„Latvijas Architektūra” (1938-1940): National Aspirations of Baltic Modernism in Authoritarian Latvian Republic

Abstract

Increasingly, the attention of the architectural history researchers is drawn to periodicals of the 20th century. However, “Latvijas Architektūra” (1938-1940), the first Latvian architectural magazine, is not yet well known outside of its place of origin. Latvian Republic was among the young independent states, which emerged in Europe after WWI and later on became authoritarian. The national awareness increase and the political environment’s change found their reflection in the interwar architecture and its central print media – “Latvijas Architektūra”.

This article consists of the analysis of 22 digitally available magazine’s issues out of the 24 existing ones. “Latvijas Architektūra” was given its position in the overall chronology of Latvian architectural journalism. Further study focused on the magazine as a published media, investigating the relations between authors and content. Recurring ideas of monumentality, social and green attentiveness, and search for a national expression were identified as dominant narrative, drawing parallels to the ideological agenda of the period. The conflict of the national and international was examined from a wider perspective, looking for similar tendencies in neighboring territories.

It was found that more recent Latvian architectural publications are even less studied than “Latvijas Architektūra”. The magazine, though written in times of censorship and limited political freedom, did not promote a single idea. It rather became a source for public debate, reflection and observation, showing on its pages both the harsh criticism of modernism and descriptions of modernist projects. Architecture of Latvian Republic, being a synthesis of modernist, classical and vernacular, embodied a contradictory nature of visions that shaped it.