A Public Labyrinth of the Arts
Vilnius has an abundance of cultural programming.  The city boasts an array of museums, galleries,  performing arts and entertainment venues, and has one of the largest standing examples of a medieval old town, gifting the urban precinct an uncounted collection of public plazas and parks.  In many ways the city, as a whole, can be considered a contemporary museum.  A mixture of old and new exhibits, and public spaces.  

With this in mind, the gallery expansion at Radvila Palace should provide the ‘museum city’ with an interpretive centre.  A microcosm of the city’s artistic cultures and histories combined in a single site that champions new and old cultures throughout Vilnius.

To do this, we propose a public labyrinth of the arts, available to the city, year round.  Reminiscent of the streets of old town, the new public space will be a celebration of the arts, the city, and its people.  The renovated palace should encourage exploration of both its immediate site and the city as a whole.

The Galleries
Contemporary museums are designed under the notion that there is a friction between art and its environment.  Most gallery’s block out their surroundings, concluding that they detract from the gallery’s works.  Our submission puts forward an alternative.  A space that compliments art because of its surroundings while inversely using the art to compliment its environment. The galleries look to the plaza, while the plaza looks to the art.

The basement level offers two gallery types - “Extraverted” and “Introverted”.  The first is open, both horizontally and vertically.  A long winding path that carves its way through the plaza above, opening its galleries to the city and the city to its galleries.

The “Introverted” galleries are enclosed. These in-between spaces offer a curatorial respite, to compliment their counterpart.  Long skinny corridors, skewed rooms and occasional rectangular boxes. Each room offers a unique opportunity to reimagine the museums collection and see it in a new light.