A ceremonial event of Ventspils Music School with concert hall

A ceremonial event to mark the beginning of construction of Ventspils Music School with concert hall will be held on 12 January at 18:00. Representatives of Ventspils City Council, State Secretary of Ministry of Culture Mr Sandis Voldins and others involved with the project will be present at the event.

Students and teachers of the school, choir “Nošu planēta” as well as Ventspils Chamber Orchestra and Ventspils Big Band will all give their performances. A film by Kurzeme TV about the course of building of Ventspils Music school new building will be screened.

Despite the publicly voiced negative and biased opinions by the foes of the project and some media misrepresenting fact about the new building, Ventspils Lielais laukums will become busy already this month as the construction works of the low energy consumption structure begin.

Ventspils municipal institution “Komunālā pārvalde” – the commissioner of the construction reveals details about sustainability and uniqueness of the building:

“The total area of the new building will be 6 883 m² – 76% of the area will be allocated for the needs of the school while the other 24% – for commercial and non-commercial facilities of the concert hall.

The new building will feature unique innovative technical solutions guaranteeing low energy consumption. Principles of sustainable construction and exploitation of the building will be observed through introduction of energy efficient heat pumps’ system, energy efficient engineering system and automated building management and control.

As far as we are aware none of the recently build concert halls in Latvia feature such unique and energy saving solutions.

The expected overall energy consumption for heating stands at 25,76 kW/m² per year and carbon dioxide emissions – 10,75 kg CO₂/m² annually. It is worth noting that the combined energy consumption for heating of the current temporary premises of Music School is about 7 times higher – amounting to 170 kWh/m² per year.

To improve productivity employees and learners as well as comfort of visitors a lot of thought has been given to air quality, thermal comfort and space planning.

Longevity of the building will be ensured by the materials used in construction – granite, concrete pavement, concrete as well as the overall planning principle – simplicity and functionality. Locally produced materials will be used for construction. 100 – 150 new jobs will be created during the construction, which is expected to last for approximately 2 years.

Equally important is the accessibility of the building for people with special needs, including for people with sever movement impairment. Entrance will be equipped with wheelchair ramps; every floor of the building will have suitably equipped toilets. The building will have 2 lifts. First and last steps of staircase will be in contrasting colour, whereas handrails will have markings in Braille.

It gives a great satisfaction to know that within the next two years one of the most sustainable and energy efficient projects in Latvia will be implemented in Ventspils. The building will have the lowest long term maintenance costs. And at a long last students of Ventspils Music School will be a part of modern and comprehensive learning process. 500 students and over 100 members of staff of Ventspils Music School will move into the new building. This is in contrast to Liepaja and Cesis where only part of students and teaching staff moved into the new concert halls and others continued occupying old premises.

 The Big hall will have 600 seats and the Small hall – approximately 150. It is less compared to other concert halls but it has been calculated that the number of seats will suffice.

PROJECT RECEIVES FINANCIAL SUPPORT FROM EMMISSION QUOTA AUCTION INSTRUMENT