The architect should have a good understanding of the site and its surroundings in order to create meaningful relationships between the new building and the environment. Therefore, the aim of the Architecture student workshop „starTarch“ was to explore the surroundings of Petrašiūnai. During the workshop, the second, third and fourth year architecture students had to hear, feel, touch, see and understand the site by the river Nemunas and the surrounding context and present the plot using various digital tools.
The analysis methodology chosen by the tutors perfectly reflected this year’s workshop theme “Tree Architecture”, which was chosen as a contribution to the exploration of the theme of Lithuania’s architectural pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale’25. In collaboration with the curator of the Lithuanian Architecture Pavilion, architect, professor Gintaras Balčytis, the theme was presented to the students and will be further developed in their semester projects.
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Location
The proposed site is located in Kaunas City Municipality (Fig. 1), Petrašiūnai eldership, Petrašiūnai micro-district. The selected territory is bounded from the west by the largest river in Lithuania – Nemunas, in the southern part of the territory – a stream, in the eastern part of the territory – a former/existing industrial territory and a base for technical sports with an area of 600 m², in the north – an object of cultural heritage – a place of remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust. A little to the south of from the selected territory, the Nemunas River is dammed by the Kaunas Hydro Power Plant of the name of A. Brazauskas, built in 1959 which forms the Lagoon of Kaunas.
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Fly-over
2023 workshop
The first study week of this academic year 2-4 year architecture students participated in the workshop StarTarch! The workshop was the result of the second year of cooperation with the French Institute in Paris and the French Institute in Lithuania. This year, students created a vision of a vibrant Kaunas railway station district. They were advised by architects from France Colin Reynier (DATA architects) and Mike Fritsch (l‘AUC). Lithuanian Railways representative Vytautas Tilinskas spoke about the Rail Baltica project and the role of Kaunas station in it. Students were also consulted and evaluated by KTU lecturers.
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Reportage
Ingrida Povilaitienė
Jurga Vitkuvienė
Laura Jankauskaitė-Jurevičienė
