Foreword

The Omuli Museum of the Horse competition tasked participants with redesigning and reimagining a historic educational building within the UNESCO-recognised North Latvia Biosphere Reserve, on a forested site 4 kilometres from the Latvia–Estonia border. Winning submissions will be considered for construction. 

The Omuli Primary School, a 785 m2 building originally constructed in 1936, is planned to become a museum to educate visitors about the nature and history of local horse breeds. The 2.37 - hectare site is also intended to offer guest houses and artist-in-residence living and work spaces. The project is intended to be completed in three construction phases: 1- an artists' day workshop; 2- a long-term stay facilities for residencies; and 3- a guest house and a Museum of the Horse, comprised of exhibition halls or other suggested spaces.

The current owners of the building asked that participants be respectful of the structure’s historical significance in form and materiality. Designers were given the option to either restore and retain the building or reimagine it in new ways while making use of its existing envelope. As part of Bee Breeders’ drive towards sustainable innovation, and in tandem with the owners’ aspirations, Omuli Museum of the Horse will look to become a regional example for green building practice with cost-effective designs that place emphasis on sustainable building techniques. The jury panel focused on selecting proposals with strong, clear concepts that made use of natural materials.

Bee Breeders collaborated with an excellent team of jury members with a wide range of experience in equine-related architecture, sustainable construction, use of local materials, and complex conservation projects. The full jury panel included: Diego Baraona, founder of Chile-based DBAA – Diego Baraona Arquitectos y Asociados; Robin Dhar, Director at UK based historic building specialists, Donald Insall Associates, Architects; Meritxell Inaraja Genís, founder of Meritxell Inaraja Arquitecta in Spain; Joe Martinolich, founder of JMM – Joe Martinolich Architect; and Julie Nelson and Todd Poisson, partners at New York City-based design firm BKSK.

Bee Breeders and the competition jury panel would like to thank each of the participants for their outstanding proposals.

COMPETITION ORGANISERS
Omuli Museum 
of the Horse

1st Prize Winner

Project name

Reflection of Life

The reason why we join competitions is that they provide us with a platform to spark our passion and create works freely. Due to various reasons, architects are often facing multiple restrictions in routine work. However, in this competition we can think more about current social issues and problems and pay more attention to the context of our designs. Through improving the design philosophy and updating the traditional design style, we strive to pursue optimum solutions.

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Authors Dian Luo, Xiang Liu, Guisong Zhang
Country China

2nd Prize Winner

Project name

Site as a Museum

We participate in architecture competitions in order to build up and diversify our design portfolio, challenge ourselves, and obtain new skills.

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Authors Doruk Alpsar, Amina Meslem
Country United Arab Emirates

3rd Prize Winner +
BB GREEN AWARD

Project name

Omuli museum of the Horse

Architecture competitions have a key role in the development of young architects. They stimulate creativity among individuals or teams regardless of their professional experience and background. One the one hand competitions offer fascinating and complex projects to work on. On the other, they allow more freedom in the design process than in real-life projects.

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Authors Vassil Vandov, Gergana Georgieva
Country Bulgaria

BB STUDENT AWARD

Project name

Concentric

Architecture competitions gave us the opportunity to gain experience and grow up professionally. We think that besides the practice that we gain from these competitions, participating in them is a good way of observing how others perceive a task and respond to the same challenge. We are always looking for different types of competitions on various subjects to gain the upper mentioned experience and get out of our comfort zone.

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Authors Claudiu Zidarescu, Irena Dunda, Teodora Maria Escu, Delia Teodora Răpsigan
Country Romania
+78 points Buildner University Rankings

Client Favorite

Project name

Omuli Horse Museum

For fun and for the experience of crossing borders – literally and mentally.

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Authors Eliska Turanska, Jana Stofan Stykova, Katarina Stachonova
Country Slovakia

Honorable Mentions

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Project name

Omuli Museum of the Horse

Author Carley Chastain
Country United States
Project name

XYZ nature

Country Israel
Project name

Omuli Museum of the Horse

Project name

THE-O-MULI-SEUM

Project name

Museum of the Horse

Authors Wilber Ilett, Tim Hatch
Country United Kingdom
Project name

MOMU - Museum of Omuli


Authors Fiorentino De Martino, Laura Kranich
Country Germany

Shortlisted projects

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H Museum

Fernando Landeros

Chile

Omuli Living Museum of the Horse

Barthelemy Simon

NOVO architectures

France

Metamorphosis

Pablo Fuertes

Spain

Omuli Horse Museum - Mixed realities

Claudio c. Araya

Chile

The Stable

Lotta Larsson

Norway

Horse Garden Museum in Omuli

Kasa/ Kovaleva and sato architects

Japan

Omuli Museum of the Horse

Daniel Ercin

Erdem Aydin

Hochschule Mainz - University of Applied Sciences

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Germany

Concentric

Claudiu Zidarescu

Irena Dunda

Teodora Maria Escu

Delia Teodora Răpsigan

“Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urban Planning

+78 points Buildner University Rankings!
Romania

'Autobiography' of Omuli

Otto Arlien-søborg

Alexander Ivanoff

Aarhus School of Architecture

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Denmark

Site as a Museum

Doruk Alpsar

Amina Meslem

United Arab Emirates

Omuli museum of the Horse

Vassil Vandov

Gergana Georgieva

Bulgaria

HANGING LEGS

Elisa Frost

Spain

Omuli Folk Centre

Greg Ferguson

Ed Davison

United Kingdom

the cross

Luc Spits

Belgium

Museum of the Horse

Wilber Ilett

Tim Hatch

United Kingdom

Omuli Museum of the Horse

Minas Kosmidis Architects

Greece

XYZ nature

Matan Gal

Dana Lieber

Israel

MOMU - Museum of Omuli


Fiorentino De Martino

Laura Kranich

Germany

Omuli school & Omuli hourse museum

Nikita Morenov

Pavel Makarchenkov

Polina Vasina

Russian Federation

[ INSERTION ]

David Meza sandoval

Mexico

of woods and man

Damian Poklewski-koziell

Marcin Gierbienis

Poland

Omuli Museum of the Horse

Carley Chastain

United States

The Loop

Pierre-yves Fondecave

Carlo Donvito

France

Usins

Aleksandra Jodlowska

Gabriela Szczerba

Martyna Apczyńska

Wroclaw University of Science and Technology

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Poland

Follow the Hoofbeats

Ewa Serafińska

Hanna Pacyno

Poland

On The Way: Museum of the Horse

Weronika Dardzińska

Jakub Biernacki

Michalina Dębska

Kaja Kirilenko

Poland

Omuli Museum of the Horse

Pablo Delgado márquez

Spain

Omuli Horse Museum

Eliska Turanska

Jana Stofan Stykova

Katarina Stachonova

Slovakia

Omuli Museum of the Horse

Adrien Thivolle

France

Omuli Museum of the Horse

Cristina Iordache

Ana Dinca

Carina Davidoiu

Lucian Cornea

Romania

Through the grid

Bogdan Radulescu

Monica Iliescu

"Ion Mincu" University of Architecture and Urban planning

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Romania

MISTERIUM

Julia Kochańska

Marcelina Terelak

Weronika Lis

Aleksandra Wasilenko

Wroclaw University of Science and Technology

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Poland

Shading Forest

Zhaoying Zhu

France

Oumli Museum, since 1936

Hon chi Leung

Bagua+Bhava

Hong Kong

Omuli barn

Alex Renard

Institut national des sciences appliquées de strasbourg

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
France

Reflection of Life

Dian Luo

Xiang Liu

Guisong Zhang

China

THE-O-MULI-SEUM

Haipng (Heffrence) Teow

Lapzhen Wong

Malaysia

STRAWESHOME OMULI MUSEUM

Renato Magni

Marco Bossi

Chiara Corchia

Italy

OMULI - MUSEUM OF THE HORSE AND GUEST HOUSE

Diana-maria Lazar

Carmen-mihaela Placinta

Romania

THE HORSE AND THE ARTIST. A hospitable museum

Renato Righi

Pedro Escoriza torralbo

Italy