Study of Architecture Archives - Designing Your Perfect House

Latvian Symbols in Art and Architecture

Bill Hirsch — Mon, 22 Jan 2024 23:11:21 +0000

Latvia has a rich cultural heritage of meaningful symbols that are prevalent in their art and architecture. The Latvian wooden houses incorporate a lot of detail in the wood trim. And much of this detail can be traced to symbols that have roots in the Pagan origins of the Latvian culture.

Author Dan Brown brought the study of symbols to the popular culture in his mega-bestseller, The daVinci Code. The intrepid “symbologist,” Professor Robert Langdon. Followed a trail of ancient symbols to undo the dirty deeds of the bad guys. These were Christian symbols. Latvia is a Christian nation, but the history of Latvia can be traced back to their Baltic origins in 4,000 to 2,000 BC. At that time, religion centered around rituals honoring Mother Earth and the mysteries of the natural world which surrounded and sustained human life.

The Bottom Edge of this Siding is Cut in a Zig-Zag Pattern that may Represent the Latvian Sign of Mara, the Deity of Earth and Water. But the Small circle at the Top of each Peak May Mean that this is the Symbol for Heaven Repeated Continuously Around the Entire House. Notice the Top Panel in the Shutters Is Another Opportunity for Symbolic Detail.

Latvian Symbols Link the Present to the Past and to the Cultural History

Many Latvian symbols, often abstracted shapes directly representing some aspect of nature, are key elements in Latvian decoration. There are symbols for the sun, moon, heaven, waves, serpents, and more. And these symbols carry meaning. For instance, the twin-peaked Sign of Jumis represents a double-spiked stalk of grain and symbolizes fertility and prosperity. The Sign of Zalktis, a serpent, is the guardian of wealth and well-being and is prevalent on women’s clothing and jewelry.

Fortunately, even during the oppressive Soviet and Nazi occupations, this wonderful and important heritage of Latvian culture has been retained. You see many of these symbols in Latvian jewelry, clothing, and in the decorated architecture of the houses and public buildings. We’ll be using symbols that are meaningful to my clients’ family in the design of their new home.

This is the fifth entry in the Latvia project portion of the blog. Read the others by clicking on the following:

I hope this information is helpful to you. You might want to get yourself a copy of my best-seller, Designing Your Perfect House. It is chockfull of valuable tips and advice that will save you many times the cost of the book on your house building or remodeling project. You might also like The Well-Centered Home: Simple Steps to Increase Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Happiness Where You Live. It will show you how to make your home a happy place.

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Decorative Wood Trim in Latvian Houses

Bill Hirsch — Tue, 23 Apr 2019 12:14:42 +0000

Call it “gingerbread” or call it “frou-frou,” but either way, intricate detail in wood is the signature of Latvian Wooden Architecture from the early part of the last century. This house on the island of Kipsala in the river Daugava across from Riga is a great example. And it’s wonderful to see treasures like this one being restored after years of neglect during the hard times in Latvia.

It’s impossible not to like the appealing look of details like these, even if you may not want it for your own home. I like how the railing of this porch is continued, in a sense, all round the building in the form of a wide, detailed band that carries the trim color and many of the railing details. This gives the illusion of the second floor being set back slightly behind an implied railing.

But my favorite details I saw on my recent trip to Latvia are what I have dubbed the “Veiled Gables.” That’s what I call the laced detail that seems to hang like a diaphanous fabric from the gabled peak above the porch. It reminds me of a bridal veil. I can only imagine the dappled sunlight that goes through the carved screen and decorates the room behind it and the view up and out through it to the sky.

These days, with modern architecture rejecting fanciful detail as “oh, so gauche,” it is nice to see whimsy and playfulness. It makes the architecture much more humane and friendly, don’t you think?

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The Traveling Architect in Latvia

Bill Hirsch — Fri, 19 Apr 2019 19:51:07 +0000

Today, we toured a neighborhood in Riga, Latvia that is full of 100+ year-old wooden houses. These were the homes of the professionals, merchants, and business owners from an era long past. Since the time when these homes were built, Latvia has been overrun and occupied by Russia, Germany, and the Soviet Union from the end of World War II until the fall of the Soviet empire.

During those dark decades of occupation, tens of thousands of people were killed, tortured by the KGB, and deported to Siberia. Many others, especially the skilled and educated who were seen as a threat to the Communist regime, fled as refugees. The wonderful Scandinavian and German influenced “wooden architecture” of Latvia suffered, too. Many of the buildings survived, but they fell into serious disrepair.

The Soviet Union was the world’s most ambitious and aggressive implementation of Communism. With the appealing, but impossible, promise of shared prosperity for all and the supposed abolition of a privileged upper class enriching themselves at the expense of the lowly common citizen, Communism looked like Utopia to many. However, the reality was that communism actually bred much more oligarchy and brutal oppression of the masses. The leaders of the “Party” became the tyrants over the many.

During the decades of Soviet occupation, people were forced to live in terrible conditions. Many of the beautiful wooden houses became tenements for multiple families living one family to a bedroom in unheated houses with no plumbing. The photo above is an example of just one such house. Even in this disheveled state, you can see that it once was a beautiful place that a family could live in happily in happier times. The good news is that since the fall of the Soviet Union and the new independence of Latvia, a rejuvenation has taken hold. Houses like this one are being bought and restored and many are being returned to the families of their original owners.

Restored Latvia Wooden House

Capitalism may not be perfect, but it is by far the best system of government ever devised to allow people to improve their lives, provide for their families, prosper, and even excel. The dwelling places where these people live can enjoy the same benefits of renewed prosperity.

Be sure to check back to my blog to see more posts I will be writing about my adventure in designing a new house in old Riga, Latvia.

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The Memorial for Deported Children in Riga, Latvia

Bill Hirsch — Fri, 19 Apr 2019 17:07:16 +0000

We design and build memorialsto remember important people, places, and events. Things that have been deemed important enough to never be forgotten. Sometimes these are not pleasant memories of happy times. For that reason, it is even more important to remember them and never repeat them.

Thus is the case with the memorial seen here. Sitting at the intersection of four streets in the center of the Mezaparks area of Riga, Latvia, this memorial is dedicated to the Latvian children deported during the 1940’s. It was designed by Dzintra Jansoneand was formally dedicated on June 14, 1993. That is the anniversary date of the mass deportations that occurred during the first Soviet occupation.

Latvia has had a difficult history of foreign occupation. Generations have been lost to the cruelty of neighboring tyrants. Yet through it all, the people of Latvia have held on to their unique cultural heritage and national identity. This monument reads, “For the deported children and those who died during transport or in foreign land, 1941-1949,”This refers to the mass deportation implemented by the first Soviet occupation in June of 1941. It encompasses the regimes of the Soviets and the Nazis and includes the second mass deportation in March of 1949.

Memorial Honors the Children Lost to Death and a Foreign Land during the Mass Deportations of June, 1941 and March of 1949.

This powerful memorialis effective on an emotional level. It is impossible to look at this and not be sickened and saddened by the thought of the brutality of the Soviets and Nazis. It brings to light a time and experience that few, if any, Americans can fully appreciate.

We Americans are blessed to live in a protected and safe society, untouched by the atrocities that continue to mar human history. Unfortunately, our past is not is not free of human atrocities. Slavery, an institution inherited from England, is a massive scar on the history of this country. Man’s inhumanity to man surfaces far too often.

Because we have long ago abolished slavery and worked toward proper human rights for all and now consider a misspoken phrase to be heinous racism and assault, we are too often deaf and blind to the true evils that still exist in the world. Islamic terrorists beheading Christians just because of their faith are just stories we hear on the news. They don’t seem real. Memorials like this one are important reminders that evil is still with us and must not be ignored. Tearing down statues and memorials let’s history be forgotten and encourages society to repeat past mistakes.

Thanks to Mark R. Hatlie for the use of his photos:
Click here to view Mark’s other photos

Travel with Bill as he documents his project in Latvia:

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The Dark Time of Latvian Architecture

Bill Hirsch — Fri, 19 Apr 2019 16:56:14 +0000

Latvia is a country with an attractive and culturally integrated architectural history. The buildings of the past reflect the true character of the Latvian people, their traditions, and the environment around them. The capital, Riga, contains the largest collection of Art Nouveau buildings in the world and has been said to be the largest wooden city, as well. Wood is an abundant resource in Latvia and the architecture, with its fine woodworking details reflects it.

Unfortunately, the continuance of the development of Latvian architecture ran into a major obstacle during most of the twentieth century. During the oppressive Soviet occupation, aesthetics suffered along with the people.

The Dark Time of Latvian Architecture

“Here’s a Typical Soviet-Era Housing Project in Latvia. This is Right in the Neighborhood of Fine, Traditional Latvian Houses I Have Been Showing You in Other Blog Posts>>. Which Would You Prefer to Live In?“

Soviet architecture took over. It was mandated by the government. How something looked and felt was no longer important. With Communism, everything is owned by everyone. But no one has any incentive to make things better. The quality of life spirals downward and the architecture reflects it.

Buildings were slapped together, usually without insulation, despite the cold climate. Details that might be pleasing to the eye and soul were promptly omitted. Every cost-saving corner was cut. Hideous, inhuman buildings were “designed” and erected. Then the people were crammed inside. While this was happening, the Soviet Union was bragging to the world, though their propaganda outlets, that major progress was being made. They claimed that Communism was making a better, and equal, life for everyone. However, the Latvian people knew the true story of socialism and communism.

There was some perverse truth to the claims of the Party’s propaganda machine. Life was becoming more equal for most of the population. They were rapidly becoming equally impoverished. The struggle to eat and stay warm was the same for most…unless you were a powerful person in the government. Only then did you have luxuries like heat and some fresh food. And if any person were to whisper a word of complaint or express a thought deemed to be against the government, they would be scooped up and sent far away, never to return. These things actually happened to members of my clients’ families.

It all sounds like fiction to those of us who are privileged to live in the reasonably free western world. But we need to learn lessons from what has happened in the past in places like Latvia. It disturbs me every time I see us voluntarily vote for laws that limit our personal freedom and place our so-called welfare in the hands of the government with the false impression that this will improve our lives and the lives of our fellow citizens. Just look at the recent past in places like the former Soviet Union and you will see that this is a very bad road to travel.

Be sure to read the other posts in the Latvia series:

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The Handcrafted Heritage in Latvia

Bill Hirsch — Fri, 19 Apr 2019 16:32:26 +0000

Have you ever wondered why most people prefer handcraftedthings more than their machine-made counterparts? It does not seem like it should be that way if people were looking for items that were made to a higher level of precision and free from imperfections. Most everything made by machine is going to be closer to perfection than anything made by hand. Yet despite the advantage machine-made things have in accuracy, somehow the less perfect handmade version is more appealing and more attractive to us. I have a theory as to why this is so.

These Shutters and the Hand-Forged Shutter DogsExpress a Character and a Connection to Another Human Being that is often Lost in a Machine-Made Object.

In my opinion, most machine-made things are “soul-less.” There is no personality to them. No character. And more importantly, they often seem cold and “non-human.” On the other hand, a handmade item has subtle clues that another human being once touched it. The imperfections, so long as they do not diminish the utility of the item, cause us to relate to the person who made the item. This is usually on a subconscious, subliminal level, but it is real, just the same. We might describe a handmade piece of furniture as having a personality. A slightly irregular handmade tile would be said to “have character.” That character is actually some of the character of the person who made it and connect us to that person.

So it’s no wonder that my clients in Latvia grew frustrated with the local, Modernist architects who only knew the all-too-perfect, machine-made Modernist aesthetic. My clients found this style to be harsh and the Modernist houses they saw never really felt like “home.” They looked around the older parts of Riga and saw true character in the handcrafted houses built a century ago and in those they saw “home.” It was my good fortune that they read my book and saw that houses with character were still possible. Now we are working together to create our own version of the handcrafted home that fits today’s lifestyle.

Follow the Progress of My Latvia Project Here:

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Peteris Blums and the Wooden Architecture of Latvia

Bill Hirsch — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 15:29:31 +0000

Recently, while in Latvia for a house design project I am beginning, I met an architect who is on a one-man mission to preserve the delightful architectural heritage that exists in Latvia’s capital city, Riga. His name is Peteris Blums. A quiet man with a quiet determination to do an important job for his city, Peteris has put together this short video describing the uniquely Latvian collection of “wooden architecture.”

I hope this video is informative and helps you see the heritage Peteris Blums is working to maintain in his city. It is always great to see a community recognizing the treasures they have and then working to maintain them. We are working to make our design of this new house on Kipsala fit in with the historic surroundings while not seeming to dilute it with a shallow imitation. It will be a process of understanding what is pleasing about the historic and employing the same principles in what we design new.

I’ll be posting many blog articles describing my interesting project in Latvia. Things are done a bit differently there than in the United States. Subscribe to my feed and keep coming back to see what develops and how the project turns out.

Wooden Architecture of Riga

Watch the Video on Youtube.com

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Mezaparks in Riga, Latvia

Bill Hirsch — Wed, 10 Apr 2019 14:58:16 +0000

Today, we wandered through an area called Mezaparks in Riga, Latvia, a neighborhood of some new and many century-old homes. The name, Mezaparks, literally means “Forest Park” in Latvian. Originally called “Kaiserwald,” it was built in the early 20th century and is one of the world’s first garden cities. It is also home to Northern Europe’s first zoo.

Now one of the wealthier neighborhoods in Riga, Mezaparks is being rejuvenated. Many of the interesting old wooden houses are being restored. New homes, many much more modern in style, are being built on the empty lots that sat unused during the long, dark days of the Nazi and Soviet occupations.

This lovely Riga neighborhood of traditional wooden homes has had anything but an idyllic past. During the German occupation, a concentration camp was located in Mezaparks where many Jews, Gypsies, and other opponents of the Nazi regime were murdered.

After the Soviets pushed out the Nazis, Mezaparks became a neighborhood of communal living under the supposedly Utopian system of socialism and communism. The houses were taken by the State and became homes for multiple families, usually living without heat or running water with one family crammed into each room. The Soviet propaganda would tell you that the people of the Soviet Union flourished during that time. But the reality is quite different. The evidence of the poverty and distress of the average citizen became well known to the world after the fall of the Soviet Union.

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Modernist Houses in Historic Neighborhoods

Bill Hirsch — Thu, 28 Mar 2019 20:25:25 +0000

These days, the commonly accepted approach to “respecting” existing historic architecture when building new buildings in historic neighborhoods is to not try to mimic the traditional styles. I don’t really agree with this philosophy, though. But, if you ask any of the architects or architectural historians who are a part of the “architectural cognoscenti,” they will tell you that all new construction should be modernist in style so as not to confuse the observer into thinking that what is old is new and vice versa.

The photo above is of a modernist wooden house that was built on an empty parcel of land among the classic Latvian wooden houses in the Mezaparks neighborhood that we have been discussing in Riga, Latvia. It may be only my opinion, but to me, this piece of “Danish Modern Furniture” architecture is interesting and certainly required a lot of skill to design and build. But I fail to see how this enhanced the community of traditional and historic homes.

I would much prefer to see a well-done house that respects and “references” the wonderful proportions and details of the older houses. The houses in Mezaparks that are truly historic have emblems on their walls indicating their age and historic importance. For me, that is plenty of notice as to what is old and what is new.

This is an important concept when it comes to building new in historic neighborhoods. I’ll talk about it more in future posts as we develop our design for our new house in Latvia.

Read more about my Latvia experiences here and here.

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A Visit to Venice, Italy

Bill Hirsch — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 16:23:31 +0000

We recently took our granddaughter, Isabella, to Venice, Italy. It was a real treat for all of us. One of the highlights came when we met up with Saverio de Bello, an artist we had met two years earlier when we first visited Venice. Saverio was trained as an architect and studied under the famed Venetian architect Carlo Scarpa. When we first encountered Saverio at his art stand near Piazza San Marco, we were taken by the simple elegance of his expressive watercolors and pastels. His art conveys the watery beauty of this remarkable city. He told us how he had decided to pursue a career in art instead of architecture.

Now back in beautiful Venice with Bella and our daughter, Bella’s Aunt Kristi, we again sought out Saverio. Sure enough, he and his son in law, Ludovico, were were at their stand. If you take a Vaporetto, (water bus) or one of the other forms of transportation on the Grand Canal, you will see the Piazza San Marco (St. Mark’s Square)

The view below is showing traffic on the Grand Canal. The building in the distance in this view from the Academia Bridge,is the Church of San Giorgio di Maggiore. This cathedral was designed by Andrea Palladio in the 15th century. He was the most influential and inspirational architects from Renaissance times. He used classical elements and principles of Greek and Roman architecture, to created designs that were orderly and beautiful. Architects today still study and emulate his styles.

It is no wonder artists abound in this unique and interesting city. Canals wind between rows of colorful buildings. No cars or even bicycles are permitted. Narrow pedestrian streets, known as calle, separate buildings, leading to campi (small town squares) where Venetians meet for dining, conversation, shopping, and even soccer. The anchor element in each campo is a church.We stayed in an apartment in the Santa Croce section of Venice, near Sao Polo. After getting off the vaporetto (the water bus), we made our way through the maze of streets and bridges to arrive at an open campo surrounded by lively shops. Friends sat chatting, tourists snapped photos, and activity was all about. Our apartment was located around an irregular corner from Campo S. Giacomo dell’Orio. For dinner, we would visit the local grocery store, the COOP, in the campo to pick up some fresh bread, cheeses, grapes, wine, and whatever else we needed for our evening meal. That was always topped off with a visit to the gelateria near the campo for a sweet Italian frozen treat. With everything close by, including bakeries and shops, we felt like we sampled a little bit more of Venetian life than we would have had we stayed in a hotel.

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