Architecture Competition Humble Architecture: Everest Challenge 1st, Green and Student prize winners – VILNIUS ACADEMY OF ARTS

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to the 1st, Green and Student prize winners of our "Humble Architecture: Everest Challenge" competition – Aurelija Kniukštaitė, Jonė Virbickaitė and Kotryna Bajorinaitė from Lithuania!

Aurelija Kniukštaitė, Jonė Virbickaitė and Kotryna Bajorinaitė from Lithuania

We are a team of fifth year architecture students from the Vilnius Academy of Arts. All three of us started our journey towards the world of architecture just after graduating high school and now are working together in the same architecture office. We participate or get involved in various workshops, as well as discussions and events related to architecture and creativity.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance, what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where the company/ individuals have been involved?

As we are still studying, the projects that we get involved with are of various scales but most often they are academical or related to creating a concept for specific locations. We are personally very much interested in interdisciplinarity, so working with exhibition architecture or smaller-scale workshops is a great learning opportunity. However, bigger-scale objects that require working with the community, especially objects related to cultural activity, are also very important to us. Working on a master thesis allows us to explore that.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

We think that the architect nowadays is in between. He/she must be a creator, a moderator, and a visionary. With so many in betweens that he/she/us stand in, it is necessary to always remember what the creation is for. It is naive to believe that we can change the world. We alone canno’t – but we can be an important part of society and create a future together with other disciplines.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

We believe that various architecture competitions are an opportunity to explore further a variety of different topics as well as to experience an adventure. It is a great chance to work in different settings with your team and learn new skills from each other.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions?

As mentioned before, competitions are an adventure. There are no failures, just new skills to learn and new challenges to explore with the tools of creativity.