Summer House in Jurmala
Summer House in Jurmala is a minimalist residence located in Jūrmala, Latvia, designed by Komare Studios. The power of this renovation lies not in what was changed, but in what was carefully preserved and reinterpreted. When Komare Studios approached this 660-square-meter residence originally designed by renowned Latvian architect Modris Ģelzis, they confronted a spatial logic so precise that intervention became an act of deep listening rather than authorial assertion. Ģelzis, who began construction in 2001 and completed the house in 2013, worked with an asymmetrical clarity that merged American early modernism with an exceptional understanding of the Baltic coastal landscape. The structure rests on its own axis as if supported by a single large column, creating a zero-floor condition that seems to hover between the dense pine woods and the open coast. This formal decision was not merely sculptural but environmental, acknowledging how slow-moving sea air and sandy ground shape habitation in this particular location.
The semi-circular plan generates a ceiling that echoes its geometry, while wooden windows frame only those views intentionally conceived by Ģelzis, excluding anything unnecessary. This selectivity transforms fenestration into a curatorial act, where pine columns and wooden ceilings create portals to nature rather than transparent walls. Komare Studios understood that preserving the original room layout and window placement meant honoring not just a design but a specific relationship between interior experience and exterior context. The careful restoration of bamboo flooring throughout reinforces this continuity, maintaining a material consistency that grounds the intervention.
The renovation strategy centered on furniture as mediating presence rather than decorative addition. Working with Riga-based carpenters, the studio produced many furnishings that keep construction methods and materiality visible and honest. This approach draws directly from Pierre Chapo’s commitment to traditional craftsmanship, where joinery becomes expressive rather than concealed, and from Afra and Tobia Scarpa’s distinctly thoughtful, architectural method of form-making. Rather than reducing the existing wood palette, Komare Studios recalibrated it through the introduction of honey-toned oak and dark walnut, establishing balance and continuity without erasing the layered history already present.
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