Business Garden Vilnius - Phase I
Type: Administrative complex
Status: Under construction
Area: 54500 m2
Year: 2019 - 2021
Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
Team: Andrė Baldišiūtė, Sabina Grincevičiūtė, Gilma Teodora Gylytė, Algimantas Neniškis, Vaiva Šimoliūnaitė, Domantas Lukšėnas, Ignas Uogintas, Greta Varpučianskytė, Mikas Kauzonas, Karolis Grigaitis, Justas Paičius, Algimantas Urbonas, Ieva Marija Malinauskaitė, Rūta Emilija Žeromskaitė
Client: Vastint Lithuania Urban concept design: ARC-ML
Architecture:: DO ARCHITECTS
Structure engineers: INHUS Landscape design: DO ARCHITECTS Planting design: Rasa Laurinavičienė
Photos: Norbert Tukaj, Nijolė Karpavičienė, Emilija Martinkevič
Business Garden Vilnius is a commercial office development comprising of four office buildings and one parking building. Phase 1 of the development includes two office buildings and full landscape development. It had been completed as of 2020. Phase 2 which is yet to come, will serve all the offices parking needs with a parking house. The territory will be linked with phase 1 via a landscaped avenue and a series of parkland pathways.
The development has been planned by utilizing the built structures to form a protective buffer from the adjacent roads, consequently sheltering the interior park and garden zones between the buildings and the dense woodland escarpment to the West of the site. The park becomes a focal point of the project. It comprises of the main park area and a series of inter-linked smaller scale semi-courtyards and pedestrian Plazas. In respect of its park landscape and environment together with its location and infrastructure connections, the site represents a unique opportunity to provide a new business location in the heart of Vilnius.
ARCHITECTURAL IDEA
The Buildings were designed so that a high level of repetition may be achieved throughout the project – this covers all aspects of the planning including the planning itself. Furthermore,structural grids, core layouts, the exterior architectural grid, likewise the mechanical and electrical layouts.
The T-shape was utilized as a typical building typology for the project. Building B is a basic T-form and building A is a joined ‘double T’. Building A is 7 storeys high, while the building B is 5 storeys high (including ground / lobby level) with an enclosed technical roof. All buildings are served by one individual floor basement, which house technical areas alongside car parking facilities.
Pre-fabricated reinforced concrete elements were used in all storeys above the basement level. The facade is a load bearing structure, which minimizes the need of other structural elements such as columns. In the buildings vertical circulation is provided by a combination of lifts and stairs.
A 1,35 meter internal planning module (based on the 8,1 meter structural grid) has been adopted for design of the office accommodation. The facade design allows for the construction of partitions every 1,35 meters and has been designed to allow for openable window every 2,7 meter module.
FACADES
The facade was strictly ordered around the main structural grid of 8.1m and planning module at 1.35m. Emphasis was given to provide a high level of repetition in the main cladding elements and window sizes. A larger module of 2 meters width was presented at the corners of buildings. In the Building A (double T shape) curtain wall glazing divides building in two equal parts.
The entire facade is mounted using prefabricated three-layer concrete elements. The layers consist of an inner load-bearing concrete, a middle insulation layer and an outer bleached concrete as a finishing layer.
A strong emphasis has been placed on creating a facade with passive shading capabilities for the interior spaces. All the clad elements have been designed to have setback from the windows – the strongly expressed vertical cladding offers lateral sun-shading.
The spaces between the windows are finished with an aluminum composite panels, giving it a more vertical impression. Horizontal concrete elements separate vertical divisions of variable widths. There are in total three different widths of vertical concrete elements. Different building variations were developed by combining the same concrete elements. Consequently such method provides an unified complex look.
LANDSCAPES AND GARDENS
The urban landscape concept was developed according to the zone function and its related atmosphere. The site is surrounded by the local pine forest on a hillside. A new stairway connection with terraces was constructed to the top of the hillside. Apart from being a connecting route it provides a relaxing stroll with an escape to nature for neighborhood residents and local employees. The hillside area required only a minimal intervention concerning the planting scheme since a well established flora framework was pre-existing.
The perimeter outer zones of complex are framed by built structures and parking lots. The natural looking urban greenery is formed as a contrast to the adjacent busy road. The inner courtyards with its meadows and contemporary midheight garden vegetations have been designed in combination with mature birch and spruce trees. The greenery was arranged with a few different levels in mind (feet level, higher up the concrete planters and up-high a light tree leaf foliage). Cozy and robust recreational urban street elements such as benches and chairs were incorporated into the plan scheme for a resilient and inviting outcome.
