A shortlist of three architecture firms are in the running to design a major international cultural centre in Kaunas, Lithuania, having reached the final in the design competition for the project.

Adam Khan Architects, Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios and a pairing of UAB Paleko Archstudija and UAB Baltic Engineers will now enter negotiations with the city government, who will select a final partner to oversee the “emblematic new building”.

The Kaunas M.K. Ciurlionis Concert Centre International Design Contest has been commissioned to revitalise an underdeveloped area of Kaunas close to the historic Old Town.

Gifted with a prominent site on the south bank of the River Nemunas, the 11,750sq m (126,400sq ft) space will comprise a “world-class” 1,500-seat concert hall; a smaller, secondary hall; conferencing facilities; a restaurant, café and bar; back-of-house and office spaces; and underground parking.

The building, sat within a public park, must be able to host substantial public events, and provide a space for Kaunas’ growing business and academic communities to meet.

The competition, judged anonymously, received 117 submissions from teams in 36 countries.
As Kaunas is en route to becoming a Unesco Site for Modernist Architecture and will be Capital of Culture in 2022, the architectural quality and contribution to the cityscape were the essential criteria used to judge the finalist designs.

“This is a complex brief that tested the competitors – and proved a strenuous but fascinating experience for jurors,” said Jonas Audejaitis, a member of the city council and a member of the jury. “We sat till late in the evening scrutinising and debating a diverse range of schemes.

“Ultimately, the finalists won us over with their understanding of the scale of the city, with sensibly planned and coherent strategies, and with an iconography that resonated particularly with Kaunas. Of course these are early concept designs and the final scheme chosen by the city will develop further.

“Kaunas is experiencing rapid change as it seeks to fulfil its potential in the 21st century. We want the Concert Centre to be an exemplary civic building that enriches Kaunas’ cultural life but also re-shapes the city – moving its epicentre closer to the river.”

Kaunas City Municipality intends the centre to open by 2022. It will bear the name of Lithuanian polymath Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis – a painter, composer and writer who had a profound influence on modern Lithuanian and European culture.