Zaiga and Māris Gailis looked at the semi-collapsed Soviet era building and saw its rough beauty and the ability to “tame” the building so that it could become a home. During the reconstruction, they wanted to blend the industrial environment of the building with the highest standards of comfort from the 21st century. So they preserved the old Soviet architectural details, integrating modern design into them. The tones are close to the original ones, the aim being to change the accustomed landscape of Kaltene as little as possible. The size of the pumping station and the original positioning of the windows have been preserved, though the window apertures have been extended down to the growth.
Mr and Mrs Gailis found the building while taking a stroll on Easter morning, and it, like the original Easter Island, is surrounded by the waves of the sea. That was the inspiration for the name that was given to the building – “Easter Island.”
The pumping station was an L-shaped one-storey red brick building, with a corbel toward the seashore and a floor that is two metres under the level of the island.
Life in this house is often compared to life in a catalogue of design. It was no accident that the architect Zaiga Gaile even wrote a book about the reconstruction, with many pages devoted to the objects in the collection.
“This weekend home in the sea makes it possible to live an easy and unforced life,” she has said. “There is nothing superfluous here, just basic needs and a very purified space.”
