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Proposals by Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios, Adam Khan Architects, and UAB Paleko Archstudija with UAB Baltic Engineers have been revealed as finalists of the M.K. Čiurlionis Concert Centre in Kaunas, Lithuania. The building will form part of the regenerative project for the European Capital of Culture 2022, foregrounding the River Nemunas—the site—and revitalizing an area close to the city's Old Town.
Kaunas is becoming known as one of the Baltics’ key knowledge and cultural hubs. "Despite a lively arts and music scene," the competition organizers—Malcolm Reading Consultants—state, "Kaunas—and Lithuania—lacks a first-rank concert hall with the facilities and acoustic quality to host leading orchestras and ensembles."
The brief required proposals to occupy a riverside site with "memorable panoramas" to the Old and New Towns. They should also provide multi-functional spaces for conferences, congresses, and symposia. The center will comprise: a 1,500-seat Concert Hall of exceptional acoustic quality; a smaller, secondary hall; conferencing facilities; a restaurant, café and bar; back-of-house and office spaces; and underground parking.
Six additional practices were awarded honorable mentions:
- Mark Foster Gage Architects (US)
- Ja Architecture Studio (Canada)
- William Olmsted Antozzi Office of Architecture, TARI Architects and Derek Pirozzi Design Workshop (US)
- Ateliers O-S Architectes (France)
- RARE architecture (United Kingdom)
- Studija Heima, MB and Vaidas Saveikis (Lithuania)
The Concert Centre will be named in honour of Lithuanian polymath Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, "an outstanding Lithuanian painter, composer and writer who had a profound influence on modern Lithuanian culture and who is considered one of the pioneers of abstract art in Europe."
