The project started with an invitation for the Paper Object Festival which took place as a part of Riga 2014, European Capital of Culture. During the site visit around the cosy wooden house district of Pārdaugava and the Kalnciema Quarter there was found a graffitied stone building at the edge of small park. It was the Zvirbulis (sparrow in Latvian) library, lonely-looking one-storey building.
We found there can be something what architect can offer through installation. It was a challenge for us to create a large-scale installation out of paper even though paper has been our favourite material for models and drawings. The final proposal softly encases the library in fresh and crisp folded white cardboards to highlight its unique location, its importance to the community and its need for love and care.
Later we found that the building originally was built as a wooden summer house in 1880 and then turned into a public library in the 1960’s and covered with silica bricks. This time in 2014 we were adding one more layer by paper which represents the books and the library, almost from inside out. We hoped that this installation would let the forgotten “sparrow” fly once again.
Installation was on view during the festival from 27.06 – 20.07.2014.
Location
Riga, Latvia
Year
2013-2014
Status
Completed
Size
–
Client
Paper Object Festival
Design team
Tomomi Hayashi
Awards
Nominated for the Annual prize of the Estonian Association of Interior Architects (ESL) 2015 in installation category.
Nominated for the Annual Prize of the Cultural Endowment of Estonia in Architecture 2015 in category “Architectural activity”
