In Latvia the most iconic architectural topology is the vernacular tradition. The site suggested us to take advantage of the existing elements and interpretate the program starting from the structural organization of Latvia’s traditional rural homesteads. A two yard system was used to separate the residential building from from the stockyard and the farm: a dirty-yard and a clean-yard would create to filters in between the funtions.
Thus the continuity of the typology is realized by separating all the functions and placing them around the existing oak trees, obtaining two main courtyards around which the resort’s life takes place: a yard for the guests and a yard for the workers.
The system is divided and balanced by the common living-room, which like the traditional farm settlements revolved around a central chimney.
The other project’s goal is to reduce the impact on the environment and material waste. To obtain this we used the constructive system of rammed earth, to obtain massive structural walls using the local earth and clay and avoiding the use of concrete. The wall, or the earth, becomes the generating element of the project.
The rammed-earth walls articulate the space, creating a spatial continuity between the open-air spaces, and end serving as structure of the wooden roofs, elements that we decided to maintain from Latvia’s architectural tradition. From the inside the walls direct visual cuts that open to the exterior landscape, while from the exterior the border is perceive as a sequence of full and empty volumes.
To optimize the natural resources the walls are also used to collect the rain water from the tatched roofs, storing them in basins in the courtyards.
