The Lukiškės quarter, which is defined by Lukiškių and Aukų streets, Lukiškių Square and the adjoining churchyard, is perceived as an integrated historical, memorial, architectural and recreational whole. Bearing this in mind, spaces that are different in mood and character have also formed in the area. This project seeks to identify the conceptual focal points of this quarter, their internal structure and mutual interaction.
Freedom Square is situated among lime trees, and it is a historic part of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. The metaphor of a bowl as a vessel or a womb symbolises the concept, the state and the feeling of freedom. The horizontal organisation of the space contrasts with the verticals that dominated the square during the Imperial Russian and Soviet periods. A square and a circle, the central elements of the Freedom Square project, create the symbolic, emotional, urban, social and functional configuration of the new square.
A new cultural and recreational centre, the Vilnius City Museum, housing an exhibition hall, a concert/conference hall, and a reading room/café, is intended for the eastern part of the formal space adjacent to Vaižganto Street. From an architectural point of view, this pavilion would extend the limits of Vaižganto Street, and would form a visual background to the square itself.
The Pillars of Memory. The square is to be surrounded by 77 white pillars, lined up on a path of light granite, which symbolise the historic memory. The pillars/columns will serve as vertical elements, monuments and lamp posts. Inscriptions engraved on the pillars will relate to the history of Lithuania, its great heroes, its faith, and the nation’s values.
The Commemorative Space. The commemorative space incorporates the large commemorative area located in the south of the square: the former KGB building (currently the Museum of Genocide Victims) with the names of guerrilla fighters carved on its façade, the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, and the cross and the obelisk to those who died in exile that stand between these two buildings. The project proposes to increase the space between the two buildings with a contrasting white glass cube, the Chapel of Hope with an Eternal Flame. This place will be used for flower-laying ceremonies during the commemoration of important events in the history of the state; top Lithuanian and foreign dignitaries will pay tribute to the victims here as well. The southern part of Aukų Square will contain the Music Square. This will be a composition of white benches on a lawn, which will form a stave-like shape.
The cottonweed code, one of the most ancient Baltic ornaments, functions as an important recurrent semantic sign in the project. The proposed proportions of the square (82 by 82 metres) resemble the ratio characteristic of cottonweed decoration, while the structure and the pavement of the Garden of the People, located in the southern part of the square, and the new square in Aukų Street, replicate the pattern of this decoration.
The recreational space of the square consists of a green zone in the northern part of Lukiškių Square, referred to in the project as the Garden of the Nation, which connects the square to the monastery and Church of St Philip and St James. Lukiškių Street is to be a footway included in the park. Three steps will lead from the square’s formal part to the green zone of the Garden of the Nation. These steps will form a pleasant environment for sitting, listening to carillon music, and other leisure activities. The elements that comprise the Garden of the Nation, the lawn, the parterres, the pavement, new sculptures and art objects, the trees, the ponds, and so on, are to be playfully grouped into a cottonweed pattern composition.
The new building of the Vilnius Architecture Information Centre with a café will be located in the western part of the garden (the northwest part of the square) adjacent to Vaižganto Street. The project proposes to connect the square to the prospective new building in the northwest (designed by the Ambrasas architectural studio), thus connecting all of Lukiškių Square to the right bank of the River Neris by a pedestrian zone. It also proposes to build an L-shaped underground car park in the square’s southern and eastern parts.
Authors: Mantas Maziliauskas and JSC “P.A.R.Y.Ž.I.U.S.” (J. Biliūnas, D.Dainys, R. Gritėnas, G. Jankauskas, Ž. Landsbergas, O.Lozuraitytė, A.Markauskaitė, M.Maziliauskienė, Martynas Maziliauskas, K.Mikšys, D.Tamašauskas, R.Viešchnickas)
Altogether, 25 participants took part in the 2008 architectural competition to redesign Lukiškių Square that was organised by the Lithuanian Architects Union. 2008 Winers of the first stage in Lukiškės square competition. None of the entries won first place. The idea for the entry by Mantas Maziliauskas and the P.A.R.Y.Ž.I.U.S. company was developed during a workshop in 2007. A modified project was submited for the 2011 competition.
Client: Vilnius city
