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The renovation has been carried out in Lithuania for almost a decade, but according to Rūta Leitanaitė, president of the Union of Lithuanian Architects, the results are not what we would like to be proud of.
Not only in terms of activity, but also in terms of content and reach. So far, the renovation has focused on energy efficiency. The new European Bauhaus offers an environment based on three values: sustainability, aesthetics and inclusion. The renewal of the last two is missing in Lithuania.
The Deputy Minister of the Environment, Darius Kvedaravičius, emphasized that renovation is a long-term, unifying and opposite problem.
“Renovation is one of the most important projects for us. The results of this process are changing, we would always like to see better, but the trend is that the existing model exhales, new solutions are needed. We talk about the renovation of apartment buildings individual, we solved domestic problems: quality of life problems.
It’s time to take a more integrated approach. Some cities have already taken the first steps. There is a problem with inclusion. Our goal is that the renovation is carried out at the initiative of the neighbors themselves. The quarterly renewal has so far been shelved in the hope that it will be carried out on a voluntary basis and seems unlikely to be successful. We are looking for mechanisms to help start the quarterly renewal ”, commented the deputy minister.
Vilnius Mayor Remigijus Šimašius admitted that today’s renovation, only the insulation of the facade, otherwise improved repairs.
300 thousand people live in the districts built during the Soviet era. Folks, those areas, according to the mayor of the city, need to be changed because they are uncomfortable. For this reason, people prefer to move to the suburbs or another type of housing.
The goal is to get people to live in good sleeping areas so that they don’t run away, but rather enjoy city life. The mayor of the city is concerned about the romanticization of the Soviet-era building, which is a lot. What is valuable in those areas is a question that should be raised much later. Much more important is how to make life in those areas comfortable and enjoyable, which is not the case now.
People, according to the mayor of the capital, prefer to live in an area that has something to brag about, different from others, where people come from other areas. The fact that there is a swimming pool in Lazdynai or forests in Antakalnis is better than there would be. This in itself creates an impression on people.
“It is natural for us to walk through the streets of the Old Town and the New Town. There are no streets in the Soviet districts you want to go to, stop. In the Soviet districts there are no courtyards, only spaces between the houses. It is a question and a challenge how to make people feel like hosts there, “said R. Šimašius.
As for the houses built during the Soviet era, the mayor of the city is convinced that some things can be changed in them, others not. You are not sure whether the sound insulation can be fixed. Remodeling the inside of the house and making the house look better from the outside can be done by cutting down on red tape. He does not understand why the demolition of the wall requires the consent of all the inhabitants, not the builder, but the settlement of the balconies no longer requires the consent.
The main directions that are promised are to persuade people to feel like apartment owners, as well as to make more radical decisions. For example, there is no shortage of morally lived homes in the capital if the people don’t care about them and promise to demolish and rebuild them.
Architecture historian Marija Drėmaitė said that 30 years ago, people believed that they would move out of mass-built apartment buildings and live in their own homes, and perhaps even castles and mansions with large plots, but the reality was different.
In 1991, how to renovate Soviet districts effectively and aesthetically was discussed, and it was understood that renovation was more than just facade insulation. There was no de-Sovietization in Vilnius, the question of whether the New Bauhaus can become an impetus to turn cheap Soviet residential housing into good modern economy class housing that big cities should have.
“The very idea of creating a high-quality, sustainable, passive, replicable home for low-income residents is not really a direct legacy of our apartment buildings, it has been distorted by totalitarian regimes.” The massive and protracted long-term process in our country it stopped only with the collapse of the Soviet Union, “said the researcher.
He proposes not to stigmatize Soviet districts, but to see them as a need for economy-class metropolitan apartments and a global legacy of massive construction in the second half of the 20th century that can be improved and adapted with dignity to current needs. The researcher suggests following the example of Finland and Sweden, where, unlike Western Europe, the mass-built apartment buildings were not built as social housing, but as modern housing for everyone.
The problem is that the apartments in Lithuania have been privatized, so a complex renovation is a complex process, but not impossible.
The problem is that the old cheap houses are re-insulated today with the cheapest materials. To avoid this, the proposal is to organize competitions, invite good architectural firms, involve other specialists. A quarterly renovation program is necessary, bearing in mind that these are one-piece residential complexes. Therefore, it is necessary to rehabilitate a group of houses or neighborhoods.
Vilnius City Chief Architect Mindaugas Pakalnis recalled that the Bauhaus ideas were very beautiful: low cost, adaptability for all, clean forms, more open architecture, cleaner forms, more comfortable housing became more accessible to all. On the other hand, the Bauhaus brought us 300 thousand. the city of the inhabitants, which according to the typology of spaces and way of life has little to do with historical Vilnius.
The idealology of the Bauhaus brought about the fact that we have lost the essential principles of urban life. Gone are the street, the square, the square, the categories of spaces. As soon as they could, people began to flee from the Soviet districts because the space here had no borders, it was not clear where whose space, a child growing up in such an area, no longer wanted that experience, he was looking for a safer space .
Renovation is renovation, but the Soviet districts must be transformed. According to M. Pakalnis, European countries have returned to a normal city – perimeter and urban spaces, and we have been proclaiming the modernist concept of a house on a green meadow for another 20 years. The perimeter as a value in the city has emerged very recently.
According to the architect, it is possible to install terraces, more open ground floors, elevators to five floors. The buildings can be improved, but that is not enough. It takes more courage.
Building a terrace on the ground floor is an advantage of land grabbing, in new projects. The first floors in them are more expensive. The formation and return of the frames were big mistakes.
So far, only decorations and repairs are taking place, not a systemic transformation. Without cardinal action, according to the city’s chief architect, we will achieve nothing. The residents themselves must become owners of the land and yards. There is no need to fear that a new building will appear along the street, which will be built by the residents themselves, apartments will be sold, such projects can change a lot, but first of all it is necessary to change the mentality.
The architect Rolandas Palekas said that, first of all, a person feels good where he is safe. “It seems to me that thinking about the renovation of spaces, if the roadmap were human security, we would solve a lot. The street, the patio, the square, the square, the way we see and understand them, are typical things of the old town, these spaces are designed in a different way. If human safety is the goal, ways can be found to create that sense of security without forming an enclosed courtyard in the old town.
Residential areas appeared as works, as integral objects, created by our Lithuanian architectural elite, they were built that way. We have a unique cultural phenomenon. “Can we look at the neighborhoods as an object of our culture when renovating them, or can we see the whole and, when deciding how to humanize the spaces, ensure human security, preserve their integrity and cultural value as a work”, considered the architect.
Artūras Melianas, representative of the community of innovators, said 36 thousand. New York residents want different things. And although there are many initiatives, they are not complete.
For example, the neighborhood program, which according to Vilnius residents is quite complicated. Those who tried to take an interest in him face endless bureaucratic problems. Another extreme: residents want everything to be free, cheap and good. Still, there is a need for clarity, easily accessible information, and steps for residents to take. It is important to realize that the people who make changes in their neighborhoods are not architects or builders.
