“Architecture is a slow process. As an architect in your life, you will not have too many opportunities to do something because it is really slow to design and to build something.”
In our latest interview, Liene Jākobsone and Manten Devriendt of Sampling discuss honesty in architecture, adaptive reuse, materiality, nature, risk-taking, and why meaningful architecture demands courage rather than compromise.
The conversation explores Augustine’s Garden, House 61, concrete as a living material, rainwater as architectural scenography, and the importance of resisting generic architecture.
Full interview via the link in our profile bio.
@sampling_architecture
#architecture #architects #samplingarchitects #concretearchitecture #adaptivereuse #materiality #architectureinterview #architecturaldesign #latvianarchitecture #belgianarchitecture #contemporaryarchitecture #architecturelab #design #architecturephotography #architecturedetail #natureandarchitecture #spatialdesign #architecturaltheory #builtenvironment #honestarchitecture
Age of Reuse: where recycled architectural histories intertwine with futures of sustainability.
💶 Our contribution to the exhibition ‘Cash’ curated by @bimbergfrenz at ‘et al.’, a space run by @architecture_curating_practice .
In 2025 the European Central Bank (ECB) initiated a new design competition for the future euro banknotes.
The competition is still ongoing. Its themes are ‘European culture’ and ‘Rivers and birds’. Architecture is no longer central to the proposed imagery. As an alternative scenario, 33 architecture offices from across the eurozone were invited to contribute a speculative proposal that, in their understanding, could contribute to a rethinking of the euro.
#cash #money #euro #architechture #exhibition #speculation
PARODA | The Spaces In Between / ERDVINIAI NUOTYKIAI
Kviečiame apsilankyti parodoje „The Spaces In Between“, kuri vyksta Taikomosios dailės ir dizaino muziejuje. Paroda skirta Tarptautinei dizaino dienai paminėti.
Vilniaus dailės akademijos Interjero dizaino katedra šioje parodoje pristato projektą „Erdviniai nuotykiai“, kuriame eksponuojami tarptautinių kūrybinių dirbtuvių metu sukurti artefaktai ir tyrimų rezultatai. Ekspozicija žymi ne tik metinio dirbtuvių ciklo tęstinumą, bet ir nuosekliai katedroje formuojamą edukacinę poziciją – siekį permąstyti erdvės dizaino profesiją bei ugdymo procesus, suvokiant edukaciją kaip aktyvų veiksnį, formuojantį pokyčius akademiniame diskurse, kūrybiniame lauke ir miesto erdvėse.
Paroda veiks iki gegužės 17d.
EXHIBITION | The Spaces In Between / Spatial Adventures
We invite you to visit the exhibition The Spaces In Between, currently on view at the Museum of Applied Arts and Design. The exhibition is dedicated to celebrating International Design Day.
The Interior Design Department of the Vilnius Academy of Arts presents the project Spatial Adventures, featuring artefacts and research outcomes developed during international creative workshops. The exhibition marks not only the continuity of an annual workshop cycle, but also an evolving educational position within the department – an effort to rethink the discipline of spatial design and its pedagogical processes, understanding education as an active force shaping change in academic discourse, creative practice, and urban environments.
The exhibition will be open until May 17.
Spatial Adventures Parodos kuratoriai //
Spatial Adventures exhibition curators:
Assoc. Prof. Laura Malcaitė, Lect. Povilas Marozas
Tarptautinės dizaino dienos organizatoriai // Organizers: Lietuvos dizaino asociacija ir Lietuvos nacionalinis dailės muziejus
Foto // Photo by: Norbert Tukaj
“Erdviniai nuotykiai” rėmėjai // “Spatial Adventures” sponsors: Lt. Project, Innovation Living, Brolis Timber, Do Architects, Inblum Architects, Piano Forte
Partneriai // Partners: VU Botanikos sodas, Architektūros fondas, Architektų sąjunga
Looking back at our lecture as part of the Background Check series at the @u_jazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw where gave a glimpse into our process of making ✨
Thanks @tlo_archi for the invitation!
#sampling #process #makingof #belgianarchitecture #latvianarchitecture #talks #sharing #knowledge
Beyond the Building - Episode 03 | Sampling
What happens when architects stop choosing the safe option? You get practices like @sampling_architecture .
After winning first prize in the LARGE category at the last MARCH Awards 2025, one question stayed with us.
What does it actually mean to take a risk in architecture today?
For Sampling, this is not just a theoretical question. As pioneers in circular construction in Latvia, their work already suggests an answer. They are part of a generation of architects willing to test new ways of building, challenge familiar systems, and move beyond safer, more conventional choices.
So when we spoke with founders Liene and Manten, that thread ran through the whole conversation.
We asked what it means to be an architect.
For them, it means helping shape our collective future. Leaving something beautiful behind, while creating a positive impact on both natural and built environments, and on the everyday lives of the people who move through them.
We asked about a recently discovered material they really like.
Recycled cellulose spray plaster.
They came across it through projects and a visit to one of its producers in Finland. It is mainly used as an acoustic solution, but what drew them in was also its visual quality.
Then we asked for their all-time favourite material.
Their answer shifted the whole frame.
Light and space.
Because in the end, architecture is not only about materials as objects, but about the spaces they make possible. Light shapes atmosphere, perception, and the way a space is felt.
And maybe that says something important about risk too.
Not every risk in architecture has to look loud. Sometimes it is about committing to a different way of building. Sometimes it is about pushing new materials. And sometimes it is about staying radically focused on the quality of space itself.
Before the conversation ended, they gave the question back to us:
Should architects be taking risks? And if so, which risks are actually worth taking?
Tell us in the comments. 💚
These are the kinds of conversations we want to make space for in Beyond the Building.
Follow to catch the next episode.
Marta mēneša dizains ir ekspozīcija Aizsardzības ainava. Kuratore Liene Jākobsone ir LMA Dizaina nodaļas pasniedzēja un arhitektūras biroja Sampling partnere.
Darba autors: «sampling» «nomad architects»
Darba pasūtītājs: «kultūras ministrija»
Darba radīšanas laiks: 2025
#sampling #exibition #venicebiennale
🟢 An Architecture of Care 🟢 Episode 1: With Augustine’s Garden in Riga, @sampling_architecture Turns a Former Industrial Courtyard into Community-Building Architecture.
‘An Architecture of Care,’ an editorial series curated by @__archt.__ explores how inclusive design reshapes contemporary architectural discourse, framing spatial practice as an act of poetic care, social engagement, and embodied experience.
In the first episode, we follow Belgian-Latvian architecture studio Sampling as they reimagine, through a careful act of unification, an Art Nouveau tenement, industrial remnants, and a courtyard in Riga, into Augustine’s Garden—a residential landscape defined by layered identities and material depth.
Rooted in an ethos of care and repair, Augustine’s Garden allows the site itself to guide material and spatial decisions. Organized around an inner courtyard, the project is shaped by post-industrial aesthetics and layered histories. The preserved tenement building, reflecting early 20th-century National Romantic influences, retains its material authenticity through restored façades, subtle colour accents, and carefully integrated contemporary elements.
The former courtyard is reimagined as an urban garden, where brick walls reveal a palimpsest of construction periods. Adaptive reuse becomes a social act, turning workers’ spaces into a shared living community. Inside, a vivid colour palette structures domestic life alongside raw materials and continuous flooring. Generous windows extend interiors outward, while terraces and communal spaces encourage interaction. Together, these elements create an architecture that fosters connection, continuity, and collective living.
✍️ @melina.arvaniti.pollatou
📸 @madarakupla
#architecture #care #adaptive #reuse #industrial #transformation #restoration #renovation #sampling #architect #inclusive #design #urban #garden #archisearch #archt
Fire station, Varaždin, Croatia • The proposed fire station for the City of Varaždin is conceived as a contemporary, top-quality public building that responds precisely to the operational, spatial, and symbolic demands of a modern fire. The building concept is inspired by the idea of an engine: compact, efficient, and always ready. The circular perimeter represents the most economical and spatially efficient geometry, minimising envelope surface, optimising internal distances, and supporting fast response times. This geometry directly supports the firefighters’ daily routine and the critical sixty-second requirement, ensuring that movement paths between living areas, operational zones, and vehicle bays are short, intuitive, and unobstructed.
@jvpvarazdin@ti.vucic@sampling_architects #drustvoarhitekatavarazdin #DAV #circulararchitecture #firestationarchitecture #belgianarchitecture
Augustine's Garden
by Sampling Architecture
Images: Madara Kuplā
Augustine’s Garden is an adaptation of former industrial buildings to residential use.
Augustine's Garden is a residential ensemble consisting of an Art Nouveau tenement house and former low-rise industrial buildings in the courtyard. The project included the renovation of the facades of the street house and the reconstruction of the courtyard buildings, adapting them to the residential function. The courtyard of the quarter has been transformed into a contemporary urban garden, whose post-industrial aesthetic reflects the concept of adaptive reuse—to preserve and adapt to new use any building, regardless of its original architectural value.
The building on the street - an Art Nouveau tenement house designed in the National Romantic style - was designed by Aleksandrs Vanags. As part of this project, the facades of the building were renovated and insulated. This is a particularly delicate task for a historic façade, which is why it was insulated from the inside on the street side. On the outside, the original decorations of the building have been restored: rough plaster areas alternate with smooth ones, preserving the monochrome solution, typical for the Latvian architecture of the time. The façade is complemented by carmine red accents - a tin roof and window sills, in which the façade lighting is seamlessly integrated. An olive-green gate with a laconic design completes the gatehouse: there the historic vaulting is restored and contemporary lighting elements are added on the wall.
Through the gatehouse, one enters the courtyard, where an unexpected scene appears—a green oasis in the heart of the city. The courtyard is surrounded by former industrial and workshop buildings that have been reconstructed several times over the years. The facades still bear witness to these reconstructions, with building materials from different eras, ranging from the ceramic bricks and metal beam lintels of the early 20th century to the white silicate bricks popular during the Soviet period.
Many of you have been asking – how did this place look before?
#adaptivereuse #belgianarchitecture #belgischearchitectuur #latvianarchitecture #materials #community #courtyard #sustainablearchitecture #grīziņkalns #samplingarchitecture
Dalinamės rugsėjį vykusių kūrybinių dirbtuvių sesijos „Erdviniai nuotykiai #6” rezultatais, vol. 2:
„Prisitaikymas prie gamtos: grindys, sienos ir stogas”/ vad. architektas Manten Devriendt (SAMPLING, Riga, Latvija ir Gentas, Belgija)
Kūrybinių dirbtuvių metu studentai nagrinėjo žmogaus ir gamtos santykį, ieškodami pusiausvyros tarp intervencijos ir stebėjimo. Nedidelės transformacijos Vingio parke atskleidė, kad net minimalus veiksmas gali keisti erdvės suvokimą ir skatinti naujas buvimo formas. Šiame procese atsivėrė stoa – atvira mąstymo ir dialogo erdvė, kurioje architektūra suvokiama ne tik kaip materialus rezultatas, bet ir kaip būdas kurti santykį su aplinka bei kitais.
Foto: Giedrius Stonkus @pokruopulempa
/
We are sharing the results of the workshop series “Spatial adventures #6”, vol. 2:
“Adapting to Nature: Floor, Wall & Roof”
Led by architect Manten Devriendt (SAMPLING, Riga, Latvia and Ghent, Belgium)
During the workshop, students explored the relationship between humans and nature, seeking a balance between intervention and observation. Subtle transformations in Vingis Park revealed that even minimal gestures can alter the perception of space and inspire new forms of inhabitation. Within this process, a “stoa” emerged – an open space for reflection and dialogue, where architecture is understood not only as a material outcome but as a way of fostering relationships with the environment and with others.
Photos by Giedrius Stonkus @pokruopulempa
Finally, ALL AWARDS for the MARCH Materials Awards 2025, are OUT NOW.
🗳 Discover all award winners on marchmaterials.com/awards
👉 Link in bio
Augustine’s Garden by @sampling_architecture stood out among 100+ entries, taking home the FIRST PRIZE in the LARGE category awarded by our international jury.
Sampling shares this first place with @vivasarquitectos (published in our next post) for their equally strong and complementary responses to sustainable challenges.
What does adaptive reuse with circular materials look like?
Augustine’s Garden reimagines a former industrial building into a quietly confident urban residence. Nestled in a 1900s courtyard, the project preserves material traces of the past while creating a lush, contemporary urban garden.
Photographed by @madarakupla , this project shows how spatial transformation can uplift legacy, reduce waste, and root new lives in old footprints.
As judge and founder of @kogaa_studio , Alexandra Georgescu praised Augustine’s Garden for “capturing the joy of designing with reclaimed and biobased materials. This spirit echoes one of KOGAA’s core values: embracing what already exists.”
Ready to get inspired by architectural projects like Augustine’s Garden and so many more?
👉 Visit app.marchmaterial.com
#marchmaterialsawards #sustainabledesign
