Sampling transforms industrial site in Latvia into colourful residential complex
Colourful metalwork contrasts with the worn bricks of this former industrial courtyard in Riga, Latvia, which has been converted into a residential complex by local studio Sampling.
Named Augustine's Garden, the cluster of low-rise industrial buildings sits off a main street behind an Art Nouveau apartment block with a white plaster facade, which was also renovated by Sampling as part of the scheme.
Despite the existing industrial buildings not being heritage protected or deemed historically significant, the studio decided to alter them as little as possible, contrasting their worn brickwork with colourful metal accents.
"We are deeply interested in advancing the paradigm of adaptive reuse and in working with existing built heritage, regardless of its aesthetic or historical value," said Sampling founders Liene Jakobsone and Manten Devriendt.
"Care and repair lie at the heart of the project. The ambition was to introduce as little new material as possible, allowing the site itself to determine the material strategy," they told Dezeen.
"Our challenge was to demonstrate that even materials burdened with negative connotations, such as white silicate brick, can be reevaluated and reactivated through careful and sensitive architectural intervention."
The organisation of the apartments at Augustine's Garden was guided by the site's existing layout. A mixture of apartments with private entrances sits directly off the courtyard, while smaller duplex studios and upper-floor units are accessed via a shared staircase.
Its external courtyard is equally shared between all residents and has been divided into a series of planted bays around which a paved path winds.
"The outdoor space is shared, and there is no fencing around the terraces. Nevertheless, they feel remarkably private," Jakobsone and Devriendt explained.
"This balance is one of the qualities most appreciated by the residents, living within a small, intimate community while at the same time being located in the centre of a large city," they added.
The windows of the apartments are framed in a pastel green-toned aluminium matched by the courtyard furniture, while their brick openings have been reinforced with blue-painted steel lintels.
Red-painted metal canopies shelter the courtyard apartment entrances and a deeper shade of red was used to finish both the courtyard's hanging light fittings and metalwork around the trees.
These three colours have been carried through to the interiors of the homes, where they have been used in curtains, carpentry and furniture.
On the street frontage, a pastel green gate sits alongside red sills and a red-metal roof added to the existing apartment block's frontage, which had its white plasterwork restored and was newly insulated internally.
Sampling was founded by Jakobsone and Devriendt in 2010, with offices in both Riga and Ghent.
Other recent residential projects in Latvia include a home on the western coast with a twisting slate roof by Made and a barn-like home in Riga with a corrugated metal roof by Gaiss.
The photography is by Madara Kuplā.
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