The Homecoming – Roche in Riga: a Historic Remediation

Early on, Roche became active in Eastern Europe and imperial Russia. The Russian market accounted for a quarter of Roche’s sales by 1916 also due to the representative Josef Aronstamm and his family. The turmoils of the October revolution put the existence of Roche as a whole in peril and forced the Aronstamms to flee to the newly founded state of Latvia. Surprisingly, already in 1931 Roche and the Aronstamms embarked on a spectacular building project in Riga with the aim of conquering Soviet Russia. The first modernist structure of the company which founded Roche’s architectural tradition was opened in 1932. However, with the communists assuming power in Latvia in 1940, all hope to retain the building was lost. Only in 2016 the house again came into the ownership of the company. After a long restoration process, it is today again the home of Roche in Latvia. The book describes this important episode of the history of Roche and the renovation process which included hydraulically lifting the whole structure.