Pāvils Dreijmanis
Encyclopedia
Pāvils Dreijmanis was a Latvian architect
, mayor of Riga
, and recipient of the Atzinības krusts medal and the Order of the Three Stars
.
of pre-war Latvia
, but his creative career is as an exception to this observation. By the age of 40, Dreijmanis was already a well-established mature architect. He had studied in Gatchina
, Russia
, then at the Civil Engineering Institute in Saint Petersburg
. He was called up for military service and sent to study at the War Engineering School in Saint Petersburg. In 1917 he graduated from the school and served in the Imperial Russian Army
. After demobilisation he settled at his father's farm in the Aloja village. On the day when Latvia was declared an independent state, Dreijmanis volunteered for service at the Ministry of War. He served in the student's company, later in the 3rd Jelgava Infantry Regiment. He fought the Bolshevik
s in the battlefields of Courland
, Latgale
and Riga
.
After the liberation battles, Dreijmanis resumed his studies and in 1923 graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Latvia
. In 1926 he filled the position as chief architect of Riga, and beginning the same year he was chairman of the Riga Construction Board. He began teaching at Riga Technical University
and sat on various construction and building boards. During World War II, Dreijmanis was mayor of Riga. In exile, he worked free-lance as a professor at the Baltic University
in Pinneberg
, Germany
, then moved to Australia
and settled in Adelaide
.
was a fashionable trend in architecture of the late 1920s and early 1930s. The basic characteristic of the style is the play of broken lines and angular shapes. It is rooted in Art Nouveau
and folk art of many nations. The style got its name following the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. It came into fashion in the USA; New York City
at the time was the metropolis of Art Deco. In Europe it can be traced only here and there. Some elements of Art Deco can be seen in D. Zariņš' work and Maydell's bank building at 4, Doma Square (1926), the entrance and transaction hall of which were renovated 1994. A few of Teodor Hermanovskis' and Paul Mandelstamm's buildings bear bear features of Art Deco as well. The style would have passed Riga unobserved, except that Dreijmanis became captivated by it.
Almost everything Dreijmanis built is of lasting value. The first commissioned work of Dreijmanis was the movie theatre Palladium (1925). It was located in the yard of a residential house at 21, Marijas Street (1910, by architects Edgar Friesendorff and O. Lansky). The dramatic image of the movie hall has been preserved in the memoories of the older generation and in some old photographs only since it was burned down completely during the war. After the war the movie theatre was altered and reconstructed several times, and its appearance has been changed completely. Dreijmanis had enterpreted ethnographic motifs in the Art Deco style and he decorated the building in a supremely competent way.
From 1926 to 1930 a large school was built at 9, Miglas Street. A carefully balanced rhythm of Art Deco pilaster
s visually lighten the surface of the monumental volumes; the entrances are moulded in the Art Deco style as well. In 1926 the Riga City Council
began to react to the local housing crises. Dreijmanis achieved the significant role of building five residential houses at 136/138, Ropažu Street and 11 houses at 40, Liepājas Street. All of them were terraced two-storey houses, comprising 6 flat
s each. The entrance hall, the kitchen, the living-room and the bathroom facilities were located on the ground floor; the bedrooms — on the second floor. This type of planning is widely used in England
, but it was an innovation in Latvia. Ethnographic motifs fused with Art Deco forms can be discerned architectural finish of these houses.
The residential house at 3, Ausekļa Street (1927) is the most impressive Art Deco building of Dreijmanis' creative legacy and in Latvian architecture in general. It was the first residential house commissioned by the Riga City Council. The building comprises 117 one-room, two-room or three-room flats and includes a kindergarten
. The facades towards the yard with horizontal fenestration
are among the earliest examples of Functionalism
in Riga. The angular outlines of the projections of the staircases bear some resemblance to Art Deco. The expressive Art Deco facades towards Sakaru Street are on the qui vive. The building is decorated with several sculptures by Richard Maur. Broken relief frieze
s bend the arches of the passages. The axis of the passage diverges slightly from the axis of the one on the opposite side of Sakaru Street. It leads to the inner yard of the Forburg — a block of houses built according to the integral development plan of 1913. The street and inner spaces of the block are integral parts of the total cityscape
.
. Up to now, it is the biggest complex of its kind in Europe. For the construction of the new market, airship hangars were obtained and a competition announced in 1923. The young architect Dreijmanis was among the winners. A market construction office was set up. A detailed design was worked out by the architect A. Pavlov (later he had a large practice in Rēzekne
), and the civil engineers V. Isajev and G. Tolstoy. Dreijmanis continued as a consult during the subsequent building process.
Riga Central Market is a modern trading complex with vast cold store refrigerator
s in the basement. Three levels were planned for the retail of commodities. An elevated railway was built only partly along the wholesale pavilion
. Even to this seemingly impersonal architecture of a market, Dreijmanis managed to add several artistic finishing details, which reflect the style of the time, i.e. Art Deco. The corner mouldings of the pavilions are not only ornamental, but also respond precisely to the tectonics of the building.
in Ļaudona
(1924), designed a country club in Ropaži
as well. In the 1930s Dreijmanis built very little, but had strong influence on the development of architectural styles in Latvia. His contributions to newspapers and journals were pointed, sometimes even critical, and for that reason they were effective. Being a strict opponent to any superficial, formal experiments, he often expressed his opinion on styles. For outstanding public service Pāvils Dreijmanis was awarded the Atzinības krusts medal and the Order of the Three Stars
.
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
, mayor of Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, and recipient of the Atzinības krusts medal and the Order of the Three Stars
Order of the Three Stars
Order of the Three Stars is order awarded for merits in service for Latvia. It was established in 1924 in remembrance of founding of Latvia. Its motto is "Per aspera ad astra"...
.
Career
Experience is indispensable for having an architect's skills, therefore the majority of them reach their maturity at about 40. Dreijmanis was the best known architectArchitect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
of pre-war Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
, but his creative career is as an exception to this observation. By the age of 40, Dreijmanis was already a well-established mature architect. He had studied in Gatchina
Gatchina
Gatchina is a town and the administrative center of Gatchinsky District of Leningrad Oblast, Russia, located south of St. Petersburg by the road leading to Pskov...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, then at the Civil Engineering Institute in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
. He was called up for military service and sent to study at the War Engineering School in Saint Petersburg. In 1917 he graduated from the school and served in the Imperial Russian Army
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army was the land armed force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian army consisted of around 938,731 regular soldiers and 245,850 irregulars . Until the time of military reform of Dmitry Milyutin in...
. After demobilisation he settled at his father's farm in the Aloja village. On the day when Latvia was declared an independent state, Dreijmanis volunteered for service at the Ministry of War. He served in the student's company, later in the 3rd Jelgava Infantry Regiment. He fought the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s in the battlefields of Courland
Courland
Courland is one of the historical and cultural regions of Latvia. The regions of Semigallia and Selonia are sometimes considered as part of Courland.- Geography and climate :...
, Latgale
Latgale
Latgale is one of the four historical and cultural regions of Latvia recognised in the Constitution of the Latvian Republic. It is the easternmost region north of the Daugava River...
and Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
.
After the liberation battles, Dreijmanis resumed his studies and in 1923 graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Latvia
University of Latvia
University of Latvia is a university located in Riga, Latvia. Being established in 1919, University of Latvia is the biggest university in the Baltic states.-History:...
. In 1926 he filled the position as chief architect of Riga, and beginning the same year he was chairman of the Riga Construction Board. He began teaching at Riga Technical University
Riga Technical University
Riga Technical University is located in Riga, Latvia.- Riga Polytechnical Institute, 1862-1918 :...
and sat on various construction and building boards. During World War II, Dreijmanis was mayor of Riga. In exile, he worked free-lance as a professor at the Baltic University
Baltic University
The Baltic University in Exile was established in the displaced persons camps in Germany to educate refugees from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the aftermath of the Second World War....
in Pinneberg
Pinneberg
Pinneberg is a town in Schleswig-Holstein, capital of the district Pinneberg in Germany. The town has 42,301 inhabitants. Pinneberg is located 18 km northwest of Hamburg....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, then moved to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and settled in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
.
Art Deco
Art DecoArt Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
was a fashionable trend in architecture of the late 1920s and early 1930s. The basic characteristic of the style is the play of broken lines and angular shapes. It is rooted in Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
and folk art of many nations. The style got its name following the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes. It came into fashion in the USA; New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
at the time was the metropolis of Art Deco. In Europe it can be traced only here and there. Some elements of Art Deco can be seen in D. Zariņš' work and Maydell's bank building at 4, Doma Square (1926), the entrance and transaction hall of which were renovated 1994. A few of Teodor Hermanovskis' and Paul Mandelstamm's buildings bear bear features of Art Deco as well. The style would have passed Riga unobserved, except that Dreijmanis became captivated by it.
Almost everything Dreijmanis built is of lasting value. The first commissioned work of Dreijmanis was the movie theatre Palladium (1925). It was located in the yard of a residential house at 21, Marijas Street (1910, by architects Edgar Friesendorff and O. Lansky). The dramatic image of the movie hall has been preserved in the memoories of the older generation and in some old photographs only since it was burned down completely during the war. After the war the movie theatre was altered and reconstructed several times, and its appearance has been changed completely. Dreijmanis had enterpreted ethnographic motifs in the Art Deco style and he decorated the building in a supremely competent way.
From 1926 to 1930 a large school was built at 9, Miglas Street. A carefully balanced rhythm of Art Deco pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
s visually lighten the surface of the monumental volumes; the entrances are moulded in the Art Deco style as well. In 1926 the Riga City Council
Riga City Council
Riga City Council is the government of Riga City, the capital of Latvia. It is located in the Riga Town Hall at the Town Hall Square in the very heart of Riga....
began to react to the local housing crises. Dreijmanis achieved the significant role of building five residential houses at 136/138, Ropažu Street and 11 houses at 40, Liepājas Street. All of them were terraced two-storey houses, comprising 6 flat
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
s each. The entrance hall, the kitchen, the living-room and the bathroom facilities were located on the ground floor; the bedrooms — on the second floor. This type of planning is widely used in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, but it was an innovation in Latvia. Ethnographic motifs fused with Art Deco forms can be discerned architectural finish of these houses.
The residential house at 3, Ausekļa Street (1927) is the most impressive Art Deco building of Dreijmanis' creative legacy and in Latvian architecture in general. It was the first residential house commissioned by the Riga City Council. The building comprises 117 one-room, two-room or three-room flats and includes a kindergarten
Kindergarten
A kindergarten is a preschool educational institution for children. The term was created by Friedrich Fröbel for the play and activity institute that he created in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg as a social experience for children for their transition from home to school...
. The facades towards the yard with horizontal fenestration
Window
A window is a transparent or translucent opening in a wall or door that allows the passage of light and, if not closed or sealed, air and sound. Windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent material like float glass. Windows are held in place by frames, which...
are among the earliest examples of Functionalism
Functionalism (architecture)
Functionalism, in architecture, is the principle that architects should design a building based on the purpose of that building. This statement is less self-evident than it first appears, and is a matter of confusion and controversy within the profession, particularly in regard to modern...
in Riga. The angular outlines of the projections of the staircases bear some resemblance to Art Deco. The expressive Art Deco facades towards Sakaru Street are on the qui vive. The building is decorated with several sculptures by Richard Maur. Broken relief frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
s bend the arches of the passages. The axis of the passage diverges slightly from the axis of the one on the opposite side of Sakaru Street. It leads to the inner yard of the Forburg — a block of houses built according to the integral development plan of 1913. The street and inner spaces of the block are integral parts of the total cityscape
Cityscape
A cityscape is the urban equivalent of a landscape. Townscape is roughly synonymous with cityscape, though it implies the same difference in urban size and density implicit in the difference between the words city and town. In urban design the terms refer to the configuration of built forms and...
.
Riga Central Market
Dreijmanis largest project was the design of Riga Central MarketRiga Central Market
Riga Central Market is Europe's largest market and bazaar in Riga, Latvia. It is one of the most notable structures from 20th century in Latvia and has been included in UNESCO World Heritage Site list together with Old Riga in 1998. It was planned from 1922 and built from 1924 to 1930...
. Up to now, it is the biggest complex of its kind in Europe. For the construction of the new market, airship hangars were obtained and a competition announced in 1923. The young architect Dreijmanis was among the winners. A market construction office was set up. A detailed design was worked out by the architect A. Pavlov (later he had a large practice in Rēzekne
Rezekne
In the 19th century, the population of Rēzekne was 2/3 Jewish. As a result of the Pale of Settlement many Jews settled in Latgalia and were confined to the cities. The remainder of the population included Poles, Germans, Russians, and an extreme minority of native Latgalians...
), and the civil engineers V. Isajev and G. Tolstoy. Dreijmanis continued as a consult during the subsequent building process.
Riga Central Market is a modern trading complex with vast cold store refrigerator
Refrigerator
A refrigerator is a common household appliance that consists of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump that transfers heat from the inside of the fridge to its external environment so that the inside of the fridge is cooled to a temperature below the ambient temperature of the room...
s in the basement. Three levels were planned for the retail of commodities. An elevated railway was built only partly along the wholesale pavilion
Pavilion (structure)
In architecture a pavilion has two main meanings.-Free-standing structure:Pavilion may refer to a free-standing structure sited a short distance from a main residence, whose architecture makes it an object of pleasure. Large or small, there is usually a connection with relaxation and pleasure in...
. Even to this seemingly impersonal architecture of a market, Dreijmanis managed to add several artistic finishing details, which reflect the style of the time, i.e. Art Deco. The corner mouldings of the pavilions are not only ornamental, but also respond precisely to the tectonics of the building.
Besides Riga
Outside Riga Dreijmanis built a primary school in Allaži (1925), a country clubCountry club
A country club is a private club, often with a closed membership, that typically offers a variety of recreational sports facilities and is located in city outskirts or rural areas. Activities may include, for example, any of golf, tennis, swimming or polo...
in Ļaudona
Laudona
Ļaudona is a historical stronghold on the river Aiviekste, used for trade and military purpose. The castle of Ļaudona is funded by the Bishop of Riga in 1274. Family of Laudohn acquired the estate of Toce from the Archbishop Henning Scharpenberg in 1432...
(1924), designed a country club in Ropaži
Ropaži
Ropaži is a village in Latvia, the administrative centre of Ropaži municipality. The village located approximately 36 km from the capital Riga....
as well. In the 1930s Dreijmanis built very little, but had strong influence on the development of architectural styles in Latvia. His contributions to newspapers and journals were pointed, sometimes even critical, and for that reason they were effective. Being a strict opponent to any superficial, formal experiments, he often expressed his opinion on styles. For outstanding public service Pāvils Dreijmanis was awarded the Atzinības krusts medal and the Order of the Three Stars
Order of the Three Stars
Order of the Three Stars is order awarded for merits in service for Latvia. It was established in 1924 in remembrance of founding of Latvia. Its motto is "Per aspera ad astra"...
.