Stasys Museum architect Aurimas Syrusas: The inspiration for the solution came from three key words

The Ministry of Culture is organizing a cultural spaces festival “16” from August 23 to 25, in which the “Stasys Museum,” opened in early summer in Panevėžys, is participating. The architectural competition for the building was won by “IMPLMNT architects,” represented by Aurimas Syrusas, Greta Šidlauskaitė, and Ričardas Bertašius.

Architect A. Syrusas says that the team analyzed the best global practices on how to create a building that is not only spatially or volumetrically high-quality but also functionally effective and interesting.

Let’s go back a bit to the very beginning: how did you feel when you received the news that you won the architectural competition and your team was entrusted with creating a new arts center – the “Stasys Museum”?

Of course, we received the news with great joy, but it was also quite an obligation. For our young studio, this was a fantastic start – we had been working on various exhibition architecture projects for some time, but we had never had the opportunity to design a museum before. This news also opened up a chance to get to know Stasys Eidrigevičius himself, whom we had previously only known through his work. We continually communicated while designing the museum and still do now as we prepare his second phase project.

What was the most challenging part for you, as an architect, and what challenges did you face?

Every project has its challenges, sometimes different, sometimes similar. Museums are not a common typology in practice; we have only a few new museums in Lithuania, so we analyzed the best global practices to create a building that is not only spatially or volumetrically high-quality but also functionally effective and interesting.

How did this particular solution, as we see it now, come about? How much creative freedom did you have in this?

The inspiration for our decision came from three key words that Stasys Eidrigevičius wrote in his open letter to the architects participating in the competition: simplicity, logic, and imagination. We expressed simplicity through volume, logic through function, and the motifs of imagination can be observed by the museum visitors; these include certain coded angles, forms, and elements.

All competition participants had creative freedom; there was even a request for creativity, which the organizers called “Stasiškumas.” It was fascinating to see how different architects embodied this “Stasiškumas” in their competition projects.

Why is this project important and interesting to you? How do you view it now, several years after you started creating the vision for this arts center?

I believe this project is important not only for us and not only regionally. We hope its activities will be known both locally and internationally; all possibilities are there. I’m not just talking about the building – the collection of works by Stasys Eidrigevičius alone is worth seeing in the exhibition.

I am very pleased that the museum is indeed being visited intensively. As far as I know, several tens of thousands of people have visited since the opening, which means the project is meaningful and necessary.

Although several years have passed since the first phase, this is not the end of the project. We are currently preparing the second phase project, which will further expand the museum’s functions.