An early idea for the Vilnius Congress Centre was found in clay. Three layers of pale clay, pressed and scored by hand, form an oval body whose seams and cracks hold the memory of the gesture. It is a study of mass before plan: a low volume that sits in the city rather than above it.
Placed on the white site model, between the slab towers of the Seimas precinct and the paths leading to the river, the clay body tested the scale of the building against its neighbours and the openness of the ground around it. The competition proposal that followed, Wood Wave Box, kept that intention: a volume lowered to reduce its impact at street level, giving back an accessible green roof landscape to the city.
The clay is photographed as it is, with its cracks and tool marks: the form was found by hand before any software.
The project: Congress Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania.
- Year
- 2025
- Status
- Study model
- Role
- Design, sculpted by hand
- Construction
- Pale clay, hand-modelled; white site model
