Wild Thing, Cēsis (Latvia) 2015
Riga Technical University Summer School
Wild Thing is a wilderness observatory placed in the Pirtsupites Grava Valley in a small town in Latvia called Cēsis. The observatory was designed and built in two weeks by an international group of 13 students.
Pirtsupites Grava Valley is inside the boundary of the historic town and connects the central historic castle directly with the surrounding national park. Despite its location it is seen as a large and undefined green space that divides the town and costs the council every year to maintain.
Building Works Unit worked with the town Mayor to propose an alternative strategy of ‘re-wilding’ for the valley. We proposed a landscape strategy which simply a shifts the perceived value of wild green space within the city.
The Wild Thing is a structure that directly relates to this proposed development of the whole valley territory. Wild Thing is a catalyst structure heralding the re-wilding of the valley and providing a point of observation for the nature and plantlife below. It appears itself as a strange creature walking out form behind the trees and provides a point of focus and attraction for surrounding residents.
Client: Cesis Municipality
Tutors: Niklāvs Paegle (LV), Thomas Randall–Page (UK), Theodore Molloy (UK)
Assistants: Lucas Facer (UK), Chloe Leen (UK)
Students: Mariana Meneguetti (BR), Amanda Sperger (AT), Joséphine Devaud Koenig (CH), Wojtek Pisarczyk (PL), Jennifer Whittaker (UK), Ozan Toksoz–Blauel (UK), Aislu Mursalimova (RU), Arta Buceniece (LV), Anja Milojević (RS), Kairit Sõlg (EE), Živan Miletić (RS), Aivars Žogla (LV)
Research Question: How can a small built intervention address the large scale relationship between the city and the national park beyond? Can it act as a seed or a spark to initiate substantive change in the way the municipality views and manages its green space?
Latvia, Initiated by institution, Architecture, Months, Semi-permanent, 11-50, Undergraduate, Postgraduate, Graduates, Propositional, Extra-curricular, Students with tutor, Riga Technical Univ.
