A Culture House – a Nucleus of a Collective Farm of Soviet Latvia

Abstract

The aim of the study is to identify and assess the aesthetic quality of culture houses constructed during the Soviet period in the countryside of Latvia and determine their significance for the architectural heritage of Latvia. This article analyses two distinctly different periods in cultural development of rural areas and construction of culture houses. The first period covers the time span from 1955 till 1975, when standard designs of culture houses were used in architecture. The second period refers to the time between 1975 and 1990, when public opinion drastically changed and a search for national identity renewed. It was the time when the number of individual designs considerably increased.