Edgars Kauliņš Lielvārde High School

Proposal / Competition 3rd place

The motto of the reconstruction of Edgars Kauliņš Lielvārde High School is in synergy with the character and history of the place. The aim of the project is to find a new face and content for the high school building and its territory, maximizing the potential of the existing building and territory.

The high school is located in Lielvarde – a city by the Daugava river, which has a lot of historical marks, but with time just like the destiny of the river some historical traces have disappeared. Near to the school there is the city park, where there used to be the Lielvāde manor castle (built at the beginning of the 19th century), which was destroyed during the First World War. The castle was built in Classicism style, where building’s main mass had two symmetrical side masses, higher than the middle mass. The new volumes of the high school are designed with reference to the Lielvārde manor castle – the symmetrical side buildings rise above the roof of the first floor, which is designed with an extended overhang.

The volumes are semantically similar to the manor rising above the water surface of the Daugava, reflecting the social life of the high school students on the first public floor of the building. Upon entering the building, reminiscence about the depths of the present Daugava is formed by skylights and luminaires, which illuminate the rooms and the foyer as beams of light, as well as freely placed simple stone-shaped furniture with plants. Everyone who has come here is welcome to enjoy the life of the high school!

It is proposed to divide the construction into two main stages, for which several sub-stages are possible.
Until 2021. in the 1st stage, it is planned to develop a project and reconstruct the old building with an area of 2230 m², as well as to build a new 920 m² extension. In the 1st phase of the planned construction, a block of administrative premises, a block of natural science laboratories and a block of social science cabinets would be added to the extension.
Following 2021, in the 2nd stage, during the summer holidays, it is possible to reconstruct the new building as a primary school block and dismantling the canteen building, build a new extension instead with public common areas on the ground floor (multi-functional hall, library, dining room, wardrobe) and classrooms.

The volumes of the building are designed to be easily interconnected and flexible for the needs of both students and teachers. On the first floor of the new extension, multi-functional public spaces are planned – a lobby, a multi-functional hall, a library, a dining room, wardrobes for primary and high schools, as well as an administration block. The rooms from the lobby can be separated by sound-insulating sliding partitions, thus the multi-functional hall:
▪ serves as an extension of the lobby on a daily basis;
▪ is separated by sliders partitions providing seating 300 visitors in the classes events;
▪ when partitions are slide open, the space provides in addition to 300 seats another 560 visitors standing room during the school events.