Rossi, L., Quayle, M., Ionita, C., Canniffe, E., 2024.

Hydrocity - an international collaborative urban lab between Manchester and Riga

The Contextual Urbanism Lab at Manchester School of Architecture explores and develops future Urban Design Visions for the repurposing of Kipsala Island, located on the west bank of the River Daugava, Riga, Latvia. We work in collaboration with students from the Latvian Riseba University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Architecture and Design (Riseba FAD) to gain a full understanding of the opportunities presented by the island and to develop proposals for the reinvention of the island as a new, distinctive and sustainable waterside City District at the heart of a historic European capital city. Our combined Urban Lab is entitled 'Riga's Hydrocity' and was exhibited in Riga in March 2024. Despite being located directly opposite the historic and commercial city centre and affording panoramic views across the water and the city, Kipsala remains underdeveloped and home to various disparate and disconnected land uses; the Placemaking potential of exploiting and maximising the island's location and historic conditions lying dormant. Unlocking the island's potential and those of other districts lies in considering various physical and social edges, seams, and interfaces, which were explored in reciprocal study trips by the two groups of students. Having identified a site and personal manifesto, students were asked to test their ideas against the specific conditions of the selected site. This detailed analysis led to a series of iterative design experiments, exploring and testing a range of ideas through drawing and modelling in various formats. This paper also wants to reflect on how an international collaborative urban lab has been a fruitful and active research investigation that amplified architecture and urbanism students' experience.
The aim is to demonstrate how international exchange between different architecture schools reflects on the opportunity to prepare Master's students for their future employment using a collaborative Urban Lab as formative expertise.