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Public buildings
 
With the industrialization of architecture, increasingly more residential and public buildings were constructed according to standardized designs and from prefabricated reinforced concrete components (schools, including nurseries and technical schools, cultural halls, cinemas, retail stores and shopping centers), but administrative facilities for the most important government offices and cultural institutions continued to be treated as unique structures calling for custom designs. This trend was reinforced by the emergence in the 1960s of new functional types of public buildings.
 
Symbolically, one of the first buildings to signal the modernization of architecture was dedicated to architecture itself: the Urban Construction Design Institute (UCDI, with architecture overseen by Eduardas Chlomauskas and engineering by Česlovas Gerliakas in 1961) was the first building in the Soviet Union to be specifically constructed for an urban planning institute. The building was unique in its innovations, both functional and architectural, and featured numerous evident influences from the modernism of inter-war Lithuanian architecture: symmetrical composition, accentuated cornices, an even facade, lateral avants-corps and symmetrical courtyard wings as well as a functional roof over the main entry staircase. The vestibule was also modern, featuring an original semicylindrical, spiraling main staircase surrounded by glass brick that allowed in light, with wooden finishing, original light fixtures, and a “green corner” for plants.
 
Another modern “office building” arose in Kaunas. The Industrial Construction Design Institute (or “Pramprojektas” for short), designed by Vladas Stauskas and Algimantas Sprindys and constructed in 1959–1965, was the most significant early postwar modernist building in Kaunas from a symbolic perspective, since its design also sought to preserve a connection to the city’s pre-war architecture. Architects attempted to integrate the volume of the new building and the surrounding sloping landscape and existing buildings such as the Resurrection Church (converted into a radio parts factory by the Soviet regime) and the Kaunas War Museum into one homogenous composition. The new structure was also one of the first high-rise buildings to be built in the center of Kaunas.
 
The most popular application of high-rise construction in the 1960s, however, was in hotel architecture. The period could easily be called a “hotel boom,” the result of an increase in tourism throughout the Soviet Union and the gradual opening of external borders. It had become important to greet foreign tourists visiting the country with a modern face.
 
The hotel construction process was overseen by the Soviet foreign tourism organization “Intourist,” which commissioned new hotels in the capitals of the constituent Soviet republics based on contemporary Western examples, such as the Radisson SAS hotel in Copenhagen, designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1958 and completed in 1960. The design, consisting of a long horizontal base structure housing the main lobby and a second story reserved for service staff, and a vertical central structure of 15-25 stories with ample windows for guest rooms, became particularly popular in the Socialist Bloc cities. The first examples of this style in Vilnius were the Draugystė (Friendship) Hotel (design by Stasys Bareikis, 1970) and the new Intourist Lietuva (Lithuania) Hotel, begun in 1964 based on designs by the brother architects Algimantas and Vytautas Nasvytis, but completed only in 1984.
 
Another type of modern hotel consisted of an elongated, horizontal box design based on a prototype considered particularly modern at the time, the Yunost Hotel in Moscow, completed in 1961 and designed by Yuri Arndt. The first Intourist hotels of this type were built near the main railroad stations in Vilnius (“Gintaras” - Amber, by Stasys Bareikis, in 1964) and Kaunas (“Baltija” - Baltic, designed by Jonas Navakas, completed in 1966). The modernization of the Neringa Hotel and Café in Vilnius was also considered part of the boom of modern hotel construction.
 
The new modernist expression was also reflected in cultural buildings. One of the first of these structures was Statybininkų kultūros rūmai (the Construction Worker’s Culture Hall) in Vilnius, noted for its graceful, functionalist style. The young architect Algimantas Mačiulis openly espoused his desire to “approximate the aesthetics of Bauhaus functionalism, Algimantas Mačiulis, Permainingi metai. Architekto užrašai, Vilnius: Vilniaus dailės akademijos leidykla, 2008, p. 173. considered important by a new generation of architects who sought to liberate their discipline from Stalinist regulation. The design’s large glass, cube-shaped structure elevated on columns adhered to all of the canons of functionalism, and the 600-seat amphitheater hall with a modern stage and spacious lobby, lined on one side by an unbroken glass wall, gave the building a particularly contemporary appearance.
 
The introduction of architectural innovation was given particular impetus by an important anniversary in the Soviet historical calendar. The marking of the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution in 1967 encouraged numerous commemorative projects across the Soviet Union and helped accelerate the construction or completion of many new buildings. In Lithuania, for example, this meant the completion of the Art Exhibition Hall in 1967 (based on designs by Čekanauskas), one of the most prominent examples of early Lithuanian modernism, influenced by counterparts in Scandinavia and France and meant to blend harmoniously with the architecture of the surrounding Vilnius Old Town.
 
The construction of the Art Exhibition Hall was a reflection of a popular trend in the 1950s and 1960s to “enrich” historical urban quarters with modern architectural structures. This was also a view shared by modernist approaches to the Vilnius Old Town. Once cleared of the rubble from World War II, the future site of the Exhibition Hall had stood empty for a considerable time until the approaching anniversary of the October Revolution brought new funds and a directive to urgently complete the construction of a modern facility for the exhibition of art.
 
Despite its innovative shape, the structure has been incorporated into its historical surroundings with considerable sensitivity. On the northern side of Rotušės (Town Hall) Square, for example, architects “unveiled” views of the bell tower of Visų Šventųjų (All Saints’) Church. Standardized prefabricated and monolithic reinforced concrete panels used to construct the building were later masked with various decorative solutions. In 1969, the design for the Exhibition Hall was featured in the world-renowned magazine L‘Architecture d‘aujourd‘hui. The Hall and its café soon became a Soviet-era gathering place for “silent modernist” art and its creators.
 
 
Material well-being and rewarding leisure time
 
Material prosperity and meaningful leisure and recreational time in the Soviet Union was to be ensured by an abundant selection of retail stores, household and domestic supply and service centers, cafeterias and restaurants. Families were promised the opportunity to dine in bright, spacious and clean cafeterias, and urban residents were to have a choice of many modern cafés and restaurants in which to spend their evenings and weekends. The most burdensome domestic chores were to be taken over by so-called domestic service agencies while workers, civil servants and collective farmers rested and recuperated at modern spas and leisure centers. This new culture of mass entertainment and recreation required the creation of new spaces and facilities to ensure a proper imitation of material wealth and consumption. The press celebrated each new project: “A new store rises”; “A new cafeteria opened at the labor factory”; “A new café, domestic supply factory and leisure center were opened”, etc.
 
The clearest manifestation of the 1960s wave of modernization in more remote parts of Lithuania was the construction in smaller towns of numerous new stores, hotels, and restaurants, all incorporating an ample use of glass. Designs for all of these projects were overseen by the Vilnius branch of a special-purpose company called Tsentrosoyuz. One of the most important Lithuanian architects working in this sector was Algimantas Patalauskas, the principle designer behind many of the modernist stores appearing in smaller Lithuanian cities and towns.
 
A particularly popular design was a three-story department store adapted for mid-sized cities like Kėdainiai, Anykščiai, and Šilutė. Designed by Patalauskas in 1963, the design had many features typical of the new style: V-shaped supports, continuous glass walls, large showcase windows, zigzagging door overhangs, and concave roofs. One of the more interesting examples of this type of architecture was a design by Bronius Kazlauskas for the multi-purpose Galvė building in Trakai, which included a cafeteria, restaurant, and hotel, housed behind one continuous concave, glass façade. The same design was used in the construction of buildings in Kretinga, Alytus (with a retail space in place of the hotel) and elsewhere.
 
Beginning in 1960, the use of standardized designs for retail stores also reached Lithuania’s villages. Two types of structures predominated: a one-story general store and a two-story shop with an attached cafeteria – both types consisting of prefabricated reinforced concrete structures topped by flat roofs. Nearly 800 of these buildings were constructed. At the time, the designs were considered quite progressive and were later awarded the USSR People’s Economic Achievement Exhibition medal. As the young architects working for the Vilnius branches of the Urban Construction Design Institute and Tsentrosoyuz gained more experience, government officials began to demand more original designs, giving commercial architecture a new qualitative momentum.
 
They’d call you in and say: make it as modern as possible – more glass. Interview with Vytautas Edmundas Čekanauskas, recorded by Marija Drėmaitė, December 11, 2006. 
 
Considerable attention was also devoted to the modern interiors of the restaurants and cafés operating in these new buildings.
 
As part of a system of public dining and food service institutions in the Soviet Union, cafés and restaurants differed from cafeterias, featuring more elaborate interiors, a higher level of service, and the inclusion of entertainment programs. Khrushchev’s “Thaw” led to the removal of the heavy interior curtains and dark massive furniture pieces favored by Stalinist-era restaurants, replacing them with large, bright spaces, light furniture, modern lighting fixtures, openwork dividers, and geometric decor features.
 
Modern cafés transformed behavioral habits, becoming symbols of an easy-going and contemporary style of socializing among young people. While the main purpose of the Soviet public dining system was to feed workers as inexpensively and quickly as possible, the aim of the new cafés, by contrast, was to provide a space for civilized leisure time.
 
There were few established standards for such modern gathering places. As a result, the opening on November 6, 1959 of the Neringa Café at No. 23 Stalin (now Gedimino) Avenue, designed by architects Algimantas and Vytautas Nasvytis, was celebrated as a momentous event not only in Vilnius, but across Lithuania, with news of the event reaching as far as Moscow. The Nasvytis brothers succeeded in combining modern aesthetics with a national Lithuanian narrative, embodying a concept that presented a new elite style.
 
The first building complex in downtown Vilnius specifically designed for public dining was the Dainava Restaurant and Café, opened in 1963 and designed by architect J. Miroshin. The ground floor of the modern, glass building housed a café, while the entire first floor was occupied by a 362-seat capacity restaurant, at the time the largest of its kind in Vilnius, complete with four banquet rooms. The Dainava Cocktail Bar became a new and particularly attractive gathering spot. Beginning in 1967, the bar extended its hours to four o’clock in the morning, thus becoming the first so-called “night bar” in the Soviet Union. Access to the bar was selective and a great majority of guests were foreigners. The designer of the bar’s interior, Eugenijus Cukermanas (who went on to become a renowned abstract artist) invited the sculptor Teodoras Valaitis to create a decorative piece for the space. The result was a metal relief sculpture called Saulė (Sun), completed in 1963, a work that quickly became famous throughout Lithuania and beyond its borders. Teodoras Kazimieras Valaitis 1934–1974, parodos katalogas, sudarytoja Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, Vilnius, 2014, p. 159
 
Cultural buildings, first and foremost movie houses, also underwent modernization. As movie-watching spread across the country and widescreen film was introduced, the need for new cinemas with wider screens arose. By 1959, plans were already being drawn up for the construction in Vilnius of the 1,000-seat Lietuva Cinema (completed in 1965, designed by Jonas Kasperavičius). The structure is a typical example of the strict lines used in early Socialist Modernist designs after the start of architectural industrialization. Different versions of this type of concrete box structure, with glass-fronted lobbies and spacious squares leading to a main façade, were constructed in many Soviet and Lithuanian cities. The prototype for the design is considered to be the Rossiya Cinema in Moscow (designed by architect Yuri Sheverdyayev and completed in 1961).
 
The design of another movie theatre, the Vilnius Cinema (architect: Jonas Kasperavičius, completed in 1963) illustrates how modern architecture was incorporated into historical environment in the 1960s. Such examples of new buildings inserted into the historic parameters of a given street were known as architectural “fillings.”
 
 
The Interior Decade
 
Changes brought about by modernism appeared first in interior design, the field of architecture that lent itself well to fast and simple progress. The result was the emergence of a unique phenomenon: the “Lithuanian Interior School”, also sometimes called “the Interior Decade”, launched by Algimantas and Vytautas Nasvytis’ interior designs for the Neringa Café in 1959 and brought to a close by the same architects and their work on the renovation of the Vilnius Central Post Office in 1969. Algimantas Mačiulis, „Prieštaringas dešimtmetis“, in: Vilniaus architektūros mokykla XVIIIXX a., Vilnius: Vilniaus dailės akademijos leidykla, 1993, p. 139–147. Lithuanian architects were able to realize various ideas of “artistic synthesis” because of a local government decision to set aside 1-3 percent of public building construction budgets for ornamentation and decorative artwork. Though final permission for the use of a particular work of art in the interiors of new buildings still had to be obtained from the Lithuanian SSR Council of Ministers Construction Affairs Committee, architects were allowed to select their own artists.
 
Concepts and ideas could be implemented much faster in interior design, a factor that appealed to a generation of young architects, designers, and artists longing for Western modernism and espousing national Lithuanian design inspirations. They were greatly influenced by Finnish modernism and its most prominent representative, Alvar Aalto, and his signature style of combining local natural materials (wood, stone, red brick). The influence of this style was further strengthened by a series of exploratory visits to Finland organized for Lithuanian architects from 1959 to 1964, giving delegation members the opportunity to learn about Finland’s architecture firsthand. Marija Drėmaitė, „Šiaurės modernizmo įtaka ‘lietuviškajai architektūros mokyklai’ 1956–1969 m.“, Menotyra, 2011, t. 18, Nr. 4, p. 308–328.
 
Many of the architects who graduated from the Lithuanian SSR State Art Institute or the Kaunas Polytechnic Institute would be considered “designers” today. Tadas Baginskas, Vytautas Beiga, Eugenijus and Valerija Cukermanas, Algimantas and Vytautas Nasvytis, Algimantas and Lygija Stapulionis and others worked at the Lithuanian SSR Furniture and Wood Processing Industry Ministry’s Experimental Construction Office, designing furniture and collaborating with architects on the interior designs of their projects. Some of these designs were later awarded national Soviet artistic prizes.
 
Yet, the most prominent achievement of the so-called Lithuanian Interior School was its development of modern restaurants and cafés that became symbols of a new culture of entertainment and recreation. The launch of the Neringa Café was followed by the renovation of the former Rudnicki Café and its rebranding as “Literatų svetainė” (the Writers’ Lounge), designed in 1960 by architect Ignas Laurušas, and the opening of the Tauras Restaurant (designed in 1961 by architect Vytautas Batisa with interior designs by Laimutis Ločeris).
 
The former Konrado Café in Kaunas was modernized and reopened as Tulpė (The Tulip) in 1961, designed by architects Vytautas Dičius and Algimantas Mikėnas, with interiors by Konstancija Petrikaitė-Tulienė. Standouts among the examples of the new design style included the Tartu Café (opened in 1962, architects: Anicetas Vaivada and Algimantas Zeidotas, interior design: Tiiu Ene Vaivadienė et al) and the Orbita nightclub (1964–1966, architects: Vytautas Dičius, Algimantas Mikėnas). There were even new speciality cafés for children: the Nykštukas (Dwarf) in Vilnius (1963, architects: Zigmantas Liandzbergis, Jonas Kriukelis, interiors by Algirdas Steponavičius, Birutė Žilytė, Laimutis Ločeris) and Pasaka (Fairytale) in Kaunas (architects: Vida Ušinskaitė, interiors by Eugenijus Survila, Filomena Ušinskaitė). Teodoras Kazimieras Valaitis 1934–1974, parodos katalogas, sudarytoja Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, Vilnius, 2014. 
 
Interestingly, flower shops (and their interiors in particular) also became harbingers of modernism. The interior of a flower store designed by J. Šeibokas in 1961, for example, became an architectural phenomenon of its day, a unique breakthrough in the approach to architecture. The design was notable for a new conception of space, color combinations, and the role played by light, elements that the project’s author adapted from Finnish architecture. A uniquely constructed glass-enclosed flower market pavilion opened in 1968 on Pylimo Street consisted of hexagonal kiosks arrayed around a small interior courtyard. Each of the kiosks abutted a central metal column supporting a reinforced concrete roof, while the walls of the pavilion were replaced with suspended double-paned, framed glass windows (architects: Nijolė Vaičiūnienė, Rimvydas Pranaitis, designed in 1961). The pavilion structure housed various different facilities: a store, an exhibition space, and rooms for employees, flower storage, delivery and handling. The interior space featured a pool for aquatic plants lined with decorative ceramic basins to hold cut flowers, designed by Danutė Daunoravičienė.
 
All of these minimalist interiors shared certain traits that, together, could be considered distinguishing characteristics of the Lithuanian school: the aesthetics of natural materials (wood shelves coated in transparent varnish, red-bricked walls, coarse plaster) and a wealth of artwork (metalwork, stained glass, wall paintings, mosaics, ceramics, and openwork partitions made from various different materials). Artwork was used to impart a national Lithuanian theme to the interior, incorporating folklore motifs from Lithuanian fairy tales, legends, and songs.
 
The Palanga Café, built in central Vilnius in 1965 based on designs by architects Algimantas Zaviša and Romualdas Šilinskas, for example, displayed a modern exterior with a glass-enclosed façade, while interiors centered on artwork inspired by such folk legends as Eglė, the fisherman’s daughter and wife of Žaltys, the ruler of the sea. The café’s minimalist interior was given a unique atmosphere with the combination of coarse plaster and red brick walls and the incorporation of copper lanterns and Teodoras Valaitis’ metal artwork Laivas (The Boat). The happy company of friends, intellectual conversation, wine, background music, modern works of art – it isn’t hard to understand why café and restaurant patrons of this era still feel such a strong nostalgia for this brief period in time.
 
The wave of national Lithuanian romanticism began to ebb in the mid-1960s. The architectural modernization of interiors shifted to encompass entire buildings, focusing on a structure’s fluidity and space. Narrative-based interiors were soon replaced by more abstract forms. The interior furnishings of the Gintaras Hotel, opened in 1965 (architect: Stasys Bareikis, interior architecture by Tadas Baginskas), adapted plastic and aluminum, materials that were still new for architecture at the time. Valaitis’ decor for the hotel’s restaurant foreshadowed the arrival of a new, disco style culture: rays of light projected onto shiny metallic surfaces created an impressive effect.
 
The contemporary style of the interior of the Vilnius Central Post Office (A. and V. Nasvytis, 1969) was accentuated with metal framework and a stylized electronic clock mounted on the back wall of the main hall, while the overall structure was given a local flavor by red brick wall details united by broad seams characteristic of the old architecture of Vilnius and a composition that echoed the enclosed courtyards of the Vilnius Old Town.
 
Soviet scarcity motivated the creative talents of local architects, while the aesthetics of simplicity were dictated not only by the modern approach of designers, but also by limited funds and a constant shortage of materials. For example, architects and designers found an innovative way to adapt the spherical body of the Lithuanian-made “Saturnas” vacuum cleaner, then produced at the Vilnius Electric Welding Appliances Factory. Cukermanas may have been the first to appreciate the Saturnas vacuum cleaner’s value as an intermediate product, using the body of the machine to create light fixtures for the Dainava Restaurant. The same parts were used in a design by Čekanauskas to craft globe lights for the Lithuanian SSR Composers’ Union building and the café at the Art Exhibition Hall (today’s Contemporary Art Centre). Many still remember the decorative metal partitions from the Žirmūnai Restaurant (completed in 1968), designed by Valaitis to incorporate the spherical Saturnas parts, masterfully finished by artisans from the state-run Dailė workshops. For journalists searching for a narrative theme in the design, the composition resembled the armor of ancient knights.
 
 
Advances in resort architecture
 
The 1960s was also a time of advancement in resort architecture in Lithuania. In the quest to create the imagined “perfect” Soviet society, considerable attention was devoted to developing a suitable network of recreation facilities. Recreational architecture and the construction of new resorts became a tool for the socialist state to advance its vision of universally accessible rest and relaxation opportunities. The focus on developing a countrywide recreational infrastructure was justified by the state’s declared interest in the health of its workers, a policy it promoted heavily in the 1960s and 1970s.
 
Resorts and all of their leisure and recreational components were the property of the state, broadly defined, but many of the facilities fell under the jurisdiction of labor unions and healthcare institutions. The construction of leisure and wellness facilities was financed by the state and by agencies, higher education institutions, Soviet farms and collective farms. Labor unions implemented a broad program of constructing, renovating, and maintaining these facilities.
 
The most popular recreational institutions in the Soviet Union were so-called sanatoriums and leisure homes, or vacation complexes. The network of these facilities spread throughout the Soviet Union, reaching a capacity of several hundred thousand vacationers at its peak. The system also created a new type of facility, the sanatorium-preventorium, a type of medical spa devoted to wellness activities and treatments that Soviet laborers could enjoy without any negative impact on their work schedule. After a day at work, they stayed overnight at a sanatorium-preventorium to receive treatment.
 
Resort design was overseen by a vast Soviet organization called the All-Union Resort Design Institute (Soyuzkurortproyekt), and in Lithuania by the Urban Construction Design Institute and, beginning in 1967, by the Vilnius branch of Soyuzkurortproyekt. Jūratė Tutlytė, „Architektūra ir poilsis: (ne)įmanoma rekreacinės architektūros misija“, in: Marija Drėmaitė, Vaidas Petrulis, Jūratė Tutlytė, Architektūra sovietinėje Lietuvoje, Vilnius: Vilniaus dailės akademijos leidykla, 2012, p. 185–203. 
 
Resorts in Lithuania were to be developed along the guidelines established by the Lithuanian SSR recreational district plan, which designated five areas as resort towns (Šventoji, Palanga, Neringa, Druskininkai, and Birštonas) and several recreational zones (Molėtai, Ignalina, Zarasai, Trakai, and the Lazdijai District). In addition, resort areas were planned as integrated zones, with considerable attention devoted to the existing unique urban surroundings and the maintenance of strict zoning restrictions, establishing networks of streets and green zones and dedicating land for overall recreational use, maintaining a balance between undeveloped green areas and new structures.
 
From the onset, designers sought to implement artistically unique solutions to resort architecture, but in the early 1960s there was also a considerable amount of construction of small-sized (2-5 story) block-type recreational structures and complexes with ample windows and a functional aesthetic. Examples of these new buildings include typical spa facilities in Druskininkai, in southern Lithuania, such as Pušynas (later renamed Sūrutis, designed by Napoleanas Kėvišas in 1964) and Dainava (also by Kėvišas, 1965), the Saulutė children’s spa resort (architect: V. Antanaitienė, 1967–1984), and the building of the Žuvėdra spa in Palanga (completed in 1962). These structures inevitably brought a more uniform look to unique resort locales, bringing them closer into line with the living environment guests had grown accustomed to.
 
Larger resort complexes also included high-rise residential buildings constructed alongside smaller buildings that resembled the architecture of new hotels, including such examples as the nine-story Neringos Kopos residence building in Palanga (architect: Enrikas Tamoševičius, 1966) and the ten-story Nemunas building in Druskininkai (architects: Tamoševičius, Povilas Adomaitis, 1966-1973). Jūratė Tutlytė, „Architektūra ir poilsis: (ne)įmanoma rekreacinės architektūros misija“, in: Marija Drėmaitė, Vaidas Petrulis, Jūratė Tutlytė, Architektūra sovietinėje Lietuvoje, Vilnius: Vilniaus dailės akademijos leidykla, 2012, p. 185–203. 
 
Despite regulatory requirements and the existence of standardized plans, architects early on sought to design and build customized, original projects in recreational zones. Their efforts to maintain the unique characteristics of spas and vacation areas evolved into what some have called the “phenomenon of recreational architecture,” distinguished by a mutual agreement between planners and developers to avoid the use of standardized designs in resort territories.
 
This approach only served to encourage the search for unique design solutions. Lithuanian resorts became a haven for creative architects, allowing for the emergence and display of individual architectural expression. It can be said that the most original and highly regarded examples of Socialist Modernist structures in Lithuania arose precisely in resort towns.
 
One example is a masterpiece by architect Aleksandras Eigirdas, the splendid and uniquely modern Vasara (Summer) Restaurant in Palanga, completed in 1964. The restaurant featured an innovative construction solution: the building appeared to be suspended around a single funnel-shaped reinforced concrete support that also served as an integral part of the structure’s interior, surrounded by the curtain glass wall. Dubbed the “shining jar,” the restaurant was extremely popular with vacationers. For many visitors and admirers who flocked to the building in the evenings to watch the illumination of the restaurant’s lighting, the structure’s architecture embodied their visions of Western luxury. The interior of the Vasara Restaurant featured nautically themed ceramic artwork by Laimutė Cieškaitė-Brėdikienė, sculptures by Konstantinas Bogdanas, a stained glass piece by Anortė Mackėlaitė, and Valaitis’ composition Jūros tinklas (Net of the Sea) and his hammered metal relief Undinė (Jūratė)—Jūratė the Mermaid.
 
Eigirdas also designed other striking modernist resort structures, including the Kąstytis guesthouse in Palanga (1967) and the Dainava Restaurant in Druskininkai (1965).
Another prime example of Lithuanian recreational modernism is the Palanga Library and reading room, constructed of light metal and glass and designed in 1967 by Palanga’s Senior Architect at the time, Albinas Čepys. The structure showcased a creative harmony of modernism and traditional motifs, displaying a true “sense” of the spirit of the building’s surroundings, emphasizing harmony with nature and the idea – prominent in Lithuanian regionalism at the time – that architecture should adapt to nature, not the other way around.
 
The Žilvinas vacation complex was another unique example of new aesthetics and construction solutions (architect: Algimantas Lėckas, 1969). The complex had one of the most original architectural designs of its day and undoubtedly influenced the future development of Lithuanian architecture. With a preponderance of subdued lines, the building is an example of restrained, Socialist Modernist architecture.
 
The Žilvinas complex fell under the jurisdiction of the Lithuanian SSR Council of Ministers, the republic’s highest governing authority. This status was reflected in a corresponding level of architectural culture and the building’s incorporation into the surrounding natural environment. The design’s architectural approach was a “verbatim” application of one of the Five Points developed by the pioneer of modern architecture, Le Corbusier – namely “Pilotis”, a building supported by columns. Using an innovative construction method (engineered by K. Augustinas), three rectangular, horizontal residential block sections were raised and supported on three piers. The result was an overall shape that resembled the organic structure of trees, one that allowed the building to “branch out” at its top, thus giving it the feel of a sculptural building whose regular geometric shape blended into the fabric of its natural surroundings with surprising harmony. Jūratė Tutlytė, „Poilsio namai ‘Žilvinas’“, in: Marija Drėmaitė, Vaidas Petrulis, Jūratė Tutlytė, Architektūra sovietinėje Lietuvoje, Vilnius: Vilniaus dailės akademijos leidykla, 2012, p. 316.
 
 

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Sources and links

Teodoras Kazimieras Valaitis 1934–1974
Parodos katalogas, sudarytoja Giedrė Jankevičiūtė, Vilnius, 2014
MARIJA DRĖMAITĖ
„Šiaurės modernizmo įtaka ‘lietuviškajai architektūros mokyklai’ 1956–1969 m.“
Menotyra, 2011, t. 18, Nr. 4
MARIJA DRĖMAITĖ, VAIDAS PETRULIS, JŪRATĖ TUTLYTĖ
Architektūra sovietinėje Lietuvoje
Vilnius: Vilniaus dailės akademijos leidykla, 2012
ALGIMANTAS MAČIULIS
„Prieštaringas dešimtmetis“
Vilniaus architektūros mokykla XVIII–XX a., Vilnius: Vilniaus dailės akademijos leidykla, 1993
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