Vilnius city pavilion for the international architecture festival in Edinburgh
Architectural Coontest Design Proposal
Authors:
Evaldas Mikelevičius, Gabrielė Norkutė, Kęstas Astrauskas, Augustas Pronckus, Viktorija Rimėnaitė
Explanatory notes
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. ANALYSIS OF FUTURE DEVELOPMENT ASPECTS
2. IDEOLOGICAL SYMBOLISM
3. DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE OF THE PAVILION
4. PAVILION OPERATION PRINCIPLE
5. PUBLICITY
6. CONSTRUCTION
7. ESTIMATO CALCULATIONS
Central idea
Project motto – 004826. “Community Hive”.
With this pavilion we seek to invite all the participants of the festival to be involved in forming Vilnius as a city of future. Interactive pavilion was created with a goal to highlight the importance of sociality and community values as some of the main factors involved in shaping the city. By using pavilion‘ s interactivity we seek to increase people’s understanding of how to mould sustainable settlements in a complex manner and what derivatives, working together as an intricate system, can help create thriving cities for the future.
1. ANALYSIS OF FUTURE DEVELOPMENT ASPECTS
Vilnius and all of the cities of the world has been showing clear tendencies which show what could be expected from the city of the future. It will be a city based on sustainable development, holding autonomy, building variety, effective usage of territorial and energy resources, saving green spaces and sustainability as core values. But the most important thing in a city of the future will be its citizens.
How do we present Vilnius of the future?
We believe that Vilnius faces problems, mutual to most cities of the world and in the aspect of urban development, Vilnius probably has more potential than other cities. Therefore this pavilion is meant to represent Vilnius as an innovative city, open to new urban ideas and teeming with future possibilities.
Urban structure of Vilnius city, its merits, drawbacks and potential are revealed gradually by introducing a clearly structured scheme, which can be changed and augmented by visitors of the pavilion. The main format (streets, rivers, natural elements) network is taken from Vilnius city planned structure and the carcass is structured by adding proper hexagon (honeycomb) system. Thus we get an organic system, closely related to the conception of city as organic and sustainable system.
Modular organic structure is a reflection of the fact that Vilnius, as a comparatively small city, has a lot of potential and is a friendly place for spreading new initiatives. Moulding of honeycombs, as city structures demonstrate that the city will always remain a solid structure, formed by the citizens themselves as they influence the change of old modules and the appearance of new ones.
2. IDEOLOGICAL SYMBOLISM
Forms and elements chosen symbolise the aspects of a sustainable city development:
– Sense of community (symbol – a circle)
City is its people who live there and who create their surroundings.
– Development and growth (symbol – the growing volume)
An emphasis is put on a growing community, because only united people who are working together can achieve meaningful results in development.
– Structuration (symbol – a structuralised volume)
It is a network of streets and natural carcass, which has formed during a long period of time by being exposed to many processes such as the impact done by city community. In other words it is a unique structure which has several separate parts working as one system – one city.
– Sustainable module (symbol – honeycomb shaped module)
After analysing many structural schemes we came to the conclusion that the city and the community that forms it are best represented by an analogue of bees and the honeycombs they form. Therefore honeycomb (or a proper hexagon) was chosen as a structural element.
– Organic system (symbol – a system of modular elements)
Sustainable structure is of course represented by our chosen analogy, which comes from nature – city dwellers like bees creating more acceptable surroundings in their environment (honeycombs) by filling it with desired elements on a small scale without even realising that by doing that they are influencing the development of the city as a whole.
3. DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE OF THE PAVILION
The volume of the pavilion is a rising cylinder which in a plan (a circle) as well as in its dynamically rising volume gives a symbolic meaning to the community and its growth together with the growth of the city. The silhouette of the pavilion is dynamic and memorable because of its expressive form and therefore easy to remember.
The volume created is filled by modular elements – honeycomb shaped blocks, given to visitors of the exhibition. The blocks are meant to represent different types of urban formations or functions, marked by different colours. Visitors can put these blocks into a pavilion wall, divided using a modular principle, representing a structured Vilnius city plan, however they like. This symbolic gesture is an invitation to the exhibition visitors to contribute to the improvement of Vilnius city urban structure and shaping of Vilnius as the city of future.
4. PAVILION OPERATION PRINCIPLE
There will be an informational stand, which will present some easy to understand graphic material presenting the pavilion’s operation principle and the meaning behind it, helping the new visitor understand the object he is visiting more deeply. The visitor will be offered three honeycomb-shaped blocks which he can use in order to change the appearance of the pavilion however he sees fit, by adding the blocks he got and removing those someone else has placed before him. Visitors are encouraged to bring their friends and family members in order to have more influence as a group to the development of the “city”. In order to influence the visitor and make him want to get involved in the game several inspiring questions will be given. These questions are meant to make the visitor think more in depth about his surroundings and, in turn how to change the pavilion according to his needs.
There is no necessity for members of staff to be in the pavilion, they could be present, if possible only periodically or during rush hours of the event.
There is an offer to install a video camera inside the pavilion which would record the changes made to the pavilion and translate them live to a special website made to represent the pavilion online.
Advice (represented on an info stand)
Would you like if the place you worked in would be closer to your home?
Do you think that there are enough services in your neighbourhood?
Does you city have enough green space?
Would you rather live closer to a city centre or in the suburbs?
Are there any culture or entertainment venues near your home?
Are you tired of shops under the windows of living quarters?
Multi-layered pavilion – for those who pass by as well as those who come back
The pavilion we designed has four layers of attraction which gradually attracts the visitor:
1. Passer-by. The attraction of visitors begins with an attractive outward form. The modular elements, forming the volume of the pavilion should attract the visitor from the outside by their openwork surface, dynamic silhouette and a petite scale, acceptable to an individual person and therefore inviting to come in and explore.
2. A visitor who comes in and looks around. Once a visitor comes into the pavilion he or she can involve themselves in the game offered within. A person, interested in the game, gets instruction and becomes a community member, responsible for forming the pavilion out of modular elements. A visitor that is not interested in playing the game and the idea behind it can simply be an observer and evaluate the structure others create as a design element or a sculptural form.
3. A visitor who gets involved. A visitor who wishes to analyse the structure of Vilnius city and its problems in depth and involve themselves in the solution of said problems can engage in the before mentioned activity – play with modular elements, an interactive puzzle of sort. The point of the game is to form the urban structure of Vilnius city and improve it how you see fit by adding separate modular elements (honeycomb shaped modules) representing their own fixed functions.
4. A returning visitor. For a visitor who returns (and possibly even brings friends with them) in an attempt to leave their mark on the pavilion and who has complete comprehension of the idea that this pavilion is meant to represent, that we (city dwellers) are capable to shape and mould our cities by acting as members of a community and seeking for common solutions.
5. PUBLICITY
We invite to consider this aspect in an innovative and sustainable way and utilize the newest technologies. In this day and age practically everybody carries a cell phone with them, therefore we offer to make use of this device for the publicity of the pavilion in social media (by using certain key words like #vilnius, #ourcity etc.). Cell phones can also be used for instilling long-term value to the project by letting people take a part of the information given with them (we suggest to create a website where visitors could find the main message we wanted to pass on, the website could be accessible by scanning the QR code and would contain some interesting „backstage” information about the project they experienced).
Publicity could be enhanced not only with the help of The Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland, but also Lithuanian organisations working with architectural and urban development. They could organise creative workshops, set up in specific places of community gatherings. During the workshops ideas of community in respect of city development should be presented, also it could be a possibility to popularise architecture and urban development and familiarise the public with its most important aspects.
6. CONSTRUCTION
Walls of the pavilion are formed using two elements – a carcass, supporting the honeycomb structure and 3D proper hexagon trapezes meant to fill in the carcass. Material chosen for the wall carcass – 1cm thick organic glass. Material for hexagon blocks – little “boxes” made from plywood plates.
The roof of the pavilion is anticipated to be made of lightweight constructions, see-through plastic, for example, which would be held together by a structure of thin aluminium profiles.
Pavilion is formed to be closed only in three quarters of its layout, but if it would be necessary, there is a possibility to install doors.
7. ESTIMATE CALCULATIONS
Design works:
Plan specification
Author supervision
Production works:
Production of modular elements (1054 items) – 6000€
Carcass – 3000€
A see-through roof made of light constructions – 2000€
Information stand – 1000€
Lighting – 500€
Transportation – 2000€
Assembling – 1000€
Publicity:
Creation of the website and social profiles – 200€
Web-cam – 100€
Unforseen publicity costs – 200€
Service costs:
Serving staff – 1000-2000€
Unforseen costs – 1000€
Overall preliminary value – 19 000€
The overall value of the project may be decreased using these methods:
Utilising volunteers
Involving the community in the making processes of the pavilion