Riga Central Market hangars

“On November 10 of this year, Riga’s largest open market on the Daugavmala River ceased operations, moving to new, modern, enclosed premises. The newly built Central Market, which replaced it, is the largest post-war building in Latvia, which is why employees of other municipalities will also be interested in getting to know it. Why did the city of Riga, in the current difficult economic conditions, resort to the removal of this grandiose building? First of all, for hygienic and economic reasons. Goods displayed in open markets, in open market huts or even on open tables are exposed to direct sunlight, atmosphere and dust and deteriorate very quickly. If we can believe foreign research data on the deterioration of goods in open markets, then we must assume that with the large turnover of the Daugavmala Market, approximately 1-2 million lats of goods have been lost every year. Therefore, it is also understandable, as foreign experiences show, that the market halls built, which but they are very expensive and the rents are still much more expensive than in open markets, they have not caused an increase in the price of goods anywhere, but usually a slight drop in prices. Of importance, of course, is also the fact that when building new market buildings, they tend to be located near stations, which also makes it possible to reduce the cost of transporting goods. Riga had already started building closed market buildings before the war, starting first with the smaller markets of Matīsa (now Vidzeme) and Āgenskalna. The issue of moving the Daugavmala market was also discussed around 1909-1910. After the war, the city began to discuss this issue in more detail in 1922, when it received an offer from the State Property Acquisition Commission to acquire the Vaiņode zeppelin hangars, which had otherwise been decided to be dismantled and sold for scrap metal. After examining these hangars, the city representatives came to the idea of using them for market buildings. The first intention was to transport them to Riga and install them here in their original form, after working on the issue in more detail, it was decided to build massive buildings equipped with all modern amenities for the market, using iron structures obtained from the Vainode hangars. The new location of the market “near the red warehouses” was chosen primarily due to traffic conditions. Here, the market could be supplied with a direct railway branch from the Riga main station and it was also accessible to barges via the Daugava and the city canal. Of importance, of course, was also the fact that the city owned larger, hitherto completely insignificant, areas of land here. A competition was announced for the market project, in which not only locals but also a whole range of foreign specialists took an active part. However, none of the awarded projects was implemented, but. taking into account the ideas expressed in these projects, the city, with the participation of several local specialists, developed its own project. Construction work began In June 1924, and initially there was an intention to carry out the construction in five years, taking one million lats from the city budget for construction needs each year. During the construction, several more changes were introduced into the market structure itself, which necessitated the allocation of additional funds (the market cost a little over 6 million lats), and the previously intended amounts could not be taken into the budget in any year.

“(..) All 5 buildings are built on concrete foundations; the basements have reinforced concrete floors; the walls of the buildings are brick. The roof rests on iron structural arches, so that the walls do not bear any weight. The roof covering for most commercial buildings is slate, for the rest roofing felt. The buildings are heated, so both the walls and the roofs have double-glazed windows and the roofs are made warm with double-board cladding and insulation for most commercial buildings. Cork boards are also used to insulate the cold storage rooms. All buildings have a common low-pressure steam heating system with steam superheating to approx. 250° C. The heating of individual buildings is carried out with radiators and radiators placed in the door vents. The radiators, with fans built into them, allow air to be sucked into the rooms, heated and directed towards the floor, through which a uniform room temperature is achieved. In all buildings, including the basements, a built-in three-way ventilation: 1. Ventilation with fresh air, drawing it in from outside the building through a radiator and blowing it into the room in a heated form. 2. Extraction of stale air with fans. 3. Natural ventilation blinds. Electric lighting has been installed in all buildings. 6,000,000 bricks were used for the construction; 60,000 barrels of cement: 2,460 tons of iron. (..)”