Successful additions to the Virtual Museum of Architecture

“Of all arts, architecture has the greatest visual power to reflect the entire civilizational condition of the society and humanity – the economy, technologies, taste, thought, imagination and political sensitivity.”
Leonidas Donskis
In most countries there is no doubt about the importance of architecture. It is the real estate, thus particularly closely related to a certain place and says a lot about it. And will say about us to the future generations too. Therefore, we should spare no effort, when it comes to investing our time, knowledge and resources into architecture.
It is great that the Architecture Centre of the Creative Industrial Park, formerly supported by the Culture Support Foundation and currently – Lithuanian Council of Culture, Lithuanian Chamber of Architecture and UAB Beola, have an opportunity to develop the Virtual Museum of Architecture for already the fourth year. The museum is virtual, because the physical one is closed and not yet returned to our society.
Throughout that time the museum has accumulated more than 700 exhibits and compiled 8 collections of architects. This year the digital archive was additioned with 200 more items. The latter formed the collections of private archives of two architects – Ričardas Krištapavičius and Eugenijus Viktoras Miliūnas. It is very important since both of the architects are prominent creators and winners of the National Art and Culture Award: R. Krištapavičius received it in 1994, while E. V. Miliūnas – in 2012.
The collections were formed based on two factors: firstly, the physical condition of the material (it often happens that it may be lost forever due to negligence or underestimation of one’s work, in such case attempts are made to record the remains); secondly, the personality of the architect. The exhibits are selected considering the priorities of the author, in this way they as if tell the story of the architect, convey a part of his or her creative medium and world-view, based on their technique or content.
Of course, the Virtual Museum of Architecture is supplemented with biographies of R. Krištapavičius and E. V. Miliūnas, as well as lists of their more prominent works. And the most interesting part is the interviews with the artists. They are like a virtual diary, which allows to get to know the prominent creators, who contributed to the history of our country, through image and sound.
It is only a pity that the fragmented work with the archives of the contemporary architects poses a risk of losing some of the information forever. Especially, when so far there are no possibilities to take care of their physical condition. It would be unfair with regard to the future generations – they have a right to know not only the material heritage, but the road taken by the architect every day, when designing and implementing his creations.
Unfortunately, so far the reality is unfavourable. First of all, the role of architecture as a witness of our history is not fully comprehended and we waste our present for nothing.