Pašilaičių parapinė bažnyčia Vilniuje

Abstract

One of the most telling changes that mark Lithuanian architecture of the recent 18 years is related to construction of new churches. The competition of architectural tenders tor Pašilaičiai Parish Church was participated by as many as 20 teams of architects. The title of the winners was awarded to "4plius", the architects Donaldas Trainauskas, Darius Baliukevičius, coauthors Asta Kairyte, Akvillė Kepenytė. As the authors state, "We thought of a 'warm' church, however, after the visit to Paišilaičiai we understood that the 'warm' edifice in this place will fail to withstand the load of severe environment." Therefore, it was decided to design the exterior that meets the environment providing the church with 'warm' interior. Thereby a symbolic idea of the church as a temple with the 'open-door' that architecturally opens and tells about the inside was born. At inside mini-yards, a sort of Italian stylistics has been selected concentrating buildings and occupying as less of the surrounding area as possible. Amphitheatric spaces of inside mini-yards may be adjusted for a range of different functions. The building integrates organically into the environment employing the relief level difference of 4 meters to design premises for additional services, thus accentuating and emphasising the main, i.e. sacral function. Traditionally, the church is oriented to the countries of the world, i.e. East-West. For the planned structure, a classic, single-nave, symmetrical space of rectangular volume with the main altar being composed at the end has been selected. The volume has been developed in a moderate and elegant manner realising the responsibility that it is a local structure rather than a cathedral. Due to this reason, the minimised architectural expression with the volumetric solutions being simplified at the maximum has been also selected resulting in an original building sacral by its modest aesthetics.