KAUNAS ARCHITECTS – FOR EMIGRATION INTO WATER 0
(Report)Vida Savičiūnaitė
www.kamane.lt 2008 07 01
Eugenijus Miliūnas
Vida Vyšniauskienė and Vilius Adomavičius
Šarūnas Kiaunė and Asta kiaunienė
Gintautas Natkevičius
Audrys Karalius
Mindaugas Butvila
Photos by M.Patašius
In brief: July 1, the International Architects’ Day, always becomes an exceptional event in Kaunas, which attracts architects of other towns of the country.
The solemn part of the festival was traditionally formed of elections of the best projects of the last year and awards which are organised by the Lithuanian Architects’ Union, Kaunas Branch, annually on July 1.
The Lithuanian Architects Union, Kaunas Branch, organised the exhibition and the competition of the best projects of the year and awarded the winners on July 1, the International Architects Day.
The evaluation committee selected 6 projects from the competitive exhibition to be awarded. Striving for objectivity, the group of experts was headed by the architect Nijolė Bučiūtė born in Kaunas and presently living in Vilnius.
The interior of the residential building in New Bajorai village (Ignalina district) by architects Vida Vyšniauskienė and Vilius Adomavičius was accredited as the interior of the year.
The debut of the year was announced the student of Linas Tuleikis, Mindaugas Butvila with his project of the Lithuanian EXPO pavilion in Zaragoza, Spain.
The office of architects G. Natkevičius and Partners was awarded for the project of the new terminal station of Kaunas Karmėlava airport.
The architects of the brightly coloured block of residential buildings “The House of Dawn” in Žaliakalnis – Audrys Karalius, Donaldas Trainauskas, Viačeslavas Malenko, Gintaras Čepurna, Viktoras Kormilcevas, Mantas Volbekas, Urtė Platakytė and Virgilijus Gerdvilis received the colourful nomination “The Colour in Space”.
The best urban idea of the year is ferris wheel in Zarasas lake designed by Šarūnas Kiaunė, Tomas Petreikis, Asta Kiaunienė, Aurimas Lukšys and Erika Lepeškaitė.
Architects Kęstutis Vaikšnoras and Sandra Braziūnaitė were awarded for “Art in Football” – this special nomination is dedicated to the European Football Championship and Kaunas S. Darius and S. Girėnas Stadium.
The election of the Architect of the Year – the biggest intrigue of July 1 – took place for the 12th time. The results of the election were announced in the newspaper Statybų Pilotas on July 1.
This year the newspaper announced and honoured the new Architect of the Year – Eugenijus Miliūnas for the project of Kaunas Arena in the Nemunas Island and other significant projects. However, the architect is fighting with health problems at hospital at the moment.
"That arena consumed much of his health", spoke the participants of the festival wishing that E.Miliūnas, who is called simply Simas, would recover from his illness as soon as possible.
"Architect of the Year" communicated the following wish to his colleagues from hospital: "When starting to run in the arena of architecture, everybody should first of all choose the suitable height of the crossbar which one is going to overcome".
The merry part started after the annual awards of architecture – the mass migration of architects into water.
The aim of the action is to show by own example how important it is for Kaunas to turn back to rivers. Therefore, groups of Kaunas architects and colleagues from other towns headed to the Nemunas at Vytautas Magnus Church, where the festive expedition “Architecture Stepping into Water” started.
The ships Tolstojus and Švyturys sailed architects down the river to Zapyškis, where the entertaining programme of the International Architects’ Day took place. The main events of the expedition were organised in the lawn of Zapyškis church – conference of tasting, integration into the context of nature, football of architects, a concert and other events useful for relaxation.
A mixed men’s choir Maironiai of Rivers gave a concert on board of the ship, and the band The Better Sides helped them during the trip back to Kaunas.