Dovilė Šeduikytė

The Forest Garden

Cultural Centre for Traditional Crafts and Knowledge in Vilnius, Lithuania  
 

(Dutch text will follow soon)
The Forest Garden Cultural Centre for Traditional Crafts and Knowledge is a place where everyone can learn from experts of ethnographic Lithuanian culture and celebrate it. The Centre encompasses traditional Baltic values and draws inspiration from vernacular architecture, as well as traditional art. 

Lithuanians have a long history of a close, even spiritual, relationship with the forest. The visitors feel a connection with the Markuciai forest in the Cultural Center, due to its open nature. The platform lets you overlook the crowns of the trees, where events can take place, people can work individually or in small groups or just relax. The Forest Garden provides a plethora of different environments. There are open and sheltered areas, closed and heated spaces. Different levels of comfort encourage the visitors to be as close to the forest as possible. 

The building is composed of reused elements from neglected vernacular dwellings and what the forest gave us. We harvested from 4 sources and constructed temporary pavilions on the journey to the site to act as material storage, as well as bringing interest to the area. Students and locals helped deconstruct and document neglected log houses, harvest and prepare the timber and reed, as well as fire bricks made from the clay on the site. They also designed and constructed the pavilions. 

The available materials, inclination of the site and the layout of the trees were the three driving forces of the design. The brick core has a minimal footprint and a more permanent nature to act as vertical circulation and fireplace, which hold significant importance in Baltic tradition. The layout of the timber platform was determined by the trees on the site, as the leftover stumps from harvesting were used as foundations for the platform structure. The different sizes of the platform modules inspired by an art form called Straw Gardens allowed me to ‘climb up’ the hill. Their design was guided by the available timber logs and reused rafters. These modules also make it easy to carry out repairs, replacements or grow, as well as diminish the Forest Garden with time. 

Graduation date: 27 August 2024 
Graduation committee: Jo Barnett (mentor), Machiel Spaan, Rogier van den Brink 
Additional members for the exam: Saša Rađenović, Tatjana Djordjevic