Business Center S28 | Lithuania
Gisteren, 14:05
Project: Business Center S28, Vilnius // Lithuania
Architect: Vilniaus architekturos studija, Vilnius // Lithuania
Fabricator + Installer: Staticus, Vilnius // Lithuania
Façade System: Glued
Year of Construction: 2022
Product: ALUCOBOND® PLUS naturAL Copper
Photos: Irmantas Gelunas
Light which mocks the darkness
Time and again, the character of architecture and façades is influenced by a location. This also applies to this office building at a busy intersection in Vilnius. Every day, thousands of commuters take the kilometre-long, multi-lane main road past here on their way to work in the city and then back home to the suburbs in the evening. So a long-range impact and a welcoming appearance are absolutely crucial factors for this building, which is composed of a base and two seven-storey cube-shaped towers with glass façades. NaturAL Copper ALUCOBOND® façade fins in different widths create an upwardly oriented, vertical façade, a frontage which passing motorists perceive as predominantly glass at times and chiefly ALUCOBOND® at others. The building changes depending on the viewer’s perspective: it can look transparent and reflective only to appear plain and opaque when seen from a few metres further on. The colour of the glass-copper façade echoes the famous Europa Tower on the other side of the city and also offers an additional benefit: "The light mocks the darkness", as they say in Lithuania. Even when the sun is low in winter it reflects on the slanted, shimmering copper façade fins, filtering and radiating a burnished hue into the urban space. The three lower ground floors are enclosed by dark pillars and appear to recede into the background. As the car is still the most important means of transport everywhere in Vilnius, not only here on the main road, the way the building is perceived by car drivers and passengers also plays a decisive role in its prestigious identity: The base consists of several parking levels with conspicuous entrances located on the short sides of the building. The building’s welcoming atmosphere, enhanced by leaving part of the ground floor parking level car-free, means that people on foot are still keen to “come on in”. This is where the outdoor space flows from the street, passing below the building to the neighbouring office building behind it, providing an inviting space for customers and employees with its verdant seating islands, light strips, spherical lights and the reflective underside of the ceiling. It is a forecourt sheltered from snow and darkness. The glazed foyer of the northern office tower adjoins it. The southern tower’s foyer forms a second prestigious entity with base-high glazing on the opposite side of the building. Over the course of the day, the building changes mood and appearance: when it is light, moving vertical image sequences featuring life on the intersection are reflected on the façade; when it is dark, the interior spaces look like horizontal bands of light above a dark base. Only the entrances gleam in black, showing where to find warmth and life and where, with luck, you may hear a welcoming “Come on in”.