MOLS is the transformation of an existing shopping centre on Krasta iela in Riga, close to the Daugava riverfront and at the edge of the historic Maskavas Forštate district. It opened in 1998 and was extended in 2000 and 2001, built the way suburban retail was built at the time—inward-looking, surrounded by parking, and designed for short shopping visits.

Several redevelopment scenarios were built and tested against each other. They showed that a conventional upgrade would not create sufficient long-term value. The format had fallen behind changing consumer behaviour and the demand for mixed-use destinations, and the weakness was structural rather than cosmetic—a single-purpose building gives people a single reason to come.

The selected strategy changes what the building is for. Retail is joined by dining, everyday services, medicine, a hotel, coworking, sports, wellness, leisure and an event space. A place built for a short visit becomes one that can hold people for a day.

The central move is a new public square of 8,650 m², one of the largest planned in Riga. Traffic is taken off the site and consolidated into an enclosed parking structure and the existing multi-storey car park. The square is then raised above that parking and enclosed on three of its four sides by building facades. Cars pass below, and the square reads as a floor of the city rather than as ground left over in front of a building.

It is conceived as civic space rather than commercial forecourt—publicly accessible, active throughout the year, and able to carry a changing programme. It can hold everyday meeting and recreation, seasonal markets, concerts, outdoor cinema, winter activities, exhibitions and public art. The square is not an amenity attached to the redevelopment. It is the move that takes MOLS from an isolated commercial asset onto the map of the city.

The building is remade to face it. New entrances, active frontages, landscaped terraces and a publicly accessible rooftop open a building that used to turn away from the street. Improved pedestrian, cycling and micromobility connections tie the site back into the surrounding neighbourhood and to central Riga.

MOLS is expected to become a place people use not only for shopping, but for work, healthcare, a night’s stay, an event or an afternoon outdoors. Its success will be measured not only by commercial performance, but by the quality of the public environment, the diversity of its users, the length of their stay, and its contribution to the renewal of this part of Riga.

Existing area—50,4167 m²
Area after redevelopment—99,381 m²
New public square—8,650 m²