The design boards for the new National Science and Innovation Centre of Lithuania – known as Science Island – are now available to view on the competition’s website:
https://competitions.malcolmreading.co.uk/scienceisland/gallery
The Mayor of Kaunas, Visvaldas Matijošaitis, said:
‘Science Island will be a celebration of creativity, innovation and excellence, and these ideals clearly resonated with the international architectural community. We were delighted by the range of intelligent and compelling submissions we received from across the globe.
‘Making the very best submissions available for the public to view in an online gallery helps to fulfil Science Island’s educational mission. We would like to thank these eight teams for allowing us to present their ideas in this way.’
Malcolm Reading, Competition Director, said:
‘This anonymous design contest generated a great deal of interest, both in the international media and among global designers. The responses were of great quality, breadth and diversity, and we are delighted to be able to share some of these today.’
Announced in September 2016, the three winning teams are:
- SMAR Architecture Studio (Australia and Spain)
- SimpsonHaugh and Partners (United Kingdom)
- Donghua Chen Team (China)
In addition, the five teams who received an honourable mention are:
- Amid.cero9 / Elsewhere (Spain)
- Mark Foster Gage Architects (USA)
- Alper Derinbogaz, Salon (Turkey)
- UAB Architektų biuras G. Natkevičius ir partneriai (Lithuania)
- Wolfgang Tschapeller ZTGmbH (Austria)
The entries were judged by an eminent jury, comprising: 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.
The Science Island International Design Contest received 144 submissions from a total of 44 countries, making this the most popular design contest ever held in Lithuania. The three winners are currently undergoing a Negotiated Procedure without Publication of a Contract Notice with Kaunas City Municipality, who will select one architect or team to take the concept through to completion on site. Construction for the circa €25m project is scheduled to begin in 2017, with Science Island due to open to the public the following year.
Science Island’s mission is to popularise science through hands-on enquiry and exposition and celebrate recent achievements in science and global technologies. The Centre, within the celebrated university city of Kaunas, one of UNESCO’s global creative cities, will focus particularly on environmental themes and ecosystems, demonstrating sustainability and future energy technologies in the design of its own building. The circa 13,000 square metre site for the development is ideally positioned in close proximity to Kaunas’ historic Centras district, and most of Lithuania’s nearly three million residents live under an hour’s drive away.
Ends
Competition Media Enquiries
Catherine Reading on T: +44 (0)20 7831 2998 or at [email protected]
Media Enquiries regarding Science Island
Aistė Lukaševičiūtė on +370 37 42 39 65 or at [email protected]
For images
Oliver Finn on +44 (0)20 7831 2998 or at [email protected]
Notes to editors
About the Science Island Design Contest
The competition was advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). For full details of the process please visit the competition microsite.
About Malcolm Reading Consultants
Malcolm Reading Consultants (MRC) is a strategic architectural consultancy specialising in the selection of contemporary designers. MRC believes in the power of design to create new perceptions and act as an inspiration – either at the local level, or internationally.
The consultancy offers a service to find the very best designers for clients with new building projects, whether through open-international, or private-invited competitions. Recent work in this area includes competitions for Tintagel Castle Bridge, the Guggenheim Helsinki, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park’s Culture & Education Quarter, the Mumbai City Museum, the Natural History Museum, the UK Pavilion at Milan Expo 2015, New College, Oxford, Art Mill, Qatar, the Victoria & Albert Museum’s Exhibition Road project, the UK Pavilion for the Shanghai Expo and the Glasgow School of Art.