Publications Archives - Neringa Forest Architecture

Book – Jonas Prapuolenis STUDIJA

Neringa Forest Architecture — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 10:41:12 +0000

This publication serves as a photographic document and proposal to preserve Jonas Prapuolenis’ (1900–1980) hand-built Studio in which he designed and produced most of his work over a remarkable and inventive career. The Studio sits on a nearly century-old site in the Žaliakalnis neighbourhood of Kaunas alongside Prapuolenis’ home and surrounding garden, which continue to be cared for by his son, Bangutis Prapuolenis.

Jonas Prapuolenis was a designer, artist, and educator who interpreted the textures and qualities of local timber, and its particular, unique structures and patterns shaped by the local climate and terrain and translated its geometries into artistic furniture pieces.

Photographs by Rasa Juškevičiūtė capture fragments of the studio building enveloped by a fruit tree garden, and document and reveal evidence of Jonas Prapuolenis’ practice and knowledge – design and craft processes that can be read through singular pieces of furniture stored inside the crumbling wooden structure of the workshop; his material storage and showroom filled with seasoned raw, rough timber pieces; unfinished design components; sketches on paper; bone and amber ornaments; and fine particles of dust accumulated through time.

Alongside the photographs, an inserted notebook holds contributions written by Kotryna Lingienė and Aistė Dičkalnytė, which study the history of the Studio and offer a wider perspective of Prapuolenis’ life and intentions. Their words unravel layers of slow time and the singular way Prapuolenis worked with materials while reflecting on folkloristic themes and modernist design, the meaning of such heritage and the importance of preserving the Studio.

Jonas Prapuolenis’ homestead, his family home (built in 1925) and the Studio (built in 1936) have been included in the Immovable Property Heritage Register of the Republic of Lithuania since 2011, however, significant wear of the structural elements, roofing and cladding of the Studio require further material protection and measures of conservation to preserve this heritage as a specific inseparable whole.

Photography: Rasa Juškevičiūtė
Design: Goda Budvytytė
Editors: Jurga Daubaraitė, Jonas Žukauskas
Texts: Aistė Dičkalnytė, Kotryna Lingienė, Jurga Daubaraitė and Jonas Žukauskas
Photography assistant: Marija Olšauskaitė
Colour grading: Danielius Samulevič

Lithuanian language copy-editor and English translator: Alexandra Bondarev;
Lithuanian language copy-editor for foreword: Aira Niauronytė
English language copy-editor: Gemma Lloyd

Published by: Kirvarpa
Printed by: Kopa
Edition: 500

Financed by Lithuanian Council for Culture

ISBN 978-609-96209-9-2

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Poster – REDISCOVERING PLANTS Rheinauer Theses on the Rights of Plants

Neringa Forest Architecture — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 20:31:09 +0000

Acknowledging that all living organisms have a common origin, considering that in their differentness plants will in the final analysis always remain a mystery to us, attempting to comprehend plant nature more deeply and to protect its uniqueness, we propose the following theses with the aim of allowing plants to express themselves for their own sake, and claiming rights on their behalf.

DOWNLOAD ENGLISH VERSION

DOWNLOAD GERMAN VERSION

AUTHORS:

Florianne Koechlin, Project initiator, biologist, Blueridge Institute, Basel, author of ‚PflanzenPalaver’
Daniel Ammann, PD Dr., Manager of the Swiss working group on genetic technology SAG
Eva Gelinsky, Dr., scientific staff of ProSpecieRara
Benedikt Haerlin, Director of the Berlin office of the Foundation on Future Farming and the „Save Our Seeds“ campaign
Martin Ott, Farmer, Gut Rheinau, Switzerland, President of the board of FiBL (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture)
Frick Beat Sitter-Liver, Prof. for practical philosophy, University of Freiburg, Switzerland
Werner Stumpf, Dipl.-Ing., Institute for Garden, Fruit and Winegrowing of the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna
Edgar Wagner, Plant physiology, Prof. em., Albert Ludwigs University, Freiburg in Breisgau (D)
Amadeus Zschunke, Dipl.Ing. (FH) Horticulture, Executive Director
Sativa Rheinau AG – organic plants and seeds

IN COOPERATION WITH:
Günter Altner, Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. h.c. , Biology and Theology
Nikolai Fuchs, Director, Section for Agriculture, School of Spiritual Science, Goetheanum, Dornach (CH)
Andrea Heistinger, Dipl.-Ing., Office Semina-Kultur-Pflanzen-Konzepte, Schiltern (A)
Christian Hiss, Master Gardener, Eichstetten am Kaiserstuhl (D)
Markus Ritter, Biologist , co-partner, LifeScience AG, Basel
Jürg Stöcklin, Prof. Dr., Botanical Institute of the University of Basel

Written and first published in 2008. Here published by Kirvarpa at NAC, Nida, Lithuania, as part of the Neringa Forest Architecture project and with permission of the authors, 2021.

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CHILDREN’S FOREST PAVILION PUBLICATIONS

Neringa Forest Architecture — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 17:58:39 +0000

Published on the occasion of the CHILDREN’S FOREST PAVILION
Lithuania at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2023:

THE SWAMP OBSERVATORY ECO-MONSTERS OF THE FUTURE SWAMP
Urbonas Studio (Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas)

TIMBER OF NERINGA
Neringa Forest Architecture

In the forest, I tell my child, we should stop and be still. Be quiet and listen, and look for what is there or not there.
Tuomas Toivonen

ANCIENT WOODS FOUNDATION
case study by Gabrielė Grigorjevaitė

MOUNTAIN PINES ALPHABET
Mantas Peteraitis

FOREST SHEEP
Laura Garbštienė and Kornelija Žalpytė

A FOREST CONTINUUM WORKBOOK
Michaela Casková, Robin Everett, Tiina Arjukka Hirvonen, Riitta (Nyyskä) Nykänen (Mustarinda Association)

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Poster – TIMBER OF NERINGA

Neringa Forest Architecture — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 17:38:58 +0000

Neringa Forest Architecture (NFA) reflects on the agency of cultural practices and institutions in framing environmental relationships. The project involves a growing assembly of collaborations and participants to read the cultural landscape of Curonian Spit from myriad perspectives and practices as a case study of an environment of natural systems governed, exploited, and regulated by human interventions, technologies, industries, institutions and agencies.

Timber Archive

Neringa Forest Architecture collects all types of timber that is annually logged on the Curonian Spit and usually used for biofuel. As part of the project, this timber is appropriated from its usual cycle and brought to Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts, where it is cut into planks and stored in a shed specially constructed for natural seasoning as a display of analogue data / an archive / a document / a material memory / an imprint of the landscape / a public display. This material is also a resource for project participants, artists-in-residence, and students working in the timber workshop of the Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts.

The CHILDREN’S FOREST PAVILION built from this particular timber was transported to Venice before its return to the Curonian Spit at the conclusion of the Architecture Biennale 2023.

PDF of the poster is available via this link

TIMBER OF NERINGA
Text, drawings, photos:
Neringa Forest Architecture
(Jurga Daubaraitė, Egija Inzule, Jonas Žukauskas) Design: Monika Janulevičiūtė
Proofreader: Gemma Lloyd

Publisher: Kirvarpa
Edition: 1100

Published on the occasion of the CHILDREN’S FOREST PAVILION
Lithuania at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2023

Organised by: Neringa Forest Architecture
Implemented by: Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts
Supported by: Lithuanian Council for Culture

PDF of the poster is available via this link

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Poster – ANCIENT WOODS FOUNDATION

Neringa Forest Architecture — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 17:08:14 +0000

In poster-form, Gabrielė Grigorjevaitė presents a case study of the Ancient Woods Foundation – an organisation campaigning for the preservation of the few remaining old-growth forests in Lithuania. A consortium of biologists, botanists, environmental scientists, as well as artists and filmmakers, the NGO aims to preserve the most ecologically valuable old-growth forests and the life forms they contain, and to establish enduring public forests in Lithuania as blueprints for thriving ecosystems.

PDF of the poster is available via this link

Unless otherwise stated, maps, research, text and drawings: Gabrielė Grigorjevaitė
Design: Monika Janulevičiūtė
Copy-editing: Gemma Lloyd, James Nixon Publisher: Kirvarpa

Edition: 1100

Thanks to Mindaugas Survila, dr. Mindaugas Lapelė, Rimantė Paulauskaitė-Digaitienė and Dr. Ainis Pivoras of the Ancient Woods Foundation, who contributed their knowledge to this poster. Learn more about their work: www.sengiresfondas.lt

Published on the occasion of the CHILDREN’S FOREST PAVILION
Lithuania at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2023

Organised by: Neringa Forest Architecture
Implemented by: Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts
Supported by: Lithuanian Council for Culture

PDF of the poster is available via this link

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Poster – MOUNTAIN PINES ALPHABET

Neringa Forest Architecture — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 16:52:33 +0000

Architect Mantas Peteraitis collected branches from mountain pines over 100-years-old in forests that were planted over wind-blown sand dunes in the Curonian Spit. His objective was to study the natural joints of these fragments and their possible use in furniture making. The selection of branches resemble letters and can be continuously rearranged and placed in different spots throughout the Children’s Forest Pavilion’s playscape installation to invent interconnectable structures. The complete alphabet is also published in the form of a poster for which graphic designer Monika Janulevičiūtė together with Mantas Peteraitis developped the mountain_pine typeface.

PDF of the poster is available to download via this link

MOUNTAIN PINES ALPHABET
Mantas Peteraitis

Text, drawings, photos: Mantas Peteraitis
Design: Monika Janulevičiūtė
mountain_pine typeface developed by Monika Janulevičiūtė together with Mantas Peteraitis
Proofreader: Gemma Lloyd

Publisher: Kirvarpa Edition: 1100

Published on the occasion of the CHILDREN’S FOREST PAVILION
Lithuania at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2023

Organised by:
Neringa Forest Architecture
Implemented by:
Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts
Supported by: Lithuanian Council for Culture

PDF of the poster is available to download via this link

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Book – FOREST SHEEP

Neringa Forest Architecture — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 16:12:07 +0000

The artist Laura Garbštienė wrote Forest Sheep, a book about agroforestry and grazing sheep in the woodlands. These stories, written in the form of a shepherd’s diary, are accompanied by illustrator and educator Kornelija Žalpytė’s drawings.

PDF of the publication is available to download via this link

FOREST SHEEP
Laura Garbštienė and Kornelija Žalpytė

Illustrator: Kornelija Žalpytė
Designer: Monika Janulevičiūtė
Colour separator: aust studio
Translator: Alexandra Bondarev
Proofreader: Gemma Lloyd
Publisher: Kirvarpa

Edition: 1000
Printer: Petro ofsetas, Vilnius
Typefaces: Forest School by Monika Janulevičiūtė, and Nimbus Roman
isbn 978-609-96209-7-8

This book was published on the occasion of the Children’s Forest Pavilion, Lithuania at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia 2023

Organised by: Neringa Forest Architecture
Implemented by: Nnida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts

Supported by:
Lithuanian Council for Culture, Neringa Municipality

PDF of the publication is available to download via this link

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Poster – THE SWAMP OBSERVATORY ECO-MONSTERS OF THE FUTURE SWAMP

Neringa Forest Architecture — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 15:41:06 +0000

The Swamp Observatory by Urbonas Studio (Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas) is a conceptual playground and a digital tool to augment reality with the imaginaries of future time, materials and species. Suggested as an instrumentarium to restore the swamps on Gotland Island in the Baltic Sea, the AR app was developed in 2022 in collaboration with Atheneskolan schoolchildren and teachers, who during their art and music classes created eco-monsters to cohabit the planned storm-water ponds in northern Visborg. Adapted for the Children’s Forest Pavilion, the eco-monsters inhabit the installation and come together in a poster to be activated in other environments.

PDF of the poster is available to download via this link

THE SWAMP OBSERVATORY
Eco-monsters of the Future Swamp
Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas (concept and development) in collaboration with pupils from Atheneskolan Gotland (drawings and sounds), Indrė Umbrasaitė (modeling), Kristupas Sabolius (script), Mouse on Mars (sound compositions), Terry T Kang and Thomas Harriett (programming). Commissioned by Public Art Agency Sweden and BAC – Baltic Art Center.

Supported by MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology,
the Lithuanian Council for Culture
Powered by Hoverlay

Published on the occasion of the CHILDREN’S FOREST PAVILION
Lithuania at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2023

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Book – A FOREST CONTINUUM WORKBOOK

Neringa Forest Architecture — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 15:00:42 +0000

The workbook by is composed of multilayered stories, workshops, and activities created in collaboration with local children in the Kainuu area, Finland. It grew from a series of workshops held in the notably large but threatened areas of old-growth forest in the northern boreal zone. In this workbook, readers can discover the forest, its ecosystem and communities, and investigate their own environment through a series of multisensory activities.

Mustarinda are thankful to 6th grade students from Puolankajärvi comprehensive school and teachers, 4th grade and teachers and Mustarinda art club students from Hyrynsalmi comprehensive school, Elis Hannikainen, Laura Suurhasko, Kryštof Kučera, Zuzana Janečková, Chris Mayer, Vilma Mankonen, Saija Kangasniemi, Mustarinda association members for support and Finnish Culture Foundation for travelling grant.

PDF of the publication is available to download – ENGLISH via this link – LITHUANIAN via this link.

A FOREST CONTINUUM WORKBOOK
Michaela Casková, Robin Everett, Tiina Arjukka Hirvonen, Riitta (Nyyskä) Nykänen (Mustarinda Association)

Published on the occasion of the CHILDREN’S FOREST PAVILION
Lithuania at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2023

Designer: Monika Janulevičiūtė Proofreader: Gemma Lloyd
Publisher: Kirvarpa
Edition: 1000

Printer: Petro ofsetas, Vilnius
Typefaces: Forest School by Monika Janulevičiūtė, and Nimbus Sans
Photos: Michaela Casková, Robin Everett,
Elis Hannikainen, Tiina Arjukka Hirvonen
ISBN 978-609-96209-8-5

Organised by: Neringa Forest Architecture
Implemented by: Nida Art Colony of
Vilnius Academy of Arts
Copyright: Neringa Forest Architecture and the content authors

Supported by:
Lithuanian Council for Culture, Nordic Culture Point

PDF of the publication is available to download via this link.

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FOREST AS A JOURNAL

Neringa Forest Architecture — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 08:42:00 +0000

-This first issue of * as a journal, focuses on Forest. Forest as a constructed space unavoidably reliant on human actions, no longer nature, but infrastructure; an environment of natural systems governed, exploited, and regulated by human interventions, technologies, industries, institutions and agencies. How can cultural practices enhance the optics through which society senses a forest?

The former natural habitats that defined the Baltic region (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) – the forests and wetlands – were terraformed to become silviculture plantations, arable land and urban structures through waves of colonisation. Most of the recent attempts to break away from linear infrastructural dependencies that were conceived in the years of Soviet central planning into rhizomatic networks of interdependencies of the European Project are reflected in material flows, policies, territories and continuities of practices shaped by the overlay of these two modernities. Subsequent investments in the timber industry, technological advances, the restructuring of forestry and scientific institutions, the deregulation across national borders and the global climate disaster insist on an urgent need for cultural practices to re-assemble images and concepts in order to reconstitute an understanding of the forest as a vital and central infrastructure.

During the winter and spring Covid-19 lockdown of 2020 and 2021 we worked with the Neringa Forest Architecture programme (curated together with Egija Inzule), residents at Nida Art Colony , as well as a diverse group of others dispersed across wide geographies to translate the forest into a journal. The diverse ecologies of voices echo each other and form an assembly of photography, cartography, design, research, artistic work into a publication that may be conceptually compared to an optical device dedicated to reflect on the ways to be in, and with a forest.

Following his visit to Nida, Preila and Juodkrantė last year Jochen Lempert responded with a selection of Neringa forest photographs. Jonas Žakaitis conversed with Nene Tsuboi and Tuomas Toivonen about their Kulttuurisauna routines, the synthesis of sound, and culture in relation to natural systems. Sofia Lemos unfolded the sonicity of labour and forests on the move, reflecting upon the histories of timber rafting down the river Daugava in her writing about Currents; a large scale art installation and performance piece by Lina Lapelytė and Mantas Petraitis. We interviewed Cooking Sections (Daniel Fernández Pascual and Alon Schwabe) about dispossession that becomes increasingly common through the protection of natural environments and the right of trees not to be offsetted by prescribing them a value to compensate for the guilt of CO2 emissions made far away. Gabrielė Grigorjeva wrote about the conceptualisation of forest time, its definitions and spatial categorisation. Jonathan Lovekin and David Grandorge contributed photographs from their series Infra depicting Baltic forests and wetlands carved out for peat extraction, stacked in piles of logs and shredded into biomass. Signe Pelne explained the mechanisms of biofuel, carbon sequestration and subsidisation. Mindaugas Survila and Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė discussed how the meanings of forest are formed through their respective documentary film editing processes. With her baby, Agata Marzecova walked the forests around Nida contemplating the diverse landscapes and ecologies of care. Amelia Groom discussed the ‘symbiogenesis’ of lichens to reflect relationality in the artwork and soundtrack Songs From The Compost by Eglė Budvytytė. Aistė Ambrazevičiūtė revealed her creative process in synthesising lichen architectonics in her digitally generated architectural images. We conversed with Laura Garbštienė and Onutė Grigaitė about ways of being and living in woodlands, weaving and dyeing with plants, reading the roots of a plant, and the concealed relationships we are losing due to extensive logging and those we might save if we can learn about species by responsibly exploring forest habitats currently closed due to environmental protection regulations. Rasa Juškevičiūtė photographed and Kotryna Lingienė wrote about the studio and translation of timber into exquisite furniture by Jonas Prapuolenis whose career spanned the larger part of twentieth century and became a design classic. Monika Janulevičiūtė carved intricate furniture pieces while reflecting on the simplest and modest yet authentic typologies of resourceful furnitures found in photographs of homes advertised on real estate websites. Together with Egija Inzule we wrote about the timber cycle that became the basis to initiate the Neringa Forest Architecture research and artistic residency programme at NAC we are curating together. To reflect the topic of this issue, Graphic designer Gailė Pranckūnaitė created a special typographical layer as intervention into the set template of the Journal. Virginija Januškevičiūtė introduced the photographer Algirdas Šeškus’ return to painting – for which he painted a forest.

* Initiated by the Lithuanian Culture Institute, each issue of this biannual magazine encourages the co-creation and research of topics valuable to both local and global readers, and features a different focus word in its title, relating to the topic chosen by the invited curators/editors of that issue.

FOREST AS A JOURNAL available here for download
Website: www.asajournal.lt; distributor: Antenne Books

Guest Editors: Jurga Daubaraitė and Jonas Žukauskas

Contributors: Jochen Lempert, Jonas Žakaitis, Nene Tsuboi, Tuomas Toivonen, Sofia Lemos, Lina Lapelytė, Mantas Petraitis, Cooking Sections (Daniel Fernández Pascual, Alon Schwabe), Gabrielė Grigorjeva, Jonathan Lovekin, David Grandorge, Signe Pelne, Mindaugas Survila, Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Agata Marzecova, Amelia Groom, Eglė Budvytytė, Aistė Ambrazevičiūtė, Laura Garbštienė, Onutė Grigaitė, Rasa Juškevičiūtė, Kotryna Lingienė, Jonas Prapuolenis, Monika Janulevičiūtė, Egija Inzule, Gailė Pranckūnaitė, Virginija Januškevičiūtė, Algirdas Šeškus
Graphic design: Gailė Pranckūnaitė

* as a Journal editorial board: Vaiva Grainytė, Adomas Narkevičius, Rūta Statulevičiūtė-Kaučikienė; Editor: Kotryna Lingienė
Translators: Darius Sužiedelis (pp. 40-53, pp. 74-79); English language editor Gemma Lloyd; Scientific editor Silvija Šaudytė-Manton (pp. 40-53, pp. 100-109)

Size: 144 pages; Edition: 500; Language: English
ISSN: 2783-5685

2021

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Book – THE SECRET BOOK OF LICHENS

Neringa Forest Architecture — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 20:51:00 +0000

Sometimes, if you take a closer look at a tree trunk, you may be able to see letters. This swirly script forms part of The Secret Book of Lichens, the pages of which are scattered across the entire forest. Although many plants and animals have tried to read what is written in it, none have ever managed to assemble those mysterious symbols into any kind of cohesive sentence, or even a single word for that matter.

This book is a walk through the mind and imagination of lichens spread across the forest. The short stories tell of lichen love, their mathematics, values and other important things. These compound creatures are never alone and know great ways to make friends. Perhaps that’s why, when looking at lichens, people understood what symbiosis is – knowing how to live together. Composed of allied fungus and algae, these creatures have special powers – for example, they can easily survive in space and melt rocks. And this one particularly special lichen, Graphis scripta, was even called the script of the forest.

The Secret Book of Lichens / Slaptoji kerpių knyga
by Kristupas Sabolius

Illustrations: Aistė Ambrazevičiūtė
Design: Goda Budvytytė
Editor: Jurga Daubaraitė
Copy-editor and translator: Alexandra Bondarev
Proofreader: Gemma Lloyd

Publisher: Kirvarpa Books
Printer: Petro ofsetas, Vilnius

English Edition: 500
ISBN 978-609-96209-2-3

Lithuanian Edition: 1000
ISBN 978-609-96209-1-6

Supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture

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Book- THE FOREST AND THE LITTLE ONE

Neringa Forest Architecture — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 21:54:00 +0000

The Forest and The Little One is an invitation to enjoy the complex world of the forest and its simple joys. It is meant for every child and adult looking for a walking companion and adventure in nature.

The Forest and the Little One / Miškas ir mažas
by Monika Kalinauskaitė

Illustrations: Kornelija Žalpytė
Design: Goda Budvytytė
Editor: Jurga Daubaraitė
Copy-editor and translator: Alexandra Bondarev
Proofreader: Gemma Lloyd

Publisher: Kirvarpa Books
Printer: Petro ofsetas, Vilnius

English edition: 500
ISBN 978-609-96209-3-0

Lithuanian edition: 1000
ISBN 978-609-96209-0-9

Supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture

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