Liesma Hotel

Jurmala, Latvia

Hotels + Hostels + Guest Houses

Architects: BNKR Arquitectura

Location: Jurmala, Latvia
Year: 2011

A hotel that aims to reproduce in material form the ephemeral process of the diffusion of sound. This is a process of vibrant outward expression and subsequent decay. It is a narrative of the loss of integrity and dematerialization in space.

From the outset we do not consider the ground floor, which is the focus of public activity in the hotel, to be a solid block. The key points of attraction identified for the hotel’s public program are distributed outwards throughout the site where they can best appreciate its natural qualities. The result is an outward movement of the hotel that spreads out in shapes designed to penetrate further into the site. At this point the spaces of the hotel are subject to decay. Outward movement becomes a material story of decay as closed and protected rooms clad in wood lose their materiality and gradually turn into glass.

As we move away from the tower delicate curvatures lose fidelity. They become increasingly faceted and deprived of detail. Towards the edges of the site the hotel resolves into jagged polygonal forms of transparent glass that open up to the trees beyond as the journey continues into the horizon. The hotel disappears.