A home with charisma

Anyone who wants to relax on the long sandy beaches of the Lithuanian Baltic will not pass by Giruliai. The northern district of the port city of Klaipėda attracts visitors with its soothing natural landscape and good infrastructure. Giruliai is surrounded by forest and popular with the residents of the small town as a summer resort.
 
Here the architects Narauskas, Rimselis and Natkevičius built a modern home that blends in with the natural landscape and the culture of the region. 

The shape of the house reminds one vaguely of the fishermen’s houses of the region, and the house itself was clad in brickwork that fits in with the natural surroundings. The house is situated on an old sand dune, now sparsely planted with pine trees. The walls and roof were designed to look like the scales of pine bark, and the bricks were selected accordingly. The dark red, roof tile “Saint Vincent” was selected by the architects: In this line of tiles, no two tiles are alike, since each tile features a slightly different shading. This irregularity lends a touch of historical charm and authenticity to the property, endowing it with its own personality.

Gintautas Natkevičius is one of the most famous architects in Lithuania, and his firm Natkevičius & Partners is known throughout the country for avant-garde architecture and unconventional solutions. The projects that this firm has carried out range from exclusive homes to hotels to airport terminals or crematoriums. Each of these buildings catches the eye of passers-by with its high architectural standards.
 
This also applies to the most recent private home designed by the Lithuanian architects: An enormous, steel downpipe in the façade serves in part as a rain gutter, but also functions as a modern, oversized detail. It is meant to represent a play on seagull’s wings and accentuate the link between the house and the sea.  The exhibition of Lithuanian architecture “Kaunas 2022” honoured the home as “Best Residential Building”.