Contextuality is king

Industrial cool is the dominant vibe in Vilnius’ up and coming neighbourhood Paupys – blending urban lifestyle with a green, quiet habitat away from the hustle and bustle of the city. The brand-new district east of the old town sits on the south bank of the small Vilnia river. This Paupys site once was the brewery of Ilya Effen Lipski. Later on, in the fifties, a factory for electrical measuring equipment was located here, which after six decades went out of business. The industrial buildings were left to decay until the reconstruction of Paupys into a multifunctional district became part of the Vilnius city municipality strategic plan “Architecture Park”, which began in 2010.

Breathing back life into this urban area was the big vision shared by an extraordinary team of creators, among them the renowned “Kančo Studija”, who designed Quarter VI, one of the building complexes in the area, completed in 2022. The architects’ key question: What conditions are needed today for a flexible, agile, and comfortable life? On an area of 28.500 sqm residents are offered a wide variety of housing space - from one-room studio apartments to light-flooded five-room apartments with spacious terraces and huge, floor-to-ceiling windows on the top floors. Open courtyards and playgrounds serve as meeting zones and community areas. Head architect Gustė Kančaitė and her team followed the idea of achieving historical and urban contextuality by translating the former industrial architecture into a new language.