wHY (US)
+ OUTOFBOX Architecture + ALPS

The new LMoCA grafts Riga’s vibrant cityscape into New Hanza’s fertile base, creating a dynamic space for spontaneous cultural contemplation, experimentation, and evolution. As an early entrant to the district, the museum must kick-start the urban and cultural energy of what’s to come, as well as provide a destination-worthy centre for Latvia’s contemporary art culture. The museum is a streetscape, physically and programmatically open architecture that can support itself as a sole figure in a field, and then – as the neighbourhood evolves around it – serve as a hub in a continuous urban fabric. This cultural aggregator performs as an interior public space in the winter, and in the summer months opens up, unfolding into the landscape to invite the energy of the city in. In a city known for its facades, this new LMoCA gives facade new life and new dimension, serving at once as creator of inside and outside, as ornament and structure, as historical reference and beacon of a future.