Boksto Skveras

Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Scope: Mixed use: Spa, Offices, Residential, Chapel and Restaurant
Area: 13,265 m²
Completion Date: 2022
Client: UAB OGVY
Architect: Studio Seilern Architects
Local Architect: UAB Archinova LT
Local Services Engineer: NIT projektai
Local Structural Engineer: Elvora LT
Contractor: PST
Visualizations: Panoptikon

Boksto is a 13,265 sqm mixed use project in the centre of Lithuania’s capital city Vilnius, which includes a performing arts space, jazz bar/restaurant and spa, residential and office accommodation. The overall complex consists of 6 buildings and large courtyards and gardens that have evolved and have been modified over a period of 500 years. Now deemed a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site, Boksto Skveras overlooks one of the oldest streets in the historic centre of Vilnius.

With such a rich, varied and protected history, the conservation and restoration concept became crucial. Any new build element should be a confident and carefully considered insertion into the existing fabric and, where possible, the historic elements of the site should be restored and preserved. Planning legislation agreed that all buildings in the Old Town could have ceramic roof tiles and velux windows. It was agreed that this would be detrimental to the Baroque building mass of a large uninterrupted pitched roof, so this was constructed of vertical steel slats that reveal areas of glazing underneath, allowing roof openings to be integrated into the roofing system.

The concept combines restoring the baroque and Gothic buildings to their original state, whilst embracing the buildings original assets. Inspired by the example of the Alhambra, where building and landscape merge and morph into one another, we suggested that the new builds could reflect the historical fabric, rather than imitate it.  By using highly polished stainless steel to clad the new build insertions, the contemporary element pays homage to the historical fabric.