Home

DIAGNOSIS OF THE AREA
Missionary gardens, located in the heart of Vilnius Old Town, in the neighbourhood of Užupis and Tymas quarter, possess a whole set of unexploited qualities: astonishing topography, overlook of the wonderful panorama of the city, ponds, springs, a shore of Vilnia river, rich biodiversity and proximity to the main public spaces of the city. These qualities create all the conditions for a flourishing park there.
Unfortunately, it’s only a green unattended “patch” in the city now, which has lost its identity and doesn’t have a clear purpose. Ponds are dirty, springs are lost in deep grass, and the river is hidden behind trees and hardly used. The territory, which historically served as one garden, is now divided by the street in two parts, which don’t have enough visual and functional connections. Even though the accessibility from the western side is rather good, park is hardly accessible from eastern and northern sides, which makes it a dead-end.
However, the green space is quite intensively used by people, which allows to believe that it could become a bustling place if all the good qualities were revealed and exploited.

CONCEPT
The concept for the proposed Missionary gardens design is based on the intersection between the baroque garden tradition and the contemporary ecological perspective towards green city spaces.
Missionary monastery and the garden were established during the baroque period in Lithuania, which was a source of inspiration for our project. The baroque garden design was based on the ornamental geometry. The maintenance of the gardens was focusing on the preservation of once created designs and decimation of unwanted pioneer species.
Nowadays, contrarily, ecologists promote biodiversity in the cities, in this way welcoming all kinds of species. In the “Third Landscape” theory famous French landscape architect Gilles Clement gives a new perspective towards “unattended” in-between spaces, seeing them as great opportunities to preserve biodiversity:
“The Third Landscape designates the sum of the space left over by man to landscape evolution - to nature alone. <…> Compared to the territories submitted to the control and exploitation by man, the Third Landscape forms a privileged area of receptivity to biological diversity. The sites <…> dedicated to human activities, the spaces dedicated to human design and decision, make a selection of the diversity and, sometimes, they completely exclude it. The number of <vegetal> species present in a managed field, culture or forest is considerable lower than the number present in neglected area. Looked-at under this angle, the Third Landscape appears as the planet’s genetic reservoir, a space for the future...”
Similar thoughts have also been expressed in the ecologist movement that influenced the philosophy of some of the leading landscape architecture companies (Turenscape, West8, Field Operations).
In the proposal for Missionary gardens design we connect both points of view. We combine patches of geometrical maintained areas of carefully selected plants to remind of historical functionality of the garden with the idea of preserving the already existent rich ecosystem that represent the genetic database for the sustainable future city.

TOOLS (STRATEGY)
We use three basic tools to apply our concept to the different park areas:
1. Cutting geometrical shapes into the existing wild space. These carefully maintained “rooms”, designed for different activities, would create a contrasting mood for the surrounding wilderness and allow experiencing a surprise as one walks through the park.
2. Overlapping a geometrical grid with the existing spontaneous structure. The typical orchard geometry of decorative fruit plants infuses order into the space.
3. Emphasizing existing topography by adding geometry. The slope of Missionary hill is covered with a garden of aromatic plants and awarded with a representative urban character.

DESIGN PROPOSAL
Structure and entrances
Different character spaces are designed in the park: urban ones (market square, river boardwalk, slope promenade) and „wild“ ones (lower part of the park, including the ponds and the vegetation in eastern part of the park).
Aiming to keep the identity of the park as a garden, which reflects its former function, the important role is given to private gardens, which are located along the northern edge of the park. We propose to increase the number of the gardens, introducing new allotment gardens, and design low fences with gates towards the park, which would help to keep visual and functional connections between semi-private and public spaces. In addition to this, we designed aromatic plants garden, surrounding the existing slope promenade, and the orchard in the corner between Maironio and Subačiaus streets.

Water
Ensuring maximum usage of water features is one of the main goals in our project:
1. The space of Tymas market square is extended towards Vilnia river; the riverbank is turned into a pleasant meeting place.
2. The ponds become a part of the water cleaning system, which allows a multipurpose usage of the water (bathing, fishing, watering the garden).
3. The springs are highlighted by turning them into important elements of the urban environment.
Planting concept /maintenance / water cleaning system
The site area is a refuge for the wild annual grasses and flowers, among which the Cirsium heterophyllum, Aegopodium podagraria, Ranunculus auricomus or Galium verum create a rich habitat for the butterflies and other insects.
To lighten the wild meadow and make it more safe and easier to experience, we suggest to remove 80% of the shrubs, but not all, as they provide habitat for small size animals. This wild meadow can be left unattended for 3 to 5 years, as it will grow into a stabile ecosystem with a great value for its biodiversity. Every 3 to 5 years is recommended to remove again the shrubs. Grass along the paths and in specially designed activity areas should be constantly cut.
Taking advantage of the ponds as plant water cleaning system represents a great solution for dealing with the storm-water running off from Maironio Street.
Our solution imagines the upper-level pond as a stocking basin for the runoff storm-water where water-loving plants like reed and bulrush clean the water. A floating island is proposed as both a cleaning system washing the water surface and as a visual attraction.
The water from this first pond goes then to the lower level ponds for which we propose a second level of treatment with the help or plants like Iris, Water Mint, and Bulrush. This water will be suitable for activities like fishing and swimming.
This system not only provides the possibility of a recreational use of the water, but it can also be used for irrigating the park’s lawns and flower beds and the sediments can provide a good soil fertilizer.
Furniture
We propose to keep the existing market huts and introduce a new modular furniture in the park, which could serve as stalls for spontaneous market events or seating places during the rest of the time. The furniture should be constructed in a simple way, using cheap materials. The design of the modular pieces could be created in contribution with Vilnius Art Academy students: involving local community into design process is one of the most important principles in a sustainable development.
Small wooden sheds are designed for the gardens along the northern edge of the park. They could be colourfully decorated by Art Academy students and become functional art elements, emphasizing garden‘s identity in the park.
Other introduced street furniture: river boardwalk with stairs and benches, benches on the slope and in belvederes, children playgrounds, wooden pontoons and boardwalks.
Illumination
We propose to illuminate main paths and intensively used spaces (square, playgrounds, stairs) and emphasize slope geometry and tree alleys with decorative illumination. In the „wild“ part of the park we propose safety lighting with movement sensors, which wouldn‘t disturb park‘s fauna.