The new chief architect of Vilnius, Laura Kairienė, says that when planning the development of the city, great attention will be paid to the creation of attraction points in the so-called bedrooms, inactive quarters. According to her, they want to transform Šnipiške, it has potential Wolffoot, Markučiai, is being designed Stations conversion of the district, plans for the construction of Šiaurinė Street are being put together, the reconstruction of Vokiečių Street will begin in the spring.
"Everything is already clear in the center, conversions are taking place there. Spies are waiting, we have huge challenges with our high-rise buildings. (…) To tell the truth, there has been no renewal of the urban curve of the hill created by the architect Nasvytis, and we can see that it has already changed, needs are changing, it has not been assessed how friendly our trees will be with skyscrapers, how will the infrastructure be. We have a village just a few meters away," said L. Kairienė in an interview with BNS.
"Our goal is not to become just a center, New town, that central part is a point of attraction, so that points of attraction are also created in those now inactive quarters," adds the chief architect.
According to L Kairienė, Vilnius lacks about 10 new kindergartens, so the construction of them and new schools is planned.
The new city architect says that they want to invest in a model apartment block, where residents would be responsible for their own territory - they would have their own yard, a community center, and clear parking areas.
When redeveloping the Station area, the city is committed to reconstructing Pelesa Street, organizing the transport hub and the square near the railway station.
"We have an undeveloped area next to McDonald's, that full circle public transport measures. We have to create a vision for our reconstruction. There are many public spaces and private buses nearby the station, (…) Strumila Gardens, Peles Square, Stephen Square. We have to finally change the face of that territory, there are already enough drug addicts in the territory of the station, we want changes", said L. Kairienė.
- For the past two years, you worked as an advisor to Mindaugas Pakalnis, the former chief city architect of the capital, so the internal Vilnius city municipalities The architecture department kitchen should be familiar to you. What prompted you to apply for the position of chief city architect?
- Frankly speaking, it's love for Vilnius, because if I think about it rationally, I would probably say that only crazy people take this position. In light of all this, how much pressure there is for this position today from all sides, the endless distrust of people, the distrust of each other, it seems to be madness. But my heart was involved in this decision and it was a very strong motive. Love for Vilnius and what I can give is the biggest driving force for me.
I agreed to accept this professional challenge, because after the departure of Mindaugas (Mindaugs Pakalnis - BNS Plus) and the whole scandal, there probably wouldn't have been many people willing, which is obvious because there weren't many candidates. Maybe I was too close, I have too much vision and ability to say no, even though my mind said no, all rational people said where are you going and landing.
- Maybe you could share your visions, plans about the architectural and urban development of Vilnius?
- There is a lot of work to be done with the team, it is not the work of one person. I really want to gather the entire team scattered around Vilnius, because there was no creative department responsible for the vision in the municipality itself. I came to Mindaugas with exactly the vision that we would be able to create a vision, but basically there was no time for that, he was busy with everyday things, where the developers lead, where that flow leads. This is incredibly intense traffic.
We now have nothing about building a city without a general plan. We have a master plan and a number of developers willing to implement it on a smaller scale on each plot. We lack planning between the general plan and the plot, when we have those who want to develop in Šnipiškės, where there is no infrastructure.
Even here, in the central part, there is no infrastructure. We have no vision of how we will see the schools there, the public spaces, how our streets will withstand the intensity of the master plan. The general plan can multiply Vilnius twice. Are we ready for it? No, we are not ready and that development is not happening at our pace.
All developers are making their own visions and we are, to be honest, a bit behind because we don't have as many resources or even opportunities to get ahead. For example, a huge block is coming with the potential of people who will be there, will use, will drive, will be transport users for the whole city. It's a huge infrastructure problem, we don't have the connections built.
The northern street, which was planned in 1972, has not yet been realized, because everyone lacks the will to implement it, and basically more than one connection needs to be created. The transporters and I promise to sit down and talk about the possibilities, to make the necessary connections so that Vilnius does not suffocate with all the development planned by the general plan.
The master plan and the mobility plan, which are struggling to implement, need real steps to prevent the buildings that are built from becoming a blight on us and general complaints about how we live here. Yes, we will have to change our habits too. Change mobility, not only driving cars, but now Vilnius is so arranged that we have a huge development outside the city.
I say that we have several rings - we have Old Town, we have New Town, the green ring of Vilnius, it is in a ravine, behind the green ring we have Soviet quarters, even 60 percent of them. yes, further down we have studios to drive to.
Vilnius is a city with a radial structure - we go to the center, usually all the functions and services we need are there. This was not the case in the Soviet quarters, we call them bedrooms. This is our goal, so that only the center, the New Town, that central part does not become a point of attraction, so that points of attraction are created in those now inactive quarters as well.
This is really not even four or even eight years of work. Long-term plans are needed here, but they need to be started, because if we don't start, we won't solve the problems of future generations.
- If I understand correctly, one of your most important goals is more active development of infrastructure, not limited to transportation?
- I would very much like to work with transporters, because until now urban planning has been separated from street planning. Streets are seen only as paving or aesthetic spaces, but the street is our public space, where we can spend time not only with a car, but also as pedestrians and cyclists.
It's permeability and mobility that is one of those problems that we will have when we consider urban development, when we say densification. When everyone asks, how do you encode that density without reducing green spaces, we have industrial, already built-up areas close to the city center that can change, can get new urban value and not create huge traffic flows, because we already have a lot of movement.
Also we have a very huge need for educational infrastructure and it also creates movement and flows. Parents take their children to kindergarten, which is far from home, then from kindergarten they take someone to school, then to work.
Let's see how much movement we have. Instead of having one trip, we have five trips. Vilnius lacks about 10 new kindergartens, so here we are planning both reconstructions and new schools. The network of education is also related to our entire movement.
- Regarding the development of the city, what are you going to start with here?
- The fact that attention will be paid to those residential neighborhoods. Everything is already clear in the center, conversions are taking place there. Spies are waiting, we have huge challenges with our high-rise buildings. We were not ready here, to tell the truth, there has been no renewal since the curve of the urban hill created by the architect Nasvytis, and we can see that it has already changed, needs are changing, it has not been assessed how friendly our little trees will be with skyscrapers, what will happen with the infrastructure, we don't have it yet. We have a village here just a few meters away.
We have those point areas that are important to us. Basically, those sleepy Soviet districts have received the least attention during the entire period of Independence. There is a big problem here simply because these are monofunctional buildings, you can only sleep in them, and all the work objects are somewhere further away.
Another thing is the condition of the buildings themselves, because the oldest block, the first buildings on V. Pietaro Street are already 60 years old and it is already a very old construction. Then there are yards that haven't been formed yet. The majority of Soviet-built apartment buildings do not have their own property, there is no way that this reform is taking place in order for them to take shape. The city has not set boundaries, where it is managed by the residents themselves, and where by the city.
This is such a tough problem, but still the biggest change has to be in the mind, because we see that the residents are not ready for change, they don't want to be responsible for their territories. They don't really want changes anyway, and the task here will be to find those neighborhoods, those apartment buildings that want changes - their own yard, some kind of community center or a clear parking area. (…)
We want, for example, to make a demonstration block, we could invest in an area that would be an example.
- Society reacts sensitively to the situation of trees and greenery in Vilnius, as shown by the cases on Ceikinių street, Basanavičiaus street square. What vision do you see in protecting greenery?
- The algorithm is now presented as a project to our social partners. We have sent them a vision of how we will be able to address those issues, there are criteria. For now, the mechanism is arranged in such a way that trees over 60 cm in diameter must be considered as a value that we would like to preserve. Then there are the criteria for when we ask for expert advice and publicity with residents.
There is a huge system of laws here, for example, it used to be optional to publish, to involve the public so that we know what is happening. This is the maximum publicity we have now.
For example, we have marked the whole of Vilnius and the trees that are valuable to us, which we value more expensively. Those maps are publicly published, we say that the cutting of these trees, if we all decide collegially, will cost more than what we have now with the Ceikinii oak, where the amounts are very ridiculous.
There are trees that need to be cut down and everyone is afraid to do that now, but there is a possibility to make a whole park instead of a 40 cm maple and then residents can see a new urban quality, a new quality of the landscape that is created instead of that tree. This is not a very easy task, it will certainly be difficult, but for now we have come up with the mechanism that we want to discuss with the public.
- Let's talk about the big projects, of which there are quite a few - National Stadium, railway station reconstruction, National Concert Hall project. At what stage is each project and which one are you giving the most attention, priority right now?
- The stadium complex has several construction permits, they are now issued one after the other, depending on the area. Everything is moving at a fast pace because we have an agreement with third parties and our responsibility now is just to check the project, see how they are doing. So far, everything is going according to plan and the whole process is under control.
The station is a very complex solution, it depends on our partners Lithuanian Railways. We have concluded a tripartite agreement between the bus station, the railway station and the municipality, how we will carry out the conversion of this entire territory, we have made a territorial planning document, which already foresees the development of that territory. More than one project is waiting here.
The territory of Lietuvos geležinkelių itself is their homework, where Zaha Hadid Architects won, we have the station itself and the Rail Baltica track. Everything is happening on their plot, and the work of the municipality is to attach all the future infrastructure nearby.
We have an obligation to reconstruct Pelesa Street, which is directly related to Rail Baltica's solutions. We have our task to make a transport hub and a square. We have an unorganized area near McDonald's, that circle of public transport. We have to create a vision for our reconstruction.
This is a joint project, but after signing the contract, we will do it separately with Lithuanian Railways. We plan to complete the negotiations early next year and let the designers do the station design separately and our station square design separately.
There are many public spaces nearby, a private bus station managed by two legal entities, Strumila Gardens, Pelesa Square, Stephen's Square. We have to finally change the face of that area, there are already enough addicts in the area of the station, we want change.
The procurement of the contract for the national concert hall is gaining momentum. Of course, there is still the maintenance of the park itself, it is ongoing.
- How is it going with the reconstruction of Vokiečių street, the Šiaurinė street project?
- Maybe we will finally move on with the construction permit on Vokiečiak Street. We are buying a contractor, we plan to start work in the spring.
There is, as I say, coded change on North Street, which we are working hard towards. In the current vision, the North Street project is divided into three phases, bearing in mind that we have a big elephant and we will not eat it all at once, but we want to see the vision as a whole.
By the decision of the city government, it was decided that we do not want to have such highways in Minsk and that street needs to be humanized a little, to make it more human-friendly by introducing certain other elements.
Last year, the first publicity of that new concept took place, we received a lot of criticism and opposition from the residents. There is an active Oz community, although this is only a phase three challenge, but it also leads to the final implementation of North Street.
After the public consultation, we had to rethink the concept a bit and we already have options, so we will be back soon with the presentation of the first part of Šiaurinė Street to experts, urban planners and then to the public.
As for the second and third stages, I really want to activate them in the concept stage and make that vision both through the Žirmūnai part and through Oz. The Oz part is particularly interesting because everyone is afraid there, there oz, but otherwise the corridors are reserved for the general plan.
We had a recent conference with the community of Oz with scientists and we expressed our position on how to make sure that both nature is preserved there and the necessary infrastructure connections are created. There are many technical options, we will have to check them from an environmental point of view as well, but it is not possible to make that part underground, because we have Geležinii Wilkos Street.
- What projects, development plans, priority areas of the city are still waiting for their turn to enter the center of your attention?
- The territory of Vilkpėdes has potential, last year I was actively involved in trying to connect everything that is happening there. The municipality did as much as it could and now it needs some reaction and time, because not everything happens so quickly. What naturally happens is that we see the conversion of "Vilnius Baladi". There is a huge change now to sports complexes for children, services are being created, sports schools under the roof, it's really amazing, MO Museum the branch is rebuilt.
Markučiai is another territory. Anyway, there are quite a few of those areas, but you don't want to promise and splurge again that we do everything and nothing, because that means we don't keep our promises again and we don't have trust again.
- The works of world-famous architects are gradually appearing in Vilnius - another one will be completed soon JAV the project of architect Daniel Libeskind, the project of Zaha Hadid Architects is currently under construction on Rinktinės Street. Which famous architect's work would you like to see in Vilnius and why?
- I am a bit cautious about this, it is an interesting topic. On the one hand, the projects of famous architects have some aspect of marketing, but those big architects know less about the context and I have a lot of respect for those who take local architects as partners. It is still necessary not only to know the laws, but also to understand the context in which we live, because it is not enough to just be cool and make some original work.
I prefer when we see more than a plot, more than one building, when we consider the house next door, no matter how tiny it is. For example, in the case of the MO Museum, I think there has been an amazing transformation, because its building is uncharacteristically architected because it collaborated with local architects and responded to the context. That's why I wouldn't name names like that, I would like our people to create by appreciating the values that we have.
