Scientific Journal of Riga Technical University Architecture and Urban Planning
Jānis Krastiņš. Changing Ideals of Modernity: Brīvības iela in Riga
in industry, art and culture” [10, 4]. For this purpose it was intended to fill the stretch of the street in the central part of the city with new forms, transforming the historic houses according to the new requirements so that they could be used as a background for the new structures. Specifying the methods to be employed for achievement of these generalized principles, usually the spatial structure of the existing streetscape referred to as “a street-corridor” was a priori assumed to be bad and cumbersome. According to one of the authors of the project, it was characteristic of “street planning pattern of the capitalism period when the height of the buildings aligning the street was equal to the width of the street” [10, 5]. Thus, in order “to eliminate this unpleasant legacy (my emphasis – J.K.), a two-storey pavilion-type structure raised on the poles at the ground floor level became the principal element of the new streetscape. According to the authors, such a building structure with modern constructions, the same structural approach and architectural solution may be used like universal workshops in the architecture of industrial buildings for any purpose: as a café, a showroom, a shop, a demonstration hall etc.” [10, 5]. The Lever House in New York (1952, architect Gordon Bunshaf) with its massing consisting of a high-rise placed above a wider two-storey pavilion is a typical landmark and architectural monument of the Modern Movement. Afterwards many new buildings and urban transformation projects were designed in the same vein, like one of the most typical examples Hötorgscity in Stockholm (1952–1956, architects David Helldén, Anders Tengbom, Sven Markelius, Erik Lallerstedt, Bäckström & Reinius). Evidently the authors of the transformation project for Brīvības iela also got inspired by this design, maintaining that “such an approach is one of the most characteristic in modern architecture” [10, 5]. According to the project, it was intended to demolish many old, low-rise buildings, particularly wooden houses, to extend the area within the block and “to build there multi-storey buildings (with 12 to 16 floors) that will make a pleasant contrast with the low, sober and homogeneous (my emphasis – J.K.) streetscape” [ibid]. Explicit development visions were produced for several segments of the street (Figures 1–3). That time similar ideas for urban transformation were put forward in many cities, for example in Newcastle (England) where in 1963 the development project for Northumberland and Percy Streets was elaborated [9, 190]. The transformation project for Brīvības iela intended to broaden the street reducing the width of the existing pavements diverting pedestrian flows under the buildings (as it was already done in the 19th century, for example, in Bologna and Turin). For this purpose, pedestrian tunnels had to be constructed on the ground floors of the existing buildings what would have severely affected their architectural quality. To a certain extent, the authors’ intention to improve the hygienic and sanitary conditions of the built-up area deserves appreciation. To achieve this, it was planned to expand the inner courtyards, plant there trees and shrubs and supplement the yards with various elements of street furniture. While the project seeks to respect the building pattern of perimeter blocks, it clearly shows the Melbergs’, who was the author
Fig. 1. The corner of Brīvības and Elizabetes iela (street). Fig. 2. Brīvības iela between Dzirnavu iela and Blaumaņa iela. Fig. 3. The corner of Brīvības and Ģertrūdes iela. (Visualisations by Ivars Strautmanis, 1961)
2010
Volume 4
of the project’s main idea, fascination for the new large-scale housing estates that “had been designed according to the latest findings in the science of urban planning – with spacious green areas and an efficient network of service objects” [10, 6], therefore “the contradiction between these new districts and the
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