AHMM were finalists in a two-stage open international competition which sought proposals to convert the 1981 Riga Congress Centre into a new concert hall.

Designers were asked to draw up a masterplan and concept design for the site which is located within the historic Boulevard Circle area of the Latvian capital’s UNESCO World Heritage Zone. The main aims of the design competition were to provide a modern concert hall with high quality acoustics, specially designed for professional music; design a building which is strongly connected to its setting in Kronvalda Park; and preserve and enhance the value of the existing Riga Concert hall.

Our concept was straightforward and simple. Our design proposals sensitively enlarged and extended the Riga Congress Centre in an architectural style which is complementary to the Centre, whilst preserving as much of the existing building as possible without compromising the quality and acoustic performance of the Main Hall. We modified the existing main hall to meet the levels of the existing foyer spaces, ensuring that the generous circulation and break out spaces of the existing Congress Centre will be fully utilised, safeguarding the important spaces of the existing architecture and effectively integrating them into the functional design of the new building.

We designed a scheme which was compact and economical both in budget and carbon cost but without compromising the quality or generosity of the spaces or the architecture.