Complex with an area of 16,000 sq. m will be located in the port of Riga and will become the first new museum building in the city in more than a hundred years. At the same time, this will not be a “greenfield” construction - it is planned to use the building of the former power plant built in 1905 during the construction of the museum. The main exhibition hall of the new cultural institution will encompass this industrial structure around the perimeter, and the integral parts of the modern museum - the bookstore, auditorium, café and administrative premises, as well as artists' workshops - will be arranged inside it.
The museum should become a multifunctional center of contemporary culture, it will host seminars, concerts and theatrical performances along with international exhibitions and a permanent exhibition of contemporary art from the Baltic countries.
According to Rem Koolhaas, he "put the old in the new architecture and organized the public program of the building in such a way that the past would be reflected in it all the time, but the works of art would not appear there in captivity."
The construction of the museum is part of a wider city program for the reconstruction of the harbor zone, which includes a new urban development project (also currently being developed by OMA), the construction of a concert hall and a national library.
The Museum of Contemporary Art of Latvia is due to open in 2011.
