Sudraba Arhitektüra has reinforced the dilapidated shell of an abandoned 20th-century railway warehouse in Riga and turned it into a concert hall.
Called Hanza Platform, the venue is in a cargo warehouse that was formerly part of a large freight railway station on the edge of the Latvian capital's historic city centre.

The abandoned warehouse, the last of 15 that once stood by the train tracks, had been deemed structurally unsound.
Sudraba Arhitektüra built an external load-bearing steel structure that encases and extends the original building.

A column-free hall at the centre of the warehouse measures about 15 by 80 metres and hosts concerts and exhibitions.
Hanza Platform's original brickwork and timber fabric is covered by a new roof with skylights.
"[The] old, jewel-like structure made of brick and wood has become a part of the interior, like a gemstone embedded in precious jewellery," said the practice.
At the warehouse's southern end, a new double-height space has been created to act as a main entrance lobby.

The new structure follows the original brick gable and has views along the edges of the building framed by the buttress-like elements of the steel super structure.

Vertical wooden planks clad the exterior of this new lobby.

At the basement level a cloakroom area has been created and is supported by concrete columns.
Canopies on either side of the warehouse that once covered rail platforms have been extended by the new steel shell.

These glazed...