Residential building in Valmiera

Typology: Architecture, Residential

Location: Valmiera, Latvia
Year: 2021
Status: Work ir progress
Size: 3 675 m2
Client: Private
Design team: a part arhitekti

The new housing project with 53 apartments is located just outside Valmiera city center in area that was mainly developed during 1970’s and is characterized by Soviet era mass apartment block buildings. The main challenge was to design a building that is ascetic and modern yet blending it within given environment.
The project fills the existing urban fabric creating a closed perimeter for neighboring buildings. The street corner is being accented by extruding the buildings angular volume, which helps to mark the new volume.
The project offers the architectural language and use of materials that reacts to its immediate urban context. Top floor was reduced in order to have a more delicate volume, at the same time creating a terrace for building inhabitants. The use of red bricks acts as a connecting element between surrounding blocks while while the smooth horizontal belts mark the floor plates.