Children’s Forest Pavilion

The Children’s Forest Pavilion, initially conceived and presented as the Lithuanian pavilion at the 18th Biennale Architettura 2023, continues at the Stasys Museum’s Education Space in Panevėžys, Lithuania, where it provides a spatial setting for the museum’s education programme. The installation is as an architectural object and a conceptual structure, offering multiple formats for play, interaction, and discussion. It functions as a playscape and educational tool to initiate and acknowledge the unique ways children observe, interpret, and engage with the forest – foregrounding their agency in shaping its future.

The pavilion is built using timber from the Curonian Spit forests – wood typically chipped for biofuel or pulp in the paper industry. Over several years, the Neringa Forest Architecture collective has diverted a wide variety of this wood from this process, archiving it at Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts for material experiments, art education, and production.

The materiality and design of the Children’s Forest Pavilion respond to the geometries of timber shaped by wind and the particular soil conditions of the Curonian Spit. The playscape is crafted from custom-cut, paper-thin pieces to thick planks of black alder, mountain pines, black locust, birch, chestnut, maple, and pine.

Following its presentation in Venice, the installation ‘branched off’ into two distinct sites. One element – the roof structure – is now installed in the old-growth forest in Juodkrante, where it functions as the Neringa Forest Classroom, a destination for forest walks and environmental education workshops. Meanwhile, the play platforms, shadow play projections, and other elements are installed at Stasys Museum’s Education Space, supporting its research and learning activities led by the pavilion’s contributors and the team at the museum.

Contributors: Aistė Ambrazevičiūtė, Ancient Woods Foundation, Gabrielė Grigorjevaitė, Laura Garbštienė, Mustarinda Association (Tiina Arjukka Hirvonen, Michaela Casková, Robin Everett, Riitta (Nyyskä) Nykänen), Mantas Peteraitis, New Academy (Ikko Alaska, Nene Tsuboi, Tuomas Toivonen), Urbonas Studio (Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas), Kornelija Žalpytė

Curated and produced by: Neringa Forest Architecture (Jurga Daubaraitė, Egija Inzule, Jonas Žukauskas)
Architecture: Jonas Žukauskas in collaboration with Antanas Gerlikas, Jurgis Paškevičius, Anton Shramkov
Graphic design: Monika Janulevičiūtė
Video production: Eitvydas Doškus, Elis Hannikainen Video editing: Ignė Narbutaitė Lighting: Martynas Kazimierėnas
Translation and proofreading: Alexandra Bondarev, Gemma Lloyd

Stasys Museum:
Project coordination: Vilius Vaitiekūnas
Graphic design adaptation: Daniil Lapickij
Communication: Gabrielius Grašys
Lithuanian translation and editing: Dangė Vitkienė
Technical assistance: Gediminas Akstinas, Tomas Styra
Education team: Karen Vanhercke, Veronika Kaminskaitė, Vilius Vaitiekūnas

Special thanks to: Monika Kalinauskaitė, Ines Weizman, Ancient Woods Foundation, Curonian Spit National Park, Kretinga Forestry

Partners: Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts, Panevėžys District Education Center
Financed by: Lithuanian Council for Culture, Neringa Municipality, Panevėžys Municipality, Nordic Culture Point
Supported by: AB Roquette Amilina, UAB Splius, MB Lairent

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