Former PresidentialResidenceand officialGuest House
Former Summer Guest House and Presidential mansion of the Soviet Union, situated in Jurmala, Latvia. Main holiday resort and referred to as the Riviera of the Soviet Union, the house was then known locally as the Forbidden House.Guests ranging from Tito to Honecker from Gorbachev to Yeltsin were among the “more equal than the equals” enjoying the privilege to reside there.
Lange’s leitmotif was natural light and he maximised sunlight radiating into the open interiors; the house has plenty of large windows including two main skylights, one which is part of the roof and illuminates the centre of the building, while the other is in the ground terrace and gives natural light to the large kitchen below and a view from the kitchen to the sky. The place is grand without being pretentious. The entrance is small and narrow with an elaborately decorated cream coloured plaster ceiling, which leads up the stairs to a fantastic view of the Baltic Sea through a set of three large convex double glass windows. You do not notice the actual beach (sand) just the water and the green of the lawn, as if you were on a magical boat. The summer-room next door has large glass and metal sliding window/doors which open up completely (like an accordion, to both side walls) to the garden towards the sea.
