Experts urge second life for old building materials
Thursday 10th September 2026 on 18:01 in
Latvia
Building materials more than 100 years old can often still be used, while reusing them can sometimes reduce construction costs, LSM reported. However, many such materials in Latvia still end up as construction waste or in landfills.
Industry specialists discussed how to preserve valuable materials and give buildings and their components a second life at the conference “The Second Life of Buildings and Building Materials”, organised in Cēsis by the Cēsu mantojums heritage association.
At the Mācītāja House in Cēsis’ Konrāda Quarter, architect Pēteris Blūms showed how old floor and ceiling boards, doors, bricks and chairs typical of the Vidzeme region had been reused. The chairs had initially been destined for a landfill.
“For us to use something, we have to understand what in the house can be reused. That requires a systematic approach. For example, the project for this house included a section describing all of this,” Blūms said.
Specialists stressed that the preservation and reuse of materials must be considered before dismantling work begins. This approach is still not widespread enough in Latvia, while the number of craftspeople able to carefully dismantle components and materials from old buildings is declining.
Builder Juris Zviedrāns said Latvia was wasteful compared with the Scandinavian countries, which had long been reusing materials that Latvia still discarded. He added that in a restoration or rebuilding project, such materials could account for about 30 percent of expenses.
Engineer and architect Mantens Devrīnts said Latvia also lacked specialists able to work with reused materials.
“We do not have specialists who work with this. Of course, renovation and restoration are different. There are specialists in those fields, but architects themselves are not trained in this. It seems like a new trend to them,” he said.
Restorer Jānis Tolpežņikovs, chairman of the Cēsu mantojums association, said materials such as stone and brick could be reused, as could metal structures.