Hotel Liesma Proposal by PRAUD

Boston architects PRAUD have shared with us their entry to the international Hotel Liesma design competition for a music-themed upscale hotel in Jurmala, Latvia. The proposal did not manage to win a prize, but we are happy to publish it.

PRAUD's project team included Dongwoo Yim, Rafael Luna, and Emily Ko.

Project Description from the Architects:

APPROACH

There are two challenging questions we had when we first met the project. First, what type of architectural form can strengthen the concept of music hotel as well as this amazing landscape? Perhaps the architecture should not be an iconic building that tries to outstand itself amongs the environment, but a very gentle form that just sits on the site.
The next question was,  is it able to bring in the nature into the site so that the whole site is conceived as park? To achieve this concept of music park, having a landscape field in the left over space in the site is not enough, perhaps we need more aggressive approach so that the music park we are trying to create is not something you can experience in other parts of the city.

CONCEPT

The main concept of the project is to elevate the new hotel mass from the ground level. There are two major purposes of this approach; to have widely open public park on the ground level and to provide better view to the Baltic sea from hotel rooms.

Every single room in the new mass has direct view towards the sea and has access to the balcony on the roof. This new mat-type mass is held by multiple cones that contain public programs inside such as, music cafe, restaurants, conference hall, and swimming pool. By having private hotel rooms separated from the ground level and public programs sitting on the ground, the whole ground level, which we call it as music park, could be used as a dynamic and cultural park not only for the visitors to the hotel but also for all people who visits the city. Therefore, the music park becomes a new field for all those music concerts and festival of the city.

And by putting business class rooms and junior suites in the existing building, the hotel can be managed more efficiently. When it is in leisure season mostly for families, the hotel can only operate the new mat-type mass and couple of cones, while when it is for business conference, it can mainly operate the existing building, conference cone and restaurant cone. This efficient way of using the hotel facilities will let the hotel run viably through out the whole year.

Project Data:

Client: Hotel Liesma
Architect: PRAUD
Team: Dongwoo Yim, Rafael Luna, Emily Ko
Location: Jurmala, Latvia
Site Area: 15,000 m2
Project Floor Area: 10,300 m2

Find more plans and sections in the image gallery below.