Rudolfs Dainis Šmits on Latvian Radio 3 programme “Ukrainas pasakalja”
From left: Rudolfs Dainis Šmits, Ilze Dobele, Ilze Kaģe and Sergejs Ņikiforovs
Photo: Arnolds Auziņš / Latvian Radio
The 18th Latvian Schools of Architecture Plenary took place online this year. The previous year’s theme was Ukraine, with plans to rebuild the cities of Bucha, Chernihiv and others. This year’s theme is “Mariupol. Restart 2.0”. How can historical memory and the events of war influence what needs to be restored and what needs to be rebuilt? What is the global experience of rebuilding cities after the devastation of war? How can the ideas of the students at the plenary be used? The answers to these questions were explored in the new programme “Ukrainas pasakalja” on Latvian Radio 3 “Klasika” together with Sergejs Ņikiforovs, the chairman of architects “Nams”, the organiser of the plenary, Rudolfs Dainis Šmits, the dean of the RISEBA Faculty of Architecture, and Ilze Kaģi, a landscape architecture student at the Latvian University of Life Sciences and Technologies.
How to restore the memory of the city? How to heal the scars of the city? Does a copy have value?