Saldus Music and Art School is located in Saldus, a city in western Latvia. Designed by the local architectural firm MADE arhitekti, it was completed in 2013 with a total area of 4,179 square meters. The project integrated the originally scattered music school and art school into a single building, where the green area represents the music school and the blue area represents the art school.

      u glass facade

As the outer layer of the double-layer breathing external wall system, U glass covers the entire facade of the building.

Large thermal inertia of the building and integrated floor heating delivers even temperature regime. Facade, consisting of massive timber panels, covered with u glass, is a part of energy efficient natural ventilation system, preheating inlet air during winter. Massive wood wall with lime plaster accumulates humidity, providing the good climate for people as well as for musical instruments inside the classrooms. Building structure and materials work as passive environmental control at the same time exhibiting it’s functionality. Inner concrete walls and through the glass visible outside massive wood wall exhibit their natural origin, which we find as an important issue especially at the institutions of education. There is no single painted surface on a facade of school building, every material share its natural colour and texture.