An exterior of charred timber and thatch is contrasted by a vibrant interior palette of blues and purples at this riverside home in Riga, Latvia designed by architecture studio OAD.
Located in Riga’s suburbs, the 641-square-metre summer home named BPROM is comprised of a two-bedroom dwelling and an independent annexe containing a sauna and guest suite.
OAD has completed a riverside holiday home in Riga
Drawing on the appearance of traditional Latvian homesteads, OAD designed a barn-like form with several contemporary twists. It includes a bowed thatched roof and a blue and purple interior palette that references the dragonflies found in the nearby river.
“The design was born out of the question: how do we integrate Latvian ethnography and traditions within the 21st century architecture?” OAD founder and lead architect Zane Tetere-Sulce told Dezeen.
Charred timber and thatch cloak its exterior
“Grounded in the local craft, the project revives forgotten materials that have shaped Latvian architecture for centuries: a thatched reed roof and a charred timber façade.”
“We drew inspiration from a little neighbour, the dragonfly, and developed a bold interior design saturated in rich hues of blue and purple,” added the studio.
The home’s volume shelters a south-facing garden
The layout of the home also looked to typical homesteads, with both the main building and accompanying sauna house organised on a single, slightly angled axis that shelters a south-facing garden from northern winds.
Inside, wall and ceiling finishes, furniture and fittings all incorporate blue and purple hues, enhanced by coloured curtains and glass screens that aim to replicate the iridescent quality of a dragonfly’s wings.
The blue and purple interior was informed by local dragonflies
In the living, dining and kitchen space that occupies the entire ground floor, a dark shade of blue was used to finish the gently curving gabled ceiling and kitchen counters, while an adjacent pantry is finished in a pastel lilac shade.
Sliding doors within a fully-glazed gable end connect this long living space out onto a sheltered terrace, where seating is organised around a weathered steel fireplace.
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Above, the smaller first floor of the home contains a blue-ceilinged study and two bedrooms, with the main bedroom wrapped by pale purple linen curtains beneath a lilac ceiling to create a sense of “intimacy and safety”.
In the sauna house, a circular lounge space sits alongside a steam room and cold plunge pool, with a guest bedroom and upper terrace positioned above.
The living, dining and kitchen space occupy the entire ground floor
Contrasting the home’s colourful interiors, the exterior of BPROM has been clad in timber planks that were charred to create a deep, inky shade, with matching vertical timber louvres used to shade the home’s windows and terraces.
“The architectural finishes were restricted to only three primary materials: reed thatch, timber and metal,” said Tetere-Sulce.
“The thatched reed roof has been used in Latvia for centuries, but today it is also one of the most sustainable choices.”
Two bedrooms are held on the first floor
Other homes in Latvia recently featured on Dezeen include The Pāvilosta House by local studio Made, a coastal home which also took the typical form of a barn and transformed it with a twisting slate roof.
The photography is by Alvis Rozenbergs.