Buildings of Performing Arts in Latvia’s Modern Movement

Agate Enina

doi:10.5755/j01.sace.1.2.2840

Abstract

After WWII, the Soviet Iron Curtain impeded sharing of knowledge between the Baltic socialist republics and other European states. It was necessary to find roundabout ways of introducing the innovative-minded global spirit, combined with the local architectural traditions and the actual possibilities established already in the 1920s and the 1930s.The aim of the article is to recognize the cultural and historic significance of buildings of performing arts, i.e. concert halls, cinemas and theatres, and determine their role in the history of Latvian architecture. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to evaluate architectural qualities of performing arts buildings both in the context of stylistic trends of the epoch and in the broader geographical context. Uncertain understanding of the place of the Latvian cultural heritage on a European level prompted an in-depth analysis of buildings of performing arts in Latvia’s Modern Movement.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sace.1.2.2840

Highlights

After WWII, the Soviet Iron Curtain impeded sharing of knowledge between the Baltic socialist republics and other European states
The aim of the study is to make an inventory of buildings of performing arts and their stylistic and functional features, and analyzing an overall development process of various types of buildings in the second half of the 20th century, to determine how the prevailing stylistic trends in the world, having blended with the local building traditions, had influenced and defined the place of Latvian architecture and cultural heritage in the European context
In the late 1950s, when construction of large-scale residential districts began in the cities of Latvia using prefabricated building constructions (Krastiņš et al 1998), the same degree of industrialisation was applied to the architecture of public buildings

Summary

Introduction

After WWII, the Soviet Iron Curtain impeded sharing of knowledge between the Baltic socialist republics and other European states. In the post-war period though, a number of significant public buildings, new housing estates, grand civil engineering structures and other buildings were constructed in Latvia. Today the Soviet relics have become part of Latvia’s scenery and their preservation and development should be a responsibility of new generations of architects and historians and the general public as well. It is quite important to perform the inventory of buildings of cultural establishments ascertaining their typology and stylistic features. It would allow defining more objectively the place of Latvian architecture in the European context, and determining further guidelines for development of cultural heritage

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