The foundation stone was laid for a modern building of Museum Repository complex

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Today, in a solemn ceremony in Riga, Pulka Street 8, the foundation stone was laid for a modern building of Museum Repository complex. The event was honoured by the Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia on the issues of development and finances Baiba Zakevica, the Chairman of the Board of SJSC “State Real Estate” (SRE) Mārtiņš Tols, the Chairman of the Board of RERE GRUPA Guntis Āboltiņš-Āboliņš and representatives of museums, collections of which will find their home in the modern complex.

 

During the event, a message to next generations and memorial symbols characteristic to our time were inserted in a special capsule.
The Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia on the issues of development and finances Baiba Zakevica read the letter of the Minister of Culture Dace Melbārde: “In the Museum Repository complex it is planned to store collections of very notable and major Latvian museums, which encompass in total more than 2 million collection units. It constitutes one third of all values held by Latvian museums. This repository complex will not only make the invisible part of the national collection of museums accessible, allowing full use of its potential, but also will provide museums with an opportunity to increase the visible part of their collection. This enormous work and creation of the repository is a huge step towards preserving collections, ensuring their sustainability, and it is an evident benefit for accessibility of these materials.”
The extensive and technically complicated project of the Museum Repository complex, implemented by SRE, is created as a unified architectural solution, without externally separating areas intended for separate museums. At the same time, each museum will have its own area independent from other museums (premises for repository, working, restoration, workshops, storage rooms, common use and visitors) in the building. In its turn, the room, which is shared by all museums, is the main entrance in the centre of the complex, which is intended for using by employees of museum repositories and visitors. Access to repositories of each museum by accordingly organized heavy transport will be ensured.
By locating museums in a single building, a compact and functionally useful planning is created with a shared publicly accessible part, shared common use and engineering premises. A decision on such single building construction solution was made taking into consideration, that from the point of view of construction and further exploitation of the building it is economically more beneficial to build and use one heating unit, common heating, ventilation and air cooling system and other engineer communication systems, as well as to perform unified building security by installing the security control system, fire notification system and access system control in the shared room of museums, thereby achieving significant economy in terms of funds required for implementation of construction works and management of buildings.
Chairman of the Board of SRE Mārtiņš Tols: “The ambitious project will result in establishment of a museum repository complex yet unprecedented in Latvia. The museum repository will safely and in appropriate and constant conditions store our cultural heritage and historical evidence – works of art, sculptures, films etc. During the process of designing, after assessing the requirements of museums, the best solutions were found for storage of collections and arrangement of restoration workshops. A project of this scale and significance – a specifically built repository for museums – is a unique structure in the history of Latvia.”
The construction of the complex is performed by the general partnership “RERE MEISTARI 1”, which has signed a contract in the amount of EUR 20,478,622.25. Implementation of construction works will take place within the framework of financing approved for stage I of the construction. The project is planned to be completed until 30 April 2018.
The Chairman of the Board of JSC RERE GRUPA Guntis Āboltiņš-Āboliņš: “Also for us, constructors, this museum repository project is special – we will not only build a large building, but also make our contribution in preservation of our cultural heritage for the next generations. Today, the moment has come, when lines on the technical drawing become lines in the real life. The project is extensive and sufficiently complicated; therefore we wish and hope to achieve professional and constructive cooperation with designers and the contracting authority.”

The total designed area of the museum repository complex constitutes 30,332 m2, out of which 8,904 m2 is planned for the collection of Latvian National Museum of Art, 12,306.5 m2 – for Latvian National Museum of History, 7,891.3 m2 for the Literature and Music Museum and Riga Film Museum, and the rest of the area – 1,230.2 m2 – for the public area of visitors.