THE OMULI MUSEUM OF THE HORSE
The Omuli School, located in North Vidzme Biosphere Reserve, has hardly been interfered with by the outside human society for a long time. Standing peacefully in the forest, it is cloaked in a veil of serenity and mystery. Meanwhile, architects will infuse poetic and joyful elements into this time-honored building.
The Artists’ Workshop and Museum of the Horse both boast profound cultural and educational significance, which fairly accords with the cultural connotations contained in this old school. As a result, both the initial workshop and the subsequent-designed museum will be entirely presented in the historic building.
Compared to the plain traditional design, the new building demonstrates more openness and lightness. The U-shaped structure coordinates with various elements on-site appropriately. It weakens its own visual impact on the outside and deals with the complex relationship with the forest tenderly. Inside the building, all space, from the guest rooms at both ends to the public area in the center, is integrated with natural scenery, generating a feeling of living in the forest for visitors.
In the face of the existing school, the new building spares a public courtyard humbly. It is both the center of the site and the core of the design. As a continuation of the museum, the new building provides an excellent outdoor exhibition area for artists, while its pleasant environment also attracts guests and visitors to come for a rest. In this way, the museum and the hotel combine properly with each other, and thereby, the public courtyard has been formed naturally.
When visitors walk through the building from the north to the south, a series of spatial changes, from the museum to the courtyard, from the courtyard to the hotel, and finally to the forest, will provide people with rich experiences. Standing in the forest, visitors will find the comparatively lower new building lies in front of the higher old one, emphasizing respect to the historic building. Moreover, if standing in the courtyard, visitors will notice the glass curtain wall around reflects the old building’s unadorned wall and feel the power of history. The old and new buildings form a backdrop to each other, and hence the traditional and modern scenery interweaves as a whole.
