveau riche had brought their design here. But, fortunately, the municipal did not accept the completely changing of architecture. It is really pleasant. 

And now every slum is believed to be a monument of architecture, that’s funny, cause they can’t destroy it and neither restore it. That's strange, but it's better.

The modern architecture seeks for wooden facades. Maybe, that is right.

The main concert hall.

The awning is strange enough, and the hall is small enough… I had the full absence of understanding, why parties of our celebrities normally happen here. Maybe that's just a tradition.

The post-Soviet buildings are looking strange in this environment. The speculative forms, which were put in a landscape, are looking like the approach of building Roman legions: that´s not important when and how, but they had to build an amphitheater, cathedral and so on.

The conclusion.

The architectural context is different enough. The area with calm relief and untouchable trees, the local municipality with its rules and norms. We can begin.