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The medieval city centre of Lithuania's capital city, Vilnius, will soon have a modern new neighbour that pays homage to the country's thriving arts community, while also acting as an architectural landmark. Earlier today Polish-American starchitect Daniel Libeskind's firm, Studio Daniel Libeskind revealed the design for the new Lithuanian Modern Art Center, designed in partnership with Vilnius-based firms Do architects and Baltic Engineers.
The new 3,100-square-metre institutional building will be surrounded by a public piazza, and home to over 4,000 works created by Lithuanian artists since 1960. The collection includes influential paintings, photography, and videography, and the space will also offer a café, bookstore, educational areas, an auditorium, and storage and administrative space.
“We wanted to create a museum for the people of Lithuania, and also give this collection a home and an international audience. This collection is about the cultural legacy of the country,” said founder Viktoras Butkus. “Libeskind’s work is expressive, innovative, and, most importantly, has the power to tell the story of the past while connecting to the future of the city,” added Butkus.
Inspired by the gates to Vilnius' medieval walled city, the design aims to act as as a 'cultural gateway,' creating a dialogue with the surrounding historic architecture. Consisting of two rectilinear volumes, the angular structure will be clad in a white concrete finish, carefully chosen to reference the materials prevalent in local architecture. The building will be bisected by an interior courtyard featuring a sculptural staircase that leads to a public planted roof and sculpture garden from the ground-level piazza.
The space will feature ample natural light, made possible by the removal of a geometric volume in the centre of the structure and the use of floor-to-ceiling glazing. For summer months, shade will also be provided on the southern exposure by a five-metre cantilever. Visitors will enter the museum through a 10-metre-tall, three-storey lobby on the building's north side. From there, they will have access to the museum's galleries, which are joined via an open floor plan set to include over 1,000 square metres of exhibition space.
Construction of the new building is currently slated to begin in 2017, with work tentatively scheduled for early-2019 completion. You can find the latest details on this project in our Database entry, linked below.
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