Twin water towers in Riga : performative deconstruction revealing the anatomy of two machines
Description
The two water towers at Mazā Matısa street have supplied Riga with water pressure from 1896 to the 1980’s. These two complex engineering systems of an enormous capacity use to hold 2000 tons of water high above the ground. Today the two towers are abandoned. Their construction is neither fulfilling its original task, nor does it have the potential to be experienced spatially. The once powerful structures are currently in danger to devaluate into monumentalized empty shells accommodating insignificant programs that cannot benefit from their engineering capacity. This project celebrates the engineering essence of the towers by disassembling them in a performative way. The logic of deconstructing the two towers in parallel becomes the guiding principle for creating a spatial experience on site. The space around the two towers is slowly transformed as the fragments of the towers and the machines and tools needed for their deconstruction, start inhabiting it. Each stage in the process of the towers deconstruction marks a new public event, that embraces the space with the disassembled pieces of the towers, as its playground