Villa Guna | Riga | Latvia | GMP Architekten

Directly adjacent to the apartment building situated on the Baltic Sea beach near Riga, a structure designed by Meinhard von Gerkan and completed in 2001, the clients - Guna Eglite and Leons Jakrins - have bought an additional piece of land. A second structure is to be built on this narrow, pine tree-covered lot precisely according to the wishes of "the very good lady" Guna.

The primary feature of the design is not the actual functionality of a villa, but rather far more the actual physical experience of the site, characterized by the dialogue between the surrounding landscape and the view over the dunes of the beach near Riga.

The facade of the Villa Guna is a luminous white, creating the greatest possible contrast to the dark trunks of the thick, evergreen pinewood forest and the blue of the everchanging sky over the Baltic Sea. Upon entering the site from the south, the similarities between the Villa Guna and its larger, neighboring structure are immediately apparent: both use the same materials and color and are grounded in form in the modern tradition; these dwellings, thus, form a unity and yet are so different in their design and spatial atmosphere.....more