The reconstruction of Liepkalnis high school, Liepkalnio str., 18, Vilnius

Architects: D.Čepurna, A.E.Paslaitis, O.Vasilevskaja
GBA: 3.580 m²
Design: 2009-2010 m.
Construction: 2011-2012 m.
Contractor: UAB "EIKOS Statyba"

The building of Vilnius Liepkalnis high school is one of the most interesting projects of the interwar period in Vilnius, so it was really fascinating for our team to participate in the reconstruction of it and to play a part in preserving the cultural heritage of Vilnius. Due to the exceptional nature of the building, we would like to give some details about it on our page. It was built in 1938 according to a project prepared by Romualdas Gutas in 1936. The outside of the listed heritage building was rather abandoned, but the building itself has preserved its main architectural values – planning, volume and the elements of the decor. The building is also adjacent to Vilnius City Historical Centre - world heritage site. The building was never fully renovated, although there were some minor changes. In the 1980s, instead of the former local heating system, heating from the centralized city heating networks was installed and the most of the building’s internal heating system was redone. The school’s overall condition before reconstruction was fine, most of the elements of the building were well preserved, the building has maintained its characteristic appearance, architectural stylistics and the spirit of that period of time. The main goal of the reconstruction was to insulate building, install a more efficient heating system and replace old lamps with more modern, energy saving ones. All of the measures were aimed at using energy more efficiently (both heat and electricity). While preparing the project for the reconstruction, it was decided that in this case the most fair way was to maintain the original appearance of the building. This means that after insulation of the building, the same materials are going to be used for the decoration, they will be left in the same proportions and the layout of the windows and doors is going to remain unchanged as well. During the insulation of the walls, all existing decorative elements of the building were preserved: fencing details of the juliette balconies, columns of the main entrance, terracota bricks over the main entrance (all of the existing bricks were used), the second floor balcony and the arched roof over it, using rockwool for insulation in order to preserve the arches, round facades, etc. The two outer walls further from the Liepkalnio g. were decorated with the boulders. These walls and their decorations were preserved and gave the building an exceptional look. During the reconstruction, these walls were left and the seams between the boulders were repaired and filled with impregnating materials while the insulation was installed from the inside.