RadiRigu! is a initiative launched by a group of Latvian architects, planners and landscape architects with the aim to identify and define strategic projects for the city of Riga.
As
from April 2011, around 30 professionals of various generations have
been working on five different neighbourhoods in the city that they
picked-up from an initial selection of ten. Their work has involved
detailed site analysis, neighbours participation and intensive
dialogue with the public authorities. Through various workshops at
regular intervals and with the participation of external coaches,
they have developed a general scheme for each of the areas and at
least one specific project for each of the neighbourhoods. All of
them are based on the principle that public space can be a lever for
social transformation and the regeneration of the city.
The
projects were presented in a two-days seminar in Riga's City Hall in
which several local and foreign specialists participated and that was
broadly reported by the local media. A travelling exhibition is also
on display.
The
initiative has been the opportunity to arise awareness about the
potential of urban design to redefine the condition in which we live,
with a particular emphasis on the role that public space plays in it.
It has also been a chance to bring in some expertise on urban
planning and test locally tools and theories that had proven valid
somewhere else. Coming from a situation that has dramatically changed
the way Eastern European cities are managed -as part of the overall
changes their society has experienced-, RadiRigu! constitutes an
excellent opportunity to give the Latvian capital a facelift.
Projects
have been made available to the local development authorities, who
were involved in the initiative from the very beginning. They are
currently evaluating the feasibility studies that each of the
proposals contained and checking how they can now make things happen.
Further
entries will describe each of the projects.
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