CITY BEHIND WALLS - identity versus image
International conference of historical towns
RIGA, Latvia
731 800inhabitants – official number
1 000 000inhabitants – unofficial number
Brief general information on RIGA :
3 key points that provide the city with its characteristic atmosphere :
Diversity of architecture, tidy streets, greenery;
Nice and temperate people;
Commercially successfull lifestyle, attractiveness to investments.
Icon of the city:
(most important eye-catching or famous aspect of the city) :
Throughout the centuries it is a silhouette of Old Riga ower the river Daugava
3-5 advantages of the city: the soft cultural potentials or values
e.g. rituals, people’s habits, art, sports, importance in historical politics (capital or not? Regional function?) etc.
Historical cross-road of cultures & finances, the centre of Baltic see metropolies;
Traditional craftsmen fairs in Open Air Museum in June, at the Dome Square at Midsummer Night and Christmas;
Annual Latvian Song and Dance festival (since 1868) with its functions - identity+social&political+national+art&musical;
Latvian folk songs and rituals, seasonal festivities held in the city;
Monuments and habits connected with the movement for national liberty in 1918 and 1991.
3-5 advantages of the city : the hard cultural potentials or values
e.g. cultural heritage, fortress elements that are left (see ‘Fortress as a Corset’), important old buildings,
The city of UNESCO world heritage: Old Riga and fragments of fortifications; art nouveau & wooden architecture, ring of the boulevards;
Closeness of the seaside and beach to Riga;
Open Air Museum – the largest in Baltic see region;
Historical areas of “garden cities” from 19 -20 centuries
3-5 disadvantages of the city, when talking about soft potentials or values
(people and their habits)
Insufficient informational strategy about cultural&touristic potential ;
Too much efforts on good image of night life in Riga;
Shamelessness and snobbish attitude to visitors;
Richness and poverty as great contrasts
3-5 disadvantages of the city, when talking about the hard potentials or values
(buildings, urban tissue, artworks, traffic, etc.)
Hard traffic in the historical centre; priority of traffic over pedestrians;
Unsolved problem of traffic and public spaces on the banks of river Daugava;
Lack of bridges over river Daugava;
Insufficent water transportation;
Bad condition of many buildings since soviet times.
City strategies regarding identity / image of the city:
Which are the strategies of the local government to increase the city’s identity :
(building a positive relationship of the citizens to their city, making people aware of the advantages and disadvantages)
1. Part of the strategy for building a positive relationship is public discussions on subjects significant both for citizens and municipiality, for example:
Riga City Council, City Development department was working on Riga City Development plan for 2006 – 2018 and organised public discussion on this plan in 2005. The discussion about development of Daugava river left bank is still going on. At the time of public discussions new conceptions, master plans and consultants are available to the public in general; everybody is asked to write suggestions and proposals and to participate in meetings.
Problem: inhabitants sometimes don’t believe that their suggestions will be accepted by municipiality;
Way to improve: More information about the ways to participate, less formality.
2. Riga City Council, (City Development Department, Department of Culture; Department of Environment) is working for increasing the city’s identity. The accent is on rich cultural &musical& sports life; historical architecture, clean forests, lakes and seaside; etnical traditions, long lasting traditions of folk songs and fairs.
Midsummer and Christmas fairs are very popular; musical life is rich and interesting for everybody; local people and visitors are loving historical architecture and green territories.
Way to improve: More support to public and private bodies for management the houses, places and events important for local identity; Improvement of legal frame for this support.
Has your local government ever developed strategies to increase Europe’s identity ?
(building a positive relationship of the citizens to Europe, making people aware of the advantages and disadvantages) :
1. As a member of Hanseatic League Riga since middle ages was a part of Europe. It is seen in the structure of urban planning, architecture, commercial life and habits.
The local government is still working for sustaining the unique European values in Riga – rich cultural life, historical surroundings, traditions, clean and safe environment, positive attitude of citizens to their city.
Way to improve: Learning from countries with longer experience of being in EU.
2. As a member of EU since May 2004 Latvia and Riga has more active commercial life and contacts; the relationship of the citizens to Europe is good enough, especially among the young people. Much EU projects are concentrated on education, informational systems, strengthening networks between the partners in Europe. Riga city has twinning towns in different countries of Europe and exchange of culture, administrative bodies, professional stakeholders is a base for feeling of a common european identity.
Way to improve: Finding the ways of collaboration and topics for collaborations which are essential
3. EU projects with different partners and in different fields are the good thing for creating the positive relationship between countries and citizens.
Way to improve: To create stronger institutional capacity for working with EU projects
Has your local government ever developed strategies to increase the city’s image ?
letting other citizens of Europe know your advantages and disadvantages (marketing activities of the city, common projects focused on making the name of your city known, creating a new visual style of tourist materials).
1. World ice-hockey championship in May 2006 in Riga was a good examination how advantages and disadvantages of Riga city can influence both visitors and local inhabitants.
For example – ice hockey arena and organization was on good level, our sport fans were excellent.
But Riga needs more hotels, more small specific shops in Old Riga.
World championship was a very serious step for thinking about city”s image.
Way to improve: Working on Latvia and Riga image together with professional promotion agencies.
2. Another examination: NATO summit in November2006 in Riga. The discussions on city’s image are still going on between government, municipiality and professionals. The same with preparation of urban territories, meeting places, safety systems specific for Riga and concerning NATO meeting.
EXAMPLE STUDY
Culture2000 project
“Citizen Perspective on Cultural Heritage and Environment ”;
(09.2004 – 09.2005)
Riga, Latvia
partners – Sweden, Finland, Latvia (Riga municipiality), Italy
Qualifying aspects of this project was the innovative approach to cultural heritage preservation in terms of community participation as well as the use of preservation authorities as strategic resources for fostering this process. Cultural preservation of today is linked to laws and documents constituting conservation and classification of cultural heritage, all of which are instruments used by authorities. In the evaluating process, there is a need to address the citizens and in a democratic way get support for actions and selections of heritage values, segmented by each partner of the project according to local specific situations. This project wants to be driving force for a group of partners from various European countries with different experiences in the feld of work.
Focus / nature of the project
Wooden heritage as a part of Riga city identity, accepted as criteria for including Riga Historical Centre In World Heritage List in 1997. Life and problems in the wooden house and the interests of inhabitants.
Location of the project
Riga city - state urban reserve in Kalnciema street – complex of 23 wooden houses (18 th – 20 th centuries).
Very important place for Riga because the street is the main direction from international airport to the centre of the city.
Years ago there were the idea to demolish old houses but thanks to activities of some stakeholders and following project activities the attitude to wooden architecture changed and Kalnciema street started to become a popular place for investments, represenrtation and for living.
Field of the project
hard cultural values : (physical surroundings)
X Land use planning
X Urban planning: making a plan / structure plan / vision for a (part of the) city
X Urban renewal
X Urban design: making a design for a (part of the) city
X Conservation
X Restoration
soft cultural values : (people and activities)
X History
X Cultural heritage
X Sociology
X Ecology
Scale of the project
X International, (in the frame of Culture2000)
X quarter,
X street,
Type of project
X Participation
X Inform, education
X brainstorm
X organisation, management
X decision making, strategy, planning, vision
X reconstruction, renewal
X problem solving
Main objective(s) / goals of the project
Start up democratic activities by involving the citizens in a dialogue;
To secure the inhabitants interests in urban development processes within areas of a built cultural heritage;
To raise public awareness regarding the needs of cultural heritage;
Address the citizens in the processes of caring of cultural heritage;
To combine the methods of social planning and cultural heritage work; to develop a first detailed sociological research design for the use within urban renewal processes
Was this project a part of some larger city strategy regarding identity or image?
One year Culture2000 project “Citizen Perspective on Cultural Heritage and Environment ”(CIPECH) was a part of larger project “Kalnciema street” - first PPP (public –private –partnership project in Riga, which is still going on.
CIPECH project emphasized the sociological aspect of heritage protection and stimulated local inhabitants, living in Kalnciema street wooden houses, for self organising and for future activities.
Milestones or/and (expected) results, design, or/and decision of the project
Participation of citizens in the preservation work and interpretation of heritage; use of large group intervention methods;
Improving the knowledge concerning heritage values; support for inhabitant organization;
Higher understanding of the instruments used by the authorities in steering processes of preservation of heritage;
Involvement of young people;
Documentation, inquiry and inventories for long term use
Individual activities / partial steps undertaken for obtaining the goals of the project
“Open Space” meeting - large group intervention method first used in the field of heritage protection in Riga; method seeks to support the self -organising options of a community with the aim to identify and install practical and action oriented working groups;
Expert meetings with participation of City Development Department, heritage institutions, private companies, political foundations, partners from civil –society sector and NGO’s;
Basic inquiry which give a first anthropological picture and an overview about the living conditions of the Kalnciema street target area;
Development of the Project information centre in the Kalnciema street;
Expertise regarding the further development of Kalnciema street with a special attention to the Master Development Plan (2006);
Mass media activities concerning Kalnciema street wooden heritage.
Different people and parties involved in the project and their role
X Investors - Participation in meetings, renovation work in the area
X Local government - Elaboration of Master Plan & heritage protection demands
X Residents of city/ quarter - Participation in meetings, inquiry
X Youngsters and children - “Open Space” meeting in the school
X Elderly - Participation in meetings, inquiry
X Advisors / experts - Participation in meetings, work on strategy and management
X Architects - Evaluation of urban heritage and architectural values in Kalnciema street area
X Urban designers - Work in planning process
Institutional / multidiscipline collaboration on this project
In the frame of the first Public - private - partnership project in Riga one year Culture2000 project started to improve the institutional collaboration between government, municipiality, private companies, citizens and NGO.
There was founded NGO “Urban Baltic” for the management of Kalnciema street activities and it is still working.
Evaluation in general
Project “Citizen Perspective on Cultural Heritage and Environment ” (CIPECH) was successful mainly with the social work done in the project area. It is internationally accepted that preservation of built heritage has always a social dimension which those who are working with heritage issues have to understand and consider; inventories of built environment are usually the basis for the discussion between official bodies, experts and inhabitants.
Future development
Social planning is very important for Riga city in the future, especially in the heritage areas;
“Open Space” outcomes, results of the dialogue with the inhabitants and discussions with municipial authorities show that public-private-partnership (PPP) could be one but pretty difficult method for solving problems in renewal of urban territories;
PPP is a democratic, long-term and opposite way if to compare with great investition projects in urban renewal in Riga; both ways are acceptable.
Contact :
Mrs. Inguna Birzniece
project manager
Riga City Council
City Development Department
inspection of heritage protection
Amatu Lela 4
Riga, LV-1050
Latvia
tel. 00371-70-12839
e-mail : inguna.birzniece@riga.lv
