New Arsenal

Status: Competition, 1-st prize, 2022. Project 2022-2023
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Program: The New Arsenal building restoration and renovation project aims to expand its public and exhibition spaces and improve the engineering systems of the building
Architects: Vytautas Biekša, Eglė Matulaitytė, Martynas Brimas, Dovilė Van Haeperen, Viktorija Rimkutė
Visualization: Ivas Bogdanavičius, Martynas Brimas

The New Arsenal project is dedicated to preserving and presenting the history of the historic building, which dates back to the beginning of Lithuanian statehood. Researchers count six periods in the building’s function and appearance, ranging from the Vilnius castle complex defensive wall, Zygimantas Augustas’ palace, and the Palace of invalids, weapons warehouses and barracks, prison, and museum after the 1964 reconstruction. Each manifestation of the building reflects the significant periods in the history of Lithuania.

The goal of The New Arsenal project is twofold – to preserve and present to visitors the most valuable elements of the building and its surroundings, to open up the multi-layered history of the building and to convey it to the visitor, and to create modern exhibition and educational spaces for the Lithuanian National Museum.