{"id":358707,"date":"2026-04-01T14:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T14:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/358707\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T14:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T14:42:16","slug":"oad-tops-barn-like-summer-home-with-thatch-roof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/358707\/","title":{"rendered":"OAD tops barn-like summer home with thatch roof"},"content":{"rendered":"

An exterior of charred timber<\/a> and thatch<\/a> is contrasted by a vibrant interior palette of blues and purples at this riverside home in Riga<\/a>, Latvia designed by architecture studio OAD.<\/p>\n

Located in Riga’s suburbs, the 641-square-metre summer home<\/a> named BPROM is comprised of a two-bedroom dwelling and an independent annexe containing a sauna and guest suite.<\/p>\n

\"ExteriorOAD has completed a riverside holiday home in Riga<\/p>\n

Drawing on the appearance of traditional Latvian homesteads, OAD<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

\"SummerCharred timber and thatch cloak its exterior<\/p>\n

“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 fa\u00e7ade.”<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

\"ShelteredThe home’s volume shelters a south-facing garden<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"LivingThe blue and purple interior was informed by local dragonflies<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Serenity<\/p>\n

Ma+rs designs thatched wildlife retreat in India as “a quiet observer”\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

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”.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"DiningThe living, dining and kitchen space occupy the entire ground floor<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“The architectural finishes were restricted to only three primary materials: reed thatch, timber and metal,” said Tetere-Sulce.<\/p>\n

“The thatched reed roof has been used in Latvia for centuries, but today it is also one of the most sustainable choices.”<\/p>\n

\"BedroomTwo bedrooms are held on the first floor<\/p>\n

Other homes in Latvia recently featured on Dezeen include The P\u0101vilosta House by local studio Made,<\/a> a coastal home which also took the typical form of a barn and transformed it with a twisting slate roof.<\/p>\n

The photography is by Alvis Rozenbergs<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An exterior of charred timber and thatch is contrasted by a vibrant interior palette of blues and purples…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[442,498,499,500,12834,501,156,76147,89532,12710,111,139,69,5061,99250,1621,1774,151160,58940],"class_list":{"0":"post-358707","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-blackened-wood","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-gables","16":"tag-holiday-homes","17":"tag-latvia","18":"tag-new-zealand","19":"tag-newzealand","20":"tag-nz","21":"tag-residential-architecture-and-interiors","22":"tag-riga","23":"tag-sectionall","24":"tag-sectionarchitecture","25":"tag-sectionexclusives","26":"tag-thatch"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}