FRICIS VILNIS / BA Thesis / 2015 / Reconstruction of a herring handling facility building in Andrejsala. Spatial adaptation for short-term use

Theoretical part: Andrejsala Docks – the first step in deindustrialisation. Transience as a resource for future urban development / Supervisor: Mg. arh. Oskars Redbergs

Practical part: Reconstruction of a herring handling facility building in Andrejsala. Spatial adaptation for short-term use / Supervisor: Mg. arh. Oskars Redbergs

Transience as a tool for urban planning and construction has been noticeably abused and unfairly exploited over time. The process is not under any control or supervision and it appears to have gone largely unnoticed by the supervising authorities. Transient structures can be interpreted in different ways, therefore leading the city space to become fragmented and chaotic. There is a risk that the urban environment may become filled with short-term, unplanned emergencies, often with a negative socio-spatial impact. Therefore, the research strives to establish a system for controlling transience, both strategically and spatially and arguably from various perspective points of usage. The architectural ambition of the reconstruction project for the herring handling facility building is to create a building that reflects global trends of rapidly increasing amounts of temporary use. Moreover, the project aims to create a system which could be applied to control temporary emergencies and movement in the building and on a larger scale. Algorithmic equations are used to control functional emergencies in the building.