Historical suburbs

Historical suburbs of Vilnius act as exclusion zones in the city center. The project focuses on tension zones where global and local identity meet, creating a spatial manifesto of the invert system that re-adapts local urban identity elements. Tension zones become ecological testbeds that balance ecological innovation and natural wilderness.

The work critically questions how digital urban development trends can coexist with the naturalistic local identity of Vilnius city center. Historical suburbs act as palimpsests of a close human relationship with the natural landscape and wilderness- wooden houses, private gardens, 100 year-old oaks and meadows still exist in contemporary urbanized environment. It is proposed to respect this historical setting with minor improvements and put focus on the borders- zones where the local and global identity meets. What if they became an ecological playground of sustainable development, acting as a green infrastructure that connects the city center with a broader ecological network of forests and adapts local identity elements for the contemporary needs? The answer is given through an example of Saviour’s hill territory, which on the one side is surrounded by the historical suburb of Rasos and on the other- by the prestigious development of Paupys. In the 18th century the grid plan of Rasos was not fully implemented, leaving the huge site empty. Therefore it is proposed to extend the unrealized grid plan, but to interpret it as if inverted, imprinted on the ground, manifesting the context of privatized density. The green invert system is a conceptual approach that critically rethinks spatial logics of urban integration. It suggests to increase the amount of outdoor space while still maintaining the highest built intensity. This goal is achieved by using local identity elements, such as gardens, large amounts of trees and human scale streets and re-adapting them in innovation-based context: setting the requirements for wooden construction, providing opportunities for urban food production, smart grid energy circulation and carbon capture, which is attractive for local and global community. As a result, the green invert manifesto responds to the challenges posed by the global development trends such as unification and densification of the historical suburbs. It re-adapts local urban identity elements to become more resilient, and responsive to the main challenge of today- the climate change.