
Nicolas Dorval-Bory & Raphaël Bétillon have recently been awarded second prize for their design of a hotel in Jurmala, Latvia. The duo may sound familiar, as last year, we featured their artificial landscape of clouds which created an experiential journey along the banks of the Garonne in Toulouse. For their latest project, Dorval-Bory and Bétillon have studied the relationship between the city and music and sound, to experiment with a gradation from the most structured musical composition to nature’s acoustic chaos by way of an architectural point of view.
More about the hotel design after the break.
Historically, Jurmala’s natural landscape has served as a place of tranquility for its visitors, and musicians regularly enjoy its calm to create new works and to perform for the public. The site also offers a particular sound environment, “It’s not absolute silence, but a soothing pink noise background combining the wind in the pines, the waves breaking on the sand, and sometimes vocalizations of seagulls,” explained the architects.
