Riga, Latvia
Located on Emīla Dārziņa street 11, in Riga’s Mežaparks district, this residence was originally built in 1939 by Latvian architect Visvaldis Paegle and was commissioned at the time by the Lūkini family–a Latvian doctor dynasty who specialized in homeopathic remedies and eye disease.
Despite the fact that the house has undergone many changes throughout its history, the current owners and clients of the project also work in medicine, therefore it can still be referred to as a “doctor’s residence.”
Reconstruction of the Doctor Residence E. Dārziņa Street 11 has recently been awarded a 2022 International Architecture Awards Honorable Mention by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Approximately half of the premise is a steep knoll covered with pine forest, a landscape that is very characteristic of the area.
The style of the building can be described as 1930s functionalism, but with elements of a more eclectic style.
The house is wooden-framed with a plastered brick facade and the volume is broken by decorative window and door architraves and a red brick masonry rotunda entrance.
Originally, the main entrance was planned for the south side and the interior of the hall was the most palatial room in the house.
Patients of the Lūkinu family doctors were required to climb-up the central hall’s stairs to the procedure room that was located on the second floor of the house.
Moreover, various alterations throughout history disrupted the house’s clear plan structure.
When the current owners purchased the house, it had become an incomprehensible maze in which it was difficult to recognize the original setting.
The goal of the reconstruction project was thus to preserve the 1930s historical image of the functionalist-style villa of Mežaparks, building on the past, while at the same time creating a new quality of modern comfort.
The entire house’s volume has been placed on the terrace ground floor, where the red brick terrace framing embosses the residence and is placed on a platform.
The ginger-red glazed clinker bricks used for the terrace, veranda, and basement floor, alongside the dark brown wood central stairs and interior details, define the entire house’s character and ambiance.
The central staircase connects all floors starting from the newly built basement floor.
Its longitudinal placement ensures access to all rooms on the sides and end of the hall.
Moreover, the skylight in the center of the house illuminates the interior and the path while walking up the stairs.
The main entrance has been moved to the north side above the underground garage.
Exiting from the house is possible from all sides: in front of the kitchen with an outdoor table on the morning terrace; at the back of the living room to the evening terrace; on the south side of the house, where was the historical rotunda entrance is located and which has now been converted into a glazed veranda.
It is thus possible to access the house from all around the ground floor’s terrace.
The sauna building, surrounded by an adjacent pine cluster, is an excellent representation of the interaction between the old and the new.
It embodies traditional Latvian forms—a classic-shaped log sauna with a gable roof and small windows—but as an almost transparent volume with metal constructions, fitting perfectly into the surrounding nature.
Project: Reconstruction of the Doctor Residence E. Dārziņa Street 11
Architects: Zaigas Gailes Birojs Ltd.
Client: Private
Photographers: Ansis Starks
