The new house was built on the highest hill in Vilnius. From here you can admire the panorama of the city. The design of the building was prepared by architects from Studio Lapė, who straightforwardly admit that the location is the greatest asset of this place. The modern volume they designed is a combination of a house and an art gallery. What impresses in the design is the bold juxtaposition of contemporary architecture with the historical neighbourhood.
The architects wanted the users of the building to be able to enjoy the view of the city every day. Not only while they are at home, but also when they return home, when they go out into the courtyard or during walks.
That is why our proposed vision is an evenly distributed development that allows you to ‘catch’ the best views and that tries not to obstruct these views for the neighbours, say the architects.
The building form is influenced by the characteristic terrain. The houses here are arranged according to the principles of park planning – visually, the space is not divided into separate plots either by fences, plants or other architectural elements. The houses are scattered freely on the slopes, like rural buildings in a meadow.
The sense of privacy has been taken care of by designing semi-enclosed courtyards on the ground floor. On the street side, the house is heavily glazed. This is related to the art gallery function of this part of the ground floor. However, the appropriate positioning of the walls made it possible to close off the private part. This was designed on the first floor.
The new house has the silhouette of a traditional apartment building on one side and splits into two modern wings on the other, gracefully floating on the sloping street. The architects used glass, wood and concrete in the design. The skeleton of the house was made in reinforced concrete construction, which can be seen on the facades. To emphasise the sculptural form, the architects proposed using the same material for the façade and roof – weathering steel sheet. The rusty colour harmonises with the roofs of the historic red clay houses.
The house was given the name ‘Krivis’ after Krivių Street, which runs here. The name refers to the pagan priest Kriwe.
project: Studio Lapė, JSC(https://lape.lt)
architects: Tomas Lapė, Edvinas Kaltanas, Ieva Viliūtė, Emilija Liudvinavičiūtė
photography: L. Garbačauskas
Read also: Single-family house | Lithuania | Wood | Minimalism | whiteMAD on Instagram
