Karosta's military history gave the city a rich, well developed and preserved heritage but it is scattered allover the town. Karosta lacks any kind of established city center. Our project aims to compensate for that by creating a genuine center: a place that people can easily identify, relate to and appropriate. We take as a starting point the urban pattern of a typical old town centre, and translate into volumes that epitomize the idealized image of an ancient village with its archetypal elements: an irregular shaped square surrounded by several discrete buildings separated by narrow winding alleys. These alleys stem from all sides of the plot to connect it to the neighburhood. They intersect in the center forming the square destined to be the focal point of the project and further the heart of the city. This square acts as the access points to the various cultural centre functions, each occupying it's own distinct building. In order to enhance the attractiveness of the square, some additional facilities are added to the cultural center, like playgrounds and a convenience store.

The village reference also allows us to generate an architecture that strongly contrasts with the monotonous, orthogonal and dull context, thus introducing a positively disruptive element within the city.

From the inside, the whole building acts as a deforming prism : all of the openings are designed to enhance the vision on the surrounding city in various ways (deformation, tinting, reflection, framing) in order to offer a fresh, colorful and joyful view on Karosta.

The materials employed for the project are references to traditional Latvian wooden seta farms and to the nearby golden domes of the Saint Nicholas Cathedral. We choose not to make reference to the city's fascinating military heritage, not in a denial approach but in a optimistic will to turn to a brighter future.

The opportunity to work on a whole city plot gives this proposal an appropriate scale to have enough impact locally, among it's immediate surroundings as well as on the whole the city area and even beyond through its iconic aura.

Ultimtely our intention is to propose an architecture that deliberately conveys an assumed and inspiring optimism.