Signature House occupies a full corner plot at Hanzas iela and Rūpniecības iela in Riga’s Quiet Centre, directly across the street from Viesturdārzs park and alongside the still-vacant Rīgas Raugs factory halls. The building already covers its site, so any new outdoor space had to be found inside the block itself.

A single internal courtyard carries that role. Enclosed in brick and set between the blocks, it supplies the amenity space a converted factory cannot generate internally. It is kept small by design: with the public and recreational space of the park directly opposite, the courtyard complements it rather than duplicating it. This answers what the market analysis identified as the decisive differentiator for renovated historic buildings, in a segment that cannot compete with new-build servicing.

The inner yard holds a public zone with a stepped amphitheatre in pigmented terracotta concrete. Along the ground-floor commercial frontage an outdoor terrace carries covered seating beneath dark bronze canopies and awnings, overlooking the park. Private terraces mark select entrances.

Building and courtyard share one material family. At ground level the facade is clad in clinker and glazed ceramic tile kept to the scale of traditional brick, and the ceramic itself is a reference to the fired ceramic bottles of Riga Black Balsam, once produced on this site. Historical brickwork is retained and exposed where structurally possible. The courtyard continues the same warm register in brick and ceramic paving, built-in seating, planters and low walls, drawing on Sicilian courtyard gardens as a precedent. The yard reads as a room of the building rather than as the space left over in front of it.

Servicing is designed into the plan rather than pushed to the edges. A vehicle barrier controls the main courtyard access, the waste and servicing area is defined in the site plan, and stroller storage, mailboxes and waiting areas are provided per block. The mobility position is explicit: 138 bicycle spaces against 24 open-air car spaces. The courtyard is treated as a place to be in, not a surface to park on.

Site area 7,000 m² · Internal courtyard · Bicycle parking 138 spaces · Car parking 24 open-air spaces · Ground-floor commercial premises 3