The government of Lithuania announced today the 3 winning architecture firms of a competition to design a new National Science and Innovation Center, to be known colloquially as “Science Island,” in the city of Kaunas, Lithuania. The competition, organized by Malcolm Reading Consultants, saw entries from 144 teams, making it the largest design content ever held in Lithuania.
Nestled in the heart of the UNESCO designated and celebrated university city, Kaunas, the science center will be located on a 13,000 square meter (140,000 square foot) site on Nemunas Island in the Neman River, adjacent to the Žalgiris Arena and within short walking distance to Kaunas’ historic Centras district. The new €25M complex will “celebrate recent achievements in science and global technologies with the aim of inspiring visitors to expand their knowledge and support innovation,” and will focus on research on the environment and ecosystems.
Continue reading to see the winners.
SMAR Architecture Studio (Australia and Spain)
SimpsonHaugh and Partners (UK)
Donghua Chen Studio (China)
The three winning teams will now undergo a Negotiated Procedure without Publication of a Contract Notice with Kaunas City Municipality, who will select one of the designed to be realized through to completion on site. Each of the 3 winners will receive an honorarium of €15,000.
In addition, five honorable mentions were also awarded to the following practices:
- Amid.cero9 / Elsewhere (Spain)
- Mark Foster Gage Architects (USA)
- Salon (Turkey)
- UAB Architektų biuras G. Natkevičius ir partneriai (Lithuania)
- Wolfgang Tschapeller ZT GmbH (Austria)
The competition jury which met in Kaunas over the preceding two days included Audrius Ambrasas, Director, Audrius Ambrasas Architects; Jonas Audėjaitis, Dean of Vilnus Academy of Arts’ Kaunas Faculty, and Member of Kaunas City Council; Paul Baker, Director, WilkinsonEyre; Sumit Paul-Choudhury, Editor-in-chief, New Scientist; Povilas Mačiulis, Vice Mayor, Kaunas City Municipality; Rainer Mahlamäki, Professor and Founder, Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects; Rolandas Maskoliūnas, Chief Press Officer, Lithuanian Academy of Sciences; and Christos Passas, Associate Director, Zaha Hadid Architects. The Jury was chaired by Malcolm Reading.
Construction on the Science Island project will begin in 2017, with an opening date anticipated in early 2018.
The three winning designs will be showcased on the competition website during the month of October. For more information, visit the website, here.
News via Malcolm Reading Consultants.
