01/06/2016
On June 6, at the Riga Technical University Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning in public event seven international architectural practices and Latvian architects’ tandems presented their proposals to the jury of the Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art (LMCA) Design Competition. The Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation (LMCAF) and the organizer of the design competition Malcolm Reading Consultants invited architecture professionals and students, artists and art admirers to follow the process of the contest live on the portal diena.lv from 11.00 to 15.30.
Set to become a cultural and arts centre of interregional as well as national significance, the forthcoming Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art benefits from a strategic site in the centre of Riga, the capital of Latvia. Its unique collection will span art and visual culture in Latvia and the Baltic Sea region from the 1960s to the present day.
The new €30 million museum building is a private and public collaboration, funded by the Boris and Inara Teterev Foundation and the ABLV Charitable Foundation, the initiative is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia.
In 2015 the Foundation commissioned a high-profile invited design competition from leading competition specialists, Malcolm Reading Consultants, to identify the best architectural talent available for the project. Twenty-five international practices were asked to participate in the first stage of the competition.
LMCA design competition involves a two-stage evaluation system. The jury of the competition will evaluate the submitted proposals taking into consideration the report of the Latvian and foreign countries experts on architecture quality of the suggested projects, their compliancy with the conception of the museum, integration in the urban environment, functionality and costs.
The competition jury, chaired by David Bickle, Director of Design, Exhibitions and FuturePlan at London’s V&A museum, will meet on June 6 and 7, and the winner announcement is scheduled for mid-June.
Other members of the jury include, Uldis Balodis, Architect, representing the Ministry of Culture; Gianni Botsford, Director & Head of Design, Gianni Botsford Architects; Jānis Dripe, Architect, representing the Ministry of Culture; Reinier de Graaf, Partner, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), and Director of AMO (OMA’s think-tank); Luke Jerram, Visual artist and director of Luke Jerram Ltd; Ieva Valtere, Executive Director, Pillar Management, SIA; Elīna Vikmane, Board Member, Latvian Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation. Malcolm Reading, Competition Director, will advise the jury.
