The new Cultural Multipurpose Centre in Karosta, is born from a re-reading of reality able to give shape to a new way of imagine how things can be. One of the first decisions is to change the proposed site in the competition and to set our action in an adjacent area with several abandoned buildings but in good condition. The abandoned housing buildings, are an interesting frame to work with. Taking into consideration their constructive system- prefabricated and stacked “boxes”- we consider to add another fabric able to set a dialogue with the existent one. The target is not only to re-use the existing infrastructure but also to generate something innovative for the community. In the consequent hybrid appears a new architectonical expression. The new fabric is conformed by “quasi-bricks”, able to complement the opaque materiality of the abandoned buildings. Its transparency and iridescent materiality creates a new atmosphere in contrast with the old buildings that are punctually transformed, consolidated and painted in black: as a inhabited background of the new programmes and times. In this way they are re-invented and re-used in an imaginative way. But the project considers acting also in the public space of Karosta, creating an integral plan able to work with the existing networks, consolidating or complementing them or creating new ones. The character of these networks will be focused on the recovery of obsolete architectures; on the interconnected social dynamics; and on the organisms- human or not- of this ecosystem.

Author: Mª Auxiliadora Gálvez

Collaborator: Ana Fernández Galván and Ricardo García Navia

Developer: Homemade Dessert & City Council of Liepaja

Date: 2013

Status: Competition Project

Location: Karosta, Letonia