Teodors Hermanovskis, Art Deco and a Provincial Town Ogre

Abstract

The architecture of mansions was an integral part of popularisation of modern trends in the interwar period in Latvia. One of the greatest masters in this area was a building engineer Teodors Hermanovskis. Ogre – a provincial small town near Riga – had become popular among the Riga intelligentsia as a recreation place and a summer residence site. It offered a new environment, a challenge for architects to implement modern ideas in mansion and summer cottage projects over a relatively short period of time. It was a time when the functionalism that was topical in Europe also allowed the presence of Art Deco in projects, which was organically logical. The mansions designed by Teodors Hermanovskis in Ogre are indicative of an architect who fulfils modern and daring ideas in interwar Latvia, as the one whose projects can be classified as belonging to Art Deco style.