Introduction
The competition for an auditorium at the Riga International Convention Centre invites critical consideration of an all too often neglected urban function. The importance of this competition arises from its social and cultural circumstance: a reappraisal of the convention center, a somewhat problematic though ubiquitous paradigm in its current form, besmirching the fabric of many contemporary cities.
A product of global corporatism and commercialism from the last century, kinfolk include convention facilities, civic and convention centers worldwide. Poised as an architectural competition, the prompt optimistically recalls and aspires to the architectural heritage of this program’s archeology, conjuring perhaps in principle the Greek agora or Roman fora, and more resolutely, early manifestations of the global industrial revolution, the monumentality and polity of long span structures and exposition halls of the great world fairs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The competition demands a well considered alternative to sprawling multi-block exhibition structures of the last quarter century, precedented by car parks and urban reclusion.
While submissions to the competition varied, successful proposals demonstrated shared characteristics and vision, effectively engaging and integrating disparate elements of both program and site, reinvesting an estranged program in the urban landscape. Selected projects establish a compelling argument to redefine and reestablish the public and civic facility of the contemporary typology for an exhibition center.
1st Prize Winner
The Urban Lighthouse
We enjoy participating in Architectural Competitions as we see them as a healthy, refreshing way of putting our ideas out in the open, and a constant stimulus to move forward from from what we have already accomplished within our realm.
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Jury feedback summary
The first place entry for the Kip Island Auditorium was chosen for its proposal to completely entangle city and stage, creating a performance space radically deconstructing the separation between proscenium and audience. The project centerpiece is an elevated theatre space, cantilevered as a truss over the site, creating an iconic figure in the city. Inside this truss, the linear sequence of auditorium spaces is interconnected by a series of panels that can either separate each stage for simultaneous performances or open up and interconnect, forming a monumental stage that transfigures the nature of performance. The skin reinforces this programmatic gesture and tectonic diagram. Double layers of mesh establish the project’s powerful ambiguity between interior and figure - both exterior form and internal volume assert themselves as equal components of the project’s expression and identity. The iconicity of the auditorium lies in this opposition between object and performance, creating a project in which the archetype of the stage is activated into an entirely new model for spectacle and spectatorship.
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2nd Prize Winner +
BB STUDENT AWARD +
BB GREEN AWARD
BB STUDENT AWARD +
BB GREEN AWARD
Kip Island Auditorium
The way we see it, these competitions are a great way to try new things out. Their informal nature allows us to experiment with the way we design, work and collaborate. They also provide a platform to broadcast our ideas to a bigger audience.
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Jury feedback summary
The success of the second place entry for the Kip Island Auditorium competition lies in its simple solution to the existing conditions, using an economy of form and material to create a flexible building characterized by tactful iconicity. The project parti stitches the site, unifying the shed buildings of the exhibition centre, by infilling the triangular space between with a repeating, extruded sawtooth bay. Within this triangular massing, the project contains a large, non-hierarchical, and reconfigurable space, allowing for multiple auditoria and conference spaces while maintaining fluid connections to the existing buildings on the site. The project provides an expansive new public façade: a serrated wall, functioning as a sieve that filters visitors into the inner world of the aggregated and vast exhibition centre. Additionally, the structure and detailing of the project is tectonically thoughtful and ecologically considerate, deploying a repeated post and beam module of engineered wood with steel cable and polycarbonate infill to provide natural, indirect light. Combined, this kit-of-parts produces a subdued iconicity, evoking the industrial nature of the existing buildings and imposing order on a site characterized by an accumulation of disparate conditions.
3rd Prize Winner
Agir
This kind of competitions allows us to concentrate on the new design methods and relationships that could offer new form-type buildings with new uses and promote rapid change in our society. In the case of Kip Island Auditorium, we wanted to study how plans, sections and the building-type-form of a concert hall or an auditorium from the past century have changed to a new direction. Architecture vision competitions are the right place to explore the question of how to combine urban context, program solutions and the way users will interact with the building.
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Spain
Jury feedback summary
The strength of the third place entry arises from its urban engagement and social inclusion. The project takes a stance on the nature of large exhibition centers, making a case for the public. Expo and convention center typologies, due to their scale often create a barrier within the city, isolating the pedestrian rather than including. The siting of the third place entry adeptly uses the scale of the project to engage the public through a strategy of solid/void in lieu of the typologically conventional solid. Rather than attach to the existing exhibition center, the auditoria stretch the perimeter of the site, creating both a boundary and filter to a new public plaza. The plaza, filled with a series of trees, becomes the stitch between new and old allowing each structure to stand on its' own. The project keenly makes use of section to engage pedestrians in the program of the building by elevating and exposing the underside of each auditorium space. The undulating underside becomes a filtered threshold to the public plaza beyond. By elevating the auditoria, the project takes advantage of the exhibition center's sitting on Kip Island, gaining 360 degree views of the city. Arranged linearly, the auditoria create a new public promenade where visitors participate in each performance as they pass by. The promenade culminates in an open room overlooking the plaza and city beyond, engaging the visitor directly with the public.
