Latvia’s Riga Technical University International Summer School Allows Students to Build and Design Their Own Structure
Guided by architect advisors, students at Riga Technical University International Summer School in Cesis, Latvia, designed and built an events pavilion near a former brewery. Photography by Kashers Kursišs.
To thrive, young architects need to build, not simply plan. The Riga Technical University International Summer School in Cesis, Latvia, provides just that experience, moving students from research through construction in a mere two weeks. And in doing so, the program aims at enhancing the local community, too.
During the school’s 2016 session, architects Theodore Molloy, Niklavs Paegle, and Thomas Randall-Page—operating under the moniker Building Works Unit—led 13 international students in building Night Train, a kinetic events pavilion. Everyone collaborated to conceive and fine-tune the structure, crafted from locally sourced pine. The project is part of a larger plan to turn the site, a defunct former brewery, into a community center and hub for science and the arts.
Theodore Molloy, Niklavs Paegle, and Thomas Randall-Page of Building Works Unit advised the 13 students, who hail from Russia, the U.K., India, and other countries. Photography by Kashers Kursišs.
Night Train comprises a timber-slat cuboid carriage that serves different functions—including lantern- like light source—as it slides along a 43-foot-long elevated track. At one end, the track forms a table for meetings and meals; at the other, it morphs into a viewing platform overlooking a park. For the opening ceremony, which the architects thought of as a “handing over” to the community, the carriage hosted a DJ booth, entertaining dancing crowds below.
At night, the pine structure, which slides along a raised track, is lit by LEDs. Photography by Ansis Starks.
