Art Nouveau objects in Riga

Miera iela 5 (1903)

Architect: Aleksandrs Šmēlings

This 6-storey masonry apartment house with shops building designed by Alexander Schmaeling together with E. Hartmann and V. Unferhau, is unique architectural monument, stylistic of which is far ahead of its time. Its horizontally accentuated balconies with rounded sides and its ribbon-like fenestration does not differ much from Functionalism or the Modern Movement language that came into fashion towards the late 1920s and early 1930s. There is no ornamentation on the façade’s finishes. Riga Housing Construction Union constructed the building. The street it sits on was formed in 1905 when the former chaotically located buildings on this place were demolished.